whereon heavenly birds sat singing. And when they had
slaked their thirst, they returned unto the Lord, who said:

"Wherefore did ye tarry so long?"

"We only stayed while we were drinking," replied the Apostles. "We did
not spend above three minutes there in all."

"Not three minutes did ye spend there, but three whole years," replied
the Lord. "As it was in the first well, so will it be in the other
world with the rich moujik! But as it was in the second well, so will
it be in that world with the poor widow!"

Sometimes our Lord is supposed to wander by himself, under the guise
of a beggar. In the story of "Christ's Brother"[436] a young
man--whose father, on his deathbed, had charged him not to forget the
poor--goes to church on Easter Day, having provided himself with red
eggs to give to the beggars with whom he should exchange the Pascal
greeting. After exhausting his stock of presents, he finds that there
remains one beggar of miserable appearance to whom he has nothing to
offer, so he takes him home to dinner. After the meal the beggar
exchanges crosses with his host,[437] giving him "a cross which blazes
like fire," and invites him to pay him a visit on the following
Tuesday. To an enquiry about the way, he replies, "You have only to go
along yonder path and say, 'Grant thy blessing, O Lord!' and you will
come to where I am."

The young man does as he is told, and commences his journey on the
Tuesday. On his way he hears voices, as though of children, crying, "O
Christ's brother, ask Christ for us--have we to suffer long?" A little
later he sees a group of girls who are ladling water from one well
into another, who make the same request. At last he arrives at the end
of his journey, finds the aged mendicant who had adopted him as his
brother, and recognizes him as "the Lord Jesus Christ Himself." The
youth relates what he has seen, and asks:

"Wherefore, O Lord, are the children suffering?"

"Their mothers cursed them while still unborn," is the reply.
"Therefore is it impossible for them to enter into Paradise."

"And the girls?"

"They used to sell milk, and they put water into the milk. Now they
are doomed to pour water from well to well eternally."

After this the youth is taken into Paradise, and brought to the place
there provided for him.[438]

Sometimes the sacred visitor rewards with temporal goods the kindly
host who has hospitably received him. Thus the story of "Beer and
Corn"[439] tell