. Br-r-r! The air was damp
and chilly, and there was no crimson glow on the hearthstones. Kentigern
shivered and ran to the fireplace, peering into the black cavern. There
was nothing but a heap of white ashes and half-burnt wood!

Then Kentigern's heart sank, for he knew he should be blamed for
carelessness, although he suspected that some one had thrown water on
the fire and put it out. And he guessed that it was the other boys who
had done this spiteful thing to bring him into trouble. He did not know
what to do. But a sudden courage came to him. He took up a log of wood
from the corner and laid it on the heap of ashes. Then bending down he
blew gently on the pile. And oh, wonderful to say! It was as if he had
scratched a dozen cards of matches and had touched them to a pile of
paper. Hardly had his breath stirred the ashes and made the moss shiver
on the great log, when the whole fireplace was filled with dancing
flames, and the wood began to snap and crack in the best kind of a
blaze. Kentigern laughed softly to himself as he stole back to bed, and
said never a word to the sleeping boys who had tried to make mischief
for him.

When they woke in the morning they began to chuckle and nudge one
another, expecting every moment to see Saint Servan come frowning in
search of the careless Kentigern. And every boy was ready to declare
that the fire was burning brightly when he went to bed, and that
Kentigern had forgotten to go down and tend it at midnight. But they
were prevented from telling this falsehood. For the bell rang as usual
for breakfast, and down they all went to find a beautiful fire burning
on the hearth, and Kentigern going with his taper to light the chapel
candelabra. They did not know how it had happened till long, long
afterwards when Kentigern had made many other wonders come to pass, and
when he was known far and wide as a Saint even wiser than Servan his
master.

But meanwhile the boys hated him more than ever, when they saw how much
better Saint Servan loved him every day. And once more they planned to
bring him into disgrace. But this time it was an even more cruel thing
which they meant to do. For if they succeeded it would not only cause
Kentigern to be punished and make Saint Servan unhappy, but it would
cost the life of an innocent little creature who never had done any harm
to a single one of them.

Saint Servan was a kind-hearted old man, and he had a Robin Redbreast of
which he was very