The Inn-Keeper Makes Excuses
Edgar Guest
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"Oh, if only I had known!"
Said the keeper of the inn.
"But no hint to me was shown,
And I didn't let them in.
"Yes, a star gleamed overhead,
But I couldn't read the skies,
And I'd given every bed
To the very rich and wise.
"And she was so poorly clad,
And he hadn't much to say!
But no room for them I had,
So I ordered them away.
"She seemed tired, and it was late
And they begged so hard, that I
Feeling sorry for her state,
In the stable let them lie.
"Had I turned some rich man out
Just to make a place for them
'Twould have killed, beyond a doubt,
All my trade at Bethlehem.
"Then there came the wise men three
To the stable, with the morn,
Who announced they'd come to see
The great King who had been born.
"And they brought Him gifts of myrrh,
Costly frankincense and gold,
And a great light shone on her
In the stable, bleak and cold.
"All my patrons, now are dead
And forgotten, but to-day
All the world to peace is led
By the ones I sent away
"It was my unlucky fate
To be born that Inn to own,
Against Christ I shut my gate
Oh, if only I had known!"
From Collected Verse of Edgar Guest
NY:Buccaneer Books, 1976, pg. 614
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