Diary

Now, I ‘spect most of you cowboys have heard the story ‘bout Christmas. How it came to be an’ all, but I wanna ‘splain it so’s y’all kin understand.

It all started with this cowboy named Joe. He’s married a girl named Maria. Times was hard in them days. They’s down to the crumbly jerky and one ol’ paint gelding named Duke. To top it off, Maria was in the family way!

They’d been ridin’ several days, with Joe mostly walkin’. They camped on the trail and Maria was gettin’ tired and ornery. Late one night, December 25, I think, they spotted the lights of a little burg. It was a welcome sight, ‘cause the weather’d turned coolish.

There was only one hotel in town and Joe offered to chop wood or wash dishes for a room, but they were full up. The clerk said they could lay out their rolls in the livery stable. Git ‘em out of the wind, anyway.

So Joe built ‘em a nest in one of the stalls and went out to rustle up some grub. When he came back, Maria was fixin’ to have that baby! Well, Joe panicked! He laid out his slicker, fluffed up the straw and ran down the street lookin’ for a doc. By the time he got back, Maria’d done had the baby! It was a boy. She had him wiped off an’ wrapped up in Joe’s extra longjohn shirt.

Joe was proud and Maria was already talkin’ baby talk to the little one. They discussed what to call him. Joe wouldn’t have minded if they’d named him Joe, Jr. but Maria wanted to call him Jesus. A promise she’d made before Joe knew her.

Maria was tuckered. Jesus was sleepin’ like a baby and Joe was tickin’ like a two dollar watch! Fatherhood had hit him like a bag of loose salt. Just then he heard singin’. In through the door of the livery come six Mexican sheepherders. They gathered around the baby and said he sure looked good. “Nino especial,” they said. Then they laid out some tortillas and commenced to visit.

Suddenly three fellas rode right into the livery. There was two Indian braves and a black cavalry scout. They told Joe that they’d had a vision and followed a star right to this very spot. Joe said, “No kiddin’?” “Shore nuf,” they said. This was good news to Joe. Not only that, they’d brought three buffalo hides, two handmade blankets and a little poke of gold dust which they gave to Joe, to use for the baby.

Joe and Marie were overwhelmed. One of the herders tied together a little crib. He packed the bottom with straw and laid a sheepskin over it. Maria laid Baby Jesus in it and He never woke up; just gurgled and smiled.

Then the whole bunch of ‘em stayed up all night talkin' ‘bout Christmas.

Joe never forgot. He did his best to raise his son right and when Jesus went on to bigger and better things, Joe’d remember that night. When a handful of strangers helped his little family through a hard time. He told Jesus ‘bout it when He was old enough to understand. How just a little kindness to yer fellow man can go a long way. Jesus took it to heart.