IX

The

Seven Years of Seeking
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ERE begins the chapter of the Seven
Years of Seeking.

For, trying greatly to win sight of that
blessed isle, the Earthly Paradise, the monk
Serapion and his eleven companions hoisted
sail; and for seven years they continued in
that seeking, wandering with little respite
under cloud and star, in all the ways of the
sea of ocean which goeth round the world.

[Now this chapter was read of evenings in
the refectory at supper, in the winter of the
Great Snow. While the drifts without lay
fathom-deep in sheltered places, and the snow
was settling on the weather-side of things in
long slopes like white pent-houses, the com-
munity listened with rapt attention, picturing