Down a steep mountainside, Giuseppe was bringing his flock of goats home via the place where a wagon had escaped from the French Army mule train. On this hillside, a gold chalice for the new church had been found in answer to the people's prayers. There was little evidence left of what else had appeared on this hillside and been found by his neighbors -- while he was tending his goats in the high mountains -- but he liked to take this clearly holy route home. Also, from this vantage point, in the distance he could see the lake and the high mountains on the other side of the lake.
He turned from contemplating this view, just in time to see that one of his goats had something rectangular in his mouth. Grabbing a handful of grass, he enticed this often problematical goat to exchange what he was about to chew for an easy meal of mountain grass. The object Giuseppe rescued was a small leather-bound book of the kind that the padres carried with them on their travels. While beside him, the goat chewed on grass, Giuseppe undid gold hinges and opened the book.
Giuseppe could not read the words, but inside were the most enchanting pictures he had ever seen. The Virgin at prayer. Angels,. Castles. A beautiful queen; large animals, and plants - familiar and unfamiliar.
Considering whether to give this book to his sweetheart, the cheese maker's daughter, or to take it to the local Priest, Giuseppe looked to the heavens and decided that the book should go -- as probably God intended -- to the Church. This was his decision, until he came to a lush image of an unclothed Bathsheba taking a bath, while from a nearby turret, King David watched. Giuseppe had not seen such an image in the books that traveling Padres read to assembled communities, but, he reasoned, this book had probably been lost by the French Army.
On reflection, he did not think that God wanted him to take this book to the Church. Nor would the Cheese maker consider it appropriate for his daughter. Instead, Giuseppe would put the book in a safe place, and -- as probably God intended by this gift -- he would ask the Cheesemaker's daughter for her hand in marriage.
