Edmund Sears wrote the well-known Christmas carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in Massachusetts in 1849. Let’s imagine that he was the unborn child in this story.

The young couple at the Broomielaw had said their goodbyes back in Leith. Joining many Highlanders, they stepped up the gangway to the ship that was to take them to a new life in America.

It was their first time at sea.

On arrival, they joined a wagon train travelling up-country. It was a hard week, culminating in a dangerous crossing of the Connecticut river. Some folk already there, in a small settlement, told them there was some good country in the valley beyond those hills…

Over there.

Oh he was a big strong fellow. That, and she was a worker too. In a very few weeks they had built the beginnings of a fine wee house for themselves, and for the winter they went back to the settlement.

They sang the songs and they danced the dances of the old country. In the spring, they returned. They grew some crops the best they could. The house was nearly ready for the winter, but she was with child, and it was best they went back to the settlement.

A beautiful little girl was with them as they returned in the spring. A wonderful summer they had of it, and this winter they stayed in their new house. And, as these things happen, another baby was on the way.

It was Christmas Eve and he went out for firewood, for tomorrow he would not work. He had heard there were Mohawks in the area, but he had done them no harm and he worried not to leave his wife alone.

On returning he saw Mohawks dragging her out of the house. Like a fool he rushed at them, and in a moment he was face-down in the snow, held by far stronger than he.

Shortly they trussed his hands and feet and dragged him to sit against a tree while they burned his house. Many among the Mohawks would cut the throats and take the scalps of these intruders from across the seas.

Why not? The white men did not scruple to use their sticks of fire from a distance to kill their folk.

But the captain was under orders from his chief to bring back alive any hostages he may come across, for what purpose was not for him to know.

The baby was strapped to the man’s back. He could cause no trouble like that. They set out on a route-march, on the snow, through the woods, up and over the hills. It was a tense party as darkness fell and the moon rose.

The captain wanted to travel faster than this pregnant woman could walk. The men grumbled that they should have finished the business where they found it. The white man anxiously calculated what to do for the best.

The forward scout whistled. It was not danger. He was surprised and puzzled. Proceed cautiously. A cloud slipped from the face of the moon, and the glade before them was lit near as clear as day.

There, on the snow, together, was a wolf, a deer, an eagle, a bison, a beaver, spiders spinning their webs between a moose’s antlers, a hare. Never was such a sight seen.

A man stepped forward raising his bow and arrow for an easy kill. The captain motioned him back. The man from Leith remembered it was Christmas. He made to explain.

– Speak, white man.

The story he loved so well rolled down the centuries and across the roaring oceans. 

He told how a young couple expecting a baby had to travel far for a census. How they found shelter in a stable, and at the birth angels sang and the stars moved…

The translator was having difficulties. What would an inn-keeper be? The captain was losing patience with this story. Why would people need to be counted? The woman saw, and drawing her skirts over her knees, knelt before the animals. In a quiet voice she told how God made all the world, and God loves everything in it.

– Ha.

She told how all creatures must live in harmony, and all must be respected.

– Of course. This they understood.

How the creatures sitting before them was a picture of how the weak must be safe with the strong. Those who fly see things beyond the seeing of the earthbound. They must all share their perspectives, to form a wisdom. All have their place, their needs, their potential, their vulnerabilities.

The moon shone more brightly, and the men saw a woman with child who needed respect, protection and caring.

She carried the future.

As the light grew brighter still, they could see that they must esteem each other, share the land and its goodness. To work, and eat, to be truly alive, and make merry while they may. ■