Miracle in the Wilderness Author:Paul Gallico The story is set on a Christmas Eve during the French and Indian War. On that day, Algonquin Indians, allied with the French, attacked the isolated frontier home of Jasper Adams. After brutally subduing Jasper and his wife, Dorcas, the Indians burn the cabin and march the Adamses and their infant son, Asher, into the surrounding wilderness... more » as captives. Being hotly pursued by British soldiers bent on rescue or revenge, the Algonquin leader has to make a decision whether to risk the lives of his men by keeping the slow moving captives alive or kill them in order to move more swiftly through night forest.
The leader is just about to announce his decision when his party come across three deer: a buck, a doe, and a fawn kneeling toward the east in the middle of moonlit glade. Jasper Adams is shocked out of his pain and despair by the sight of the deer which reminds him that on this night the infant Jesus was born. He falls to his knees in homage and is quickly joined there by his wife, who holds their infant son.
The Algonquins are bewildered by the unafraid deer and also by their captives' seeming understanding of this strange sight. Their leader, a very spiritual man, demands that Jasper tell him what this all means. Jasper complies and starts to describe the first Christmas to his captors and what this night means to all people and the creatures that walk upon the earth. What follows is the true miracle in the wilderness.« less