Joseph, the carpenter, was not unwilling to speak of that, and even to let it be known that he was of the house of David, the great king.

But yet he might well have thought it a finer thing to rise up from below than to come down from above.

And is it not so?
Does not man rise up from below, and God come down from high?
In his boyhood David was a shepherd; it is said that he slew the leader of the enemy with stones from his sling, and that was why he rose so high.

Now for that reason, and because Joseph, the carpenter, was glad to visit his native town once again, and to take his wife with him and show her the land of his youth, the enrolment of the people was right pleasing unto him.

So the two made their plans, and set out for Bethlehem.