The Seven Years of Seeking 125

Now, having preached the Gospel, the
Sea-farers strengthened their ship and
launched into the deep after the third Easter-
tide, and having comforted the people,
because they were grieved and mournful at
their departure, they left them in the keeping
of the risen Lord, and continued their
seeking.

After this Brother Benedict, the oldest
monk of their company, fell ill with grievous
sickness, and sorely the Sea-farers longed for
some shore where he might feel the good
earth solid and at rest beneath him, and see
the green of growing things, and have the
comfort of stillness and silence.

With astonishing patience he bore his
malady, at no time repining, and speaking
never a word of complaint. When he was
asked if he repented him of the adventure, he
smiled gently. ‘Fain, indeed,” he said,
“would I be laid to rest beneath the grass
of our own garth, where the dear brethren,
passing and repassing in the cloister, might
look where I lay and say an ‘ Our Father’ for
my soul. Yet in no way do I repent of our
sailing, for we have seen the marvellous works