"Lofts, Norah - How Far To Bethlehem" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lofts Norah)

She did not hear the question about her wedding dress. She was
thinking, with something very near resentment, why nobody else cared. A
donkey was a donkey, a thing, a beast of burden, provided by God to
help men with the business of transporting himself or his. goods from
place to place. If its pace slowed and a shout proved insufficient
incentive to greater effort, a stick or a goad must be used. That was
how all reasonable people looked at it; and to think differently was to
invite scorn, wonder, amusement. Once, at the sight of a piece of
quite gratuitous brutality, she had spoken out, and some of those who
heard had laughed, some had been embarrassed for her; the man she had
rebuked had been abusive, and, worst of all, had hit the poor donkey
even harder.

And perhaps ordinary people were sensible; it seemed a pity, almost
wrong to allow the sight of a red rag and all that it implied to mar
such a lovely morning of sunshine and birdsong. Being miserable about
donkeys did them no service. So stop it;

think about something else. Think about Spring.

It had always been her favourite season, not merely on account of its
beauty but for its promise. Every year, for as long as she could
remember, she had felt that before the first flowers faded and the
young leaves darkened, something wonderful would happen to her. Many
times she had stood by a hawthorn tree, the green and the white just
breaking and been certain that some quite unique experience was about
to be hers. The silken petals of the first anemones could affect her
in the same way--as though they held some secret which if she stayed
quite still, and waited, would be revealed to her. Nothing had ever
happened, nothing had been revealed. On one Spring day, wishing to
know whether this feeling were peculiar to herself or part of ordinary
human experience, she had so far overcome her natural reserve as to
speak of it to Susannah, the most wholly sympathetic of her friends.
Susannah said:

"Yes, of course, I feel it too. Everybody does; even birds. It simply
means that you're looking forward to getting married."

Mary had almost accepted that. Susannah was a sensible girl, and
thoughtful, too, and the explanation was almost feasible, but not
quite; the expected thing was less ordinary, less capable of being put
into words. In fact it had been silly to try to talk about it at all,
because there were no words.

And now it was Spring again, and she was not only looking forward to
being married, she was properly betrothed; she was in love with Joseph
and recognised her good fortune in that respect, was grateful to her
parents for allowing her to exercise some choice; she was looking
forward, with eager anticipation, to her wedding day, to having a