238 The Story of

and behold! when the Saint came from
singing nones in the minster, the robin flut-
tered up and flew away to meet him, chirrup-
ing merrily.

‘“‘A thoughtless thing of little blame,” said
the Novice-master, “was the wickedness of
these boys compared with that of the monks
of the Abbot Eutychus.. The Abbot had a
bear to tend his sheep while he was absent
and to shut them in their fold at sunset, and
when the monks saw that marvel, instead of
praising God they were burned up with envy
and ill-will, and they killed the bear. Ah,
children, it is still possible for us, even in
these days, to kill a Saint’s robin and an
abbot’s bear. Let us beware of envy and
jealousy and uncharitableness.

In those years when Father Oswald was
thus teaching his novices gentleness and
compassion, he had but one trouble in his
life, and that was the remembrance of a com-
panion of his youth, who had fled from the
Priory and disappeared in the noise and
tumult of the world’s life. As scholars they
had been class-mates, and as novices they had
been so closely drawn together that each