St. Boniface answered, that the place
seemed good enough; but that he was afraid for them, on account of the
savage heathen Saxons. They must go deeper into the forest, and then
they would be safe. So he went back to his fellow-hermits, and they made
to themselves a canoe; and went paddling up and down the Fulda stream,
beneath the alder boughs, 'trying the mouths of the mountain-streams, and
landing to survey the hills and ridges,'--pioneers of civilization none
the less because they pioneered in the name of Him who made earth and
heaven: but they found nothing which they thought would suit the blessed
St. Boniface, save that they stayed a little at the place which is called
Ruohen-bah, 'the rough brook,' to see if it would suit; but it would not.
So they went back to their birch huts to fast and pray once more.

St. Boniface sent for Sturmi after awhile, probably to Maintz, to ask of
his success; and Sturmi threw himself on his face before him; and
Boniface raised him up, and kissed him, and made him sit by his
side--which was a mighty honour; for St. Boniface, the penniless monk,
was at that moment one of the most powerful men of Europe; and he gave
Sturmi a good dinner, of which, no doubt, he stood in need; and bade him
keep up heart, and seek again for the place which God had surely
prepared, and would reveal in His good time.

And this time Sturmi, probably wiser from experience, determined to go
alone; but not on foot. So he took to him a trusty ass, and as much food
as he could pack on it; and, axe in hand, rode away into the wild wood,
singing his psalms. And every night, before he lay down to sleep, he cut
boughs, and stuck them up for a ring fence round him and the ass, to the
discomfiture of the wolves, which had, and have still, a great hankering
after asses' flesh. It is a quaint picture, no doubt; but let us respect
it, while we smile at it; if we, too, be brave men.

Then one day he fell into a great peril. He came to the old road (a
Roman one, I presume; for the Teutons, whether in England or elsewhere,
never dreamed of making roads till three hundred years ago, but used the
old Roman ones), which led out of the Thuringen land to Maintz. And at
the ford over the Fulda he met a great multitude bathing, of Sclavonian
heathens, going to the fair at Maintz. And they smelt so strong, the
foul miscreants, that Sturmi's donkey backed, and refused to face them;
and Sturmi himself was much of the donkey