On Christmas Morn’ the San Pedro receives a gift of great splendor: the finest-wrought of shimmering topaz Cottonwoods, arranged along the valley at an artful and satisfying distance one from the other, set most skillfully in pewter strands of branches and crowns. And at day’s end, a star shines out over The Rincon in the dark blue upper sky, and below, the peak ridges are sharp against a bright aura of last, lingering sunset. Could any star over Bethlehem have been the more beautiful?

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