he stones of the field should be in
friendship with them.

"And this we see," he would say, "in the life of the blessed Bishop
Kieran of Saighir, who was the first Saint born in green Erinn. For he
wandered away through the land seeking the little well where he was to
found his monastery. That well was in the depths of a hoary wood, and
when he drew near it the holy bell which he carried rang clear and
bright, as it had been foretold him. So he sat down to rest under a
tree, when suddenly a wild boar rushed out of its lair against him; but
the breath of God tamed it, and the savage creature became his first
disciple, and helped him to fell small trees and to cut reeds and
willows so that he might build him a cell. After that there came from
brake and copse and dingle and earth and burrow all manner of wild
creatures; and a fox, a badger, a wolf, and a doe were among Kieran's
first brotherhood. We read, too, that for all his vows the fox made
but a crafty and gluttonous monk, and stole the Saint's leather shoes,
and fled with them to his old earth. Wherefore Kieran called the
religious together with his bell, and sent the badger to bring back the
fugitive, and when this was done the Saint rebuked the fox for an
unworthy and sinful monk, and laid penance upon him."

When the novices laughed at this adventure, Father Oswald said:

"These things are not matters of faith; you may believe them or not as
you will. Perhaps they did not happen in the way in which they are now
told, but if they are not altogether true, they are at least images and
symbols of truth. But this I have no doubt is true--that when the
blessed Columba was Abbot in Iona, he called one of the brethren to him
and bade him go on the third day to the western side of the island, and
sit on the sea-shore, and watch for a guest who would arrive, weary and
hungry, in the afternoon. And the guest would be a crane, beaten by
the stormy winds, and it would fall on the beach, unable to fly
further. 'And do thou,' said Columba, 'take it up with gentle hands
and carry it to the house of the guests, and tend it for three days and
three nights, and when it is refreshed it will fly up into the air, and
after scanning its path through the clouds it will return to its old
sweet home in Erinn; and if I charge thee so earnestly with this
service, it is because the guest comes from our dear land.' And the
Brother obeyed; and on the third day the crane arrived, st