“Well, OK, if that’s the way you feel,” said Beezus, forgetting to act like Mary. She left her little sister to her misery.

Ramona sniffed and wiped her eyes on her hoof. Why didn’t some grown-up come along and make her join the other sheep? No grown-up came. No one seemed to remember there were supposed to be three sheep, not even Howie, who played with her almost every day.

Ramona’s eye caught the reflection of her face distorted in a green Christmas ornament. She was shocked to see her nose look huge, her mouth and red-rimmed eyes tiny. I can’t really look like that, thought Ramona in despair. I’m really a nice person. It’s just that nobody understands.

Ramona mopped her eyes on her hoof again, and as she did she noticed three big girls, so tall they were probably in the eighth grade, putting on robes made from better bedspreads than the shepherd’s robes. That’s funny, she thought. Nothing she had learned in Sunday school told her anything about girls in long robes in the Nativity scene. Could they be Jesus’s aunts?

One of the girls began to dab tan cream from a little jar on her face and to smear it around while another girl held up a pocket mirror. The third girl, holding her own mirror, used an eyebrow pencil to give herself heavy brows.

Makeup, thought Ramona with interest, wishing she could wear it. The girls took turns darkening their faces and brows. They looked like different people. Ramona got to her knees and peered over the lower branches of the Christmas tree for a better view.

One of the girls noticed her. “Hi, there,” she said. “Why are you hiding back there?”

“Because,” was Ramona’s all-purpose answer. “Are you Jesus’s aunts?” she asked.

The girls found the question funny. “No,” answered one. “We’re the Three Wise Persons.”

Ramona was puzzled. “I thought they were supposed to be wise men,” she said.

“The boys backed out at the last minute,” explained the girl with the blackest eyebrows. “Mrs. Russo said women can be wise too, so tonight we are the Three Wise Persons.”

This idea seemed like a good one to Ramona, who wished she were big enough to be a wise person hiding behind makeup so nobody would know who she was.

“Are you supposed to be in the program?” asked one of the girls.

“I was supposed to be a sheep, but I changed my mind,” said Ramona, changing it back again. She pulled out her sheep headdress and put it on.

“Isn’t she adorable?” said one of the wise persons.

Ramona was surprised. She had never been called adorable before. Bright, lively, yes; adorable, no. She smiled and felt more lovable. Maybe pink-lined ears helped.

“Why don’t you want to be a sheep?” asked a wise person.

Ramona had an inspiration. “Because I don’t have any makeup.”