Together they walked to the humble village church, they climbed up to the organ, fixed a light and Pastor Mohr placed his paper om the organ stand. Gruber began to pla; first soft then louder. The music seemed like angels' dancing, like the soft wind blowing over the snow fields, like a mothers hand, gently stroking over the hair of her little child. Gruber began humming the verses, then sing-ug them softly, then louder and louder, It seemed not only the angels but the dear God himself stood within the church door listening.
Suddenly, from the choir stall below. the new hymn floated upward. The pastor and the teacher looked dowü. They beheld the whole congregation, men, women and children sang and sang. Was. this another wonder? Pastor Mohr whispered into the ear of the astonished teacher Gruber: "We left the charch door open as we entered in and when the good people heard the organ, they crept out of their beds and came here. Oh, Gruber, Gruber, this night we two have brought forth something grand into the world:
Truly, the song and its melody is grand, To-day, that hymn which ha: bern on the Tyrol mountain side an^ its melody which came from the Village h s flown into all parts of the world, On the glowing sands of tropic Africa to the snow and ice-covered regions of the Arctic Pole—wherever Christmas, the Day of the Saviour's birth is observed—the- hymn is heard—txx
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.