PASTURES FAIR AND LARGE 



other kind of land. Without the background 

 of the pasture where David fed his flocks, 

 should we ever have had the twenty-third 

 psalm, or the pastoral notes that echo so 

 tenderly through many another? And what 

 need a pasture mind if a field below it raise 

 a thousand barrels of oats or corn, when on 

 the pasture's hillside a shepherd-king har- 

 vested an immortal psalm which has re- 

 freshed the spiritually thirsty for nearly 

 three thousand years? 



All the other cleared land of a farm is pre- 

 occupied with industries, like plowing, har- 

 rowing, sowing, weeding, and harvesting. 

 But a pasture offers leisure to meditate and 

 entertain visions. This may have been one of 

 the reasons why the wonderful tale of the 

 Nativity was told to shepherds, who were 

 apparently deemed prepared to hear so 

 great tidings. One can hardly fancy an 

 angel making such an announcement to a 

 man whose business was so engrossing that 

 his mind held no fair pasture lands, where 

 the flocks of fancy and imagination might 



wander and graze. 



101 



