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The First Miracle
An earlier version of this charming children's
story appeared in Jeffrey's first collection of short stories,
A Quiver
Full of Arrows, published in 1980. However, the book was re-published
in 1994 and featured captivating illustrations by the internationally
acclaimed Royal Academician Craigie Aitchison.
In the forty-third year of the reign of the
Emperor Augustus Caesar, ruler of half the known world, a mischievous
thirteen-year-old Roman boy is sent on an errand by his mother.
On the way he encounters all the usual sights and sounds of village
life in Judaea. But that evening Bethlehem is even more crowded
than usual, since his father, the governor of the province, has
ordered a census so he can tax all the emperor's subjects.
Then the boy comes across a sight he will never
forget - a man and his pregnant wife are being turned away from
an inn, and are preparing to spend the night in a stable....
With a marvelous final double twist that could
have come only from the pen of Jeffrey Archer, The
First Miracle is destined to take its place beside Dicken's
A Christmas Carol and Dylan
Thomas's A Child's Christmas in
Wales as a classic of the season.
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