I was so excited today when I got back from helping my uncle in the fields. My father gave me a present. It was a little drum he had using cow hide for the top and bottom. Last week he caught me banging on some of the pots and water containers in the house. Dad said I had really good rhythm but mom thought otherwise and wanted me out of her kitchen. I went into our sleeping room and banged out a beat on the floor. I wish I had written some of it down. My dad stood in the doorway and watched me with a big smile on his face.
I was covered in dirt when I came in the front door and my dad was standing there grinning from ear to ear. He was holding something behind his back. I was so surprised when it brought it around from his back and it was a drum. I grabbed it out of his hands and hugged him tight. He told me to make sure I practiced and that it was probably smart if I did it somewhere other than the house because mom would be mad at the noise. I of course didn't listen and began banging out a tune. It had a strap around it that I could hang from my neck. I marched around the room playing the drum.
Dad was right, mom came bursting into the room and told me if I didn't take the drum somewhere else she was going to take it from me. I quickly ran for the front door and the street. I walked up and down the street playing my drum. It was so much fun but the neighbors kept yelling at me to keep it down. I didn't want to, I wanted to bang it harder and louder so I went toward where the businesses are in town thinking that most of them would be closed for the evening. I banged my drum there as well. It was such a great melody that was coming from my little drum. Again however, shop keepers told me to go somewhere else or stop playing that drum.
I walked toward the edge of town where the Inn is and I played me drum. It was dark now but I didn't want to go home yet. I wanted to play my drum more. I was toward the back of the Inn where the stable is when I man and a woman on a donkey came around to the back of the Inn. I was playing a beat when I saw them coming toward me. I quickly stopped and started to walk away because I knew what they were going to say, but as I turned to walk away the man asked me to stop. He called me little drummer boy and asked me if I would play a soothing beat on the drum because they had just been on such a long journey. I smiled at the request and began to lightly tap on my drum. The lady smiled at me as she started to get the stable ready for what looked like their bed for the night. The man clapped along to my light tapping. I played through my new song until the Inn Keeper's wife came out to take care of her newest customers.
She told me to run along. The man told me I did a great job and asked if I would come back tomorrow and play. He also asked if I would play for the baby that his wife was having when it was born. I of course said yes and hurried home to tell my dad. As I ran home, I couldn't help but have this feeling that something amazing was happening or going to happen in Bethlehem and that I was going to be a part of it. I couldn't wait to get back there tomorrow to play my drum again, because I was the little drummer boy!
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