Day 2

Wally's Christmas Pageant
  For years now, whenever Christmas pageants are mentioned in a certain little town in the Midwest, someone is sure to mention the name of Wallace Purling. Wally was nine and in the second grade, although he should have been in the fourth. He was big and clumsy, slow in mind and movement. Still he was well liked by the other children in his class, all of whom were smaller than him.He was always a helpful boy, willing and smilling, a natural protectorof the underdog. Wally fancied the idea of being a shepherd in the Christmas pageant that year, but he was assigned to a more important role. After all, the play's director reasoned, the innkeeper didn't have to many lines, and Wally's size would make his refusal of lodging to Joseph more forceful
  No one onstage or off was more caught up in the magic of pageant nihgt than Wallace Purling. The time came when Joseph appeared, slowly, tenderly guiding Mary to the door of the inn. Joseph knocked hard on the wooden door set into the painted backdrop. Wally the innkeeper was there waiting.
  " What do you want?" Wally said, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture.
  " We seek lodging." Joseph said.
  " Seek it elsewhere." Wally looked straight ahead but spoke vigorously. 'The inn is filled. There is no room in the inn for you." He looked properly stern.
  " Please, good innkeeper, this is my wife, Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surly you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired."
  Now, for the first time, the innkeeper relaxed his stiff stance and looked down at Mary. There was a long pause. "No! Begone!" the prompter whispered from the wings. "No" Wally repeated automatically. "Begone!"
  Joseph sadly placed his arm Mary, and the two of the started to move away. The innkeeper did not return inside the inn however. Wally stood there in the doorway, watching the forlom couple. His mouth wae open, his brow creased with concern, his eyes filling unmistakingly with tears. And suddenly the Christmas pageant became different from all others. "Don't go Joseph," Wally cried out, "Bring Mary back." His face brightened with a big smile "You can have my room."
  Some people in town thought the pageant had been ruined. Yet there were the others-many, many others- who considered it the most Christmasy of all the Christmas pageants they had ever seen.