I wonder, in "mother: What was keeping you outside? The son replies excitedly: “Oh mother! You should go out and see! There’s never been such a sky. Damp clouds have shined it, and soft winds have swept it, as if to make it ready for a king’s ball. All its lanterns are lit, all its torches are burning, and its dark floor is shining like crystal. Hanging over our roof, there is a star as large as a window; and the star has a tail, and it moves across the sky like a chariot on fire.”"

is it "as if to make it ready for a king’s BIRTH; instead of "BALL"? That's what I've thought it was all these years.