134 The Seven Years of Seeking

The Sea-farers took away with them many
of the leaves and flowers of this country, and
afterwards the scribes in the Scriptorium
copied them in beautiful colours in the

Golden Missal of the Abbey.

This was the last of the unknown shores
visited by the Sea-farers. Seven years had
they pursued their seeking, and there now
grew on them so strong a craving for home
that they could gainsay it nolonger. Where-
fore it fell out that in the autumn-tide, when
the stubble is brown in the fields and the
apple red on the bough; on the last day of .
the week, when toil comes to end; in the
last light of the day, when the smoke curls
up from the roof, they won their long sea-
way home.

O beloved Abbey of the Holy Face,
through tears they beheld thy walls, with
rapture they kissed thy threshold!

“In all the great sea of ocean,” said
Serapion, when he had told the story of
their wandering, “no such Earthly Paradise
have we seen as this dear Abbey of our
own!”