o where you will find the largest number of poor people gathered
together. He lives there.'"

"Oh, the good Eloi," said one of the lads with eyes moist with tears.
"Oh, the good Eloi, so well named!"

"Yes, my friends, he was as active in charity as at his trade. In the
evening, at his meal hour, he would send out his servants in different
directions to gather people who suffered hunger, and also travelers in
distress. They were taken to him and he fed them. Filling the office of
a servant when they came, he helped some to unload their packs,
sprinkled warm water on the hands of others, poured out wine into their
cups, broke their bread, carved their meat and distributed it--all
himself. After having thus served all with sweet pleasure, he would sit
down himself, and only then did he himself share in the meal that he
offered these poor people. That was his way of practicing charity."

"And how did the good Eloi look, Father Bonaik? Was he tall or short?"

"He was tall and of a florid complexion. In his younger days, his
apprentice Thil said to me, his black hair was naturally curly. His
hand, though hardened by the hammer, was white and well-shaped; there
was something angelic in his expression; yet his straightforward eyes
were full of keenness."

"That is just the way I would picture him to myself, dressed in the
magnificent robes that he used to sell in order to ransom slaves."

"When he grew in years, the good Eloi renounced splendor altogether. He
wore only a robe of coarse wool, with a cord for belt.... When about
forty he was appointed bishop of Noyon at his own request."

"He? Did so great an artist aspire after a bishopric?"

"Yes, my lads.... Grieved at the sight of so many covetous and wicked
prelates, who devoured the substance of his well-beloved poor, the good
Eloi applied to the King for the bishopric of Noyon, saying to himself
that at least that bishopric would be ruled by the sweet morality of
Jesus. And he put that morality into practice up to the last day of his
life, without thereby renouncing his art. He founded several
monasteries, where he set up large gold and silversmiths' shops under
the direction of the apprentices whom he raised in the abbey of Solignac
and elsewhere in Limousin. It was thither, my lads, that I was taken as
a slave at sixteen after having undergone many trials. But I was born in
Brittany ... in that Brittany that is still free to this day, and that I
never expect to