t; then his face
brightened. "Surely," he said, "to see her as she goes on her way, a
bright, brown little living thing, with her clear hair and glad eyes,
is a goodly reward. And a goodly reward is it to think of her growth,
and to mind me of the days when she could not walk and I bore her
whithersoever I went; and of the days when she could but take faltering
steps and was soon fain to climb into my arms and sit upon my neck; and
of the days when we first fared together with the geese to market and I
cut her her first hazel stick; and in truth of all the days that she
hath been with me since I found her."

As the Goose-herd spoke the tears rose in the Hermit's eyes and rolled
slowly down his cheeks; and when the young man ceased, he said: "O son,
now I know why thou art so pleasing in the eyes of God. Early hast
thou learned the love which gives all and asks nothing, which suffereth
long and is ever kind, and this I have not learned. A small thing and
too common it seemed to me, but now I see that it is holier than
austerities, and availeth more than fasting, and is the prayer of
prayers. Late have I sought thee, thou ancient truth, late have I
found thee, thou ancient beauty; yet even in the gloaming of my days
may there still be light enough to win my way home. Farewell, good
brother; and be God tender and pitiful to thee as thou hast been tender
and pitiful to the little child."

"Farewell, holy man!" replied the Herd, regarding him with a perplexed
look, for the life and austerities of the Hermit were a mystery he
could not understand.

Then going on his way, he laid the pan's-pipes to his lips and whistled
a pleasant music as he strode after his geese.

Kenach's Little Woman

As the holy season of Lent drew nigh, the Abbot Kenach felt a longing
such as a bird of passage feels in the south when the first little
silvery buds on the willow begin here to break their ruddy sheaths, and
the bird thinks to-morrow it will be time to fly over-seas to the land
where it builds its nest in pleasant croft or under the shelter of
homely eaves. And Kenach said, "Levabo oculos--I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help;" for every year it was
his custom to leave his abbey and fare through the woods to the
hermitage on the mountain-side, so that he might spend the forty days
of fasting and prayer in the heart of solitude.

Now on the day which is called the Wednesday or Ashes he set ou