J. F. Campbell Collection > Fireside stories of Ireland

IjO THE FIRESIDE STORIES OF IRELAND.
his whole soul and mind and memory ail wrapt np in the
sweet music. He went into the wood about a quarter of a
mile, and he was as he thought about half an hour moving
that far, and he couldn't fancy heaven itself to have any-
thing more heavenly than the notes of the bird.
At last it stopped singing, and the poor man felt Hke
one just falling down on the earth out of Paradise. He
went back dismally, and when he came to where the paling
and the little door in it ought to be, there was a high wall,
and towers, and a big door, and a little one beside it. " Oh
dear ! " said the poor man, " am I dreaming, or what has
come over me ? " He rang the bell and the little door was
opened. " What is your business ?" said the porter, a man
with a face and dress on him quite strange to the monk.
" My business, brother, is to go in, and say my prayers, and
go to bed." " Go to bed ! You speak as if you belonged
to the place, and you a perfect stranger. Who are you 1 '"
*' Rather you tell me who are jon % There was a garden
here half an hour ago, when I left it to follow a bird that
was singing heavenly music into the wood, and here I find
walls and gates where there was a paling between the
garden and the wood, and a strange porter, for I don't re-
member ever seeing your face before."" Well, some of the
brothers that were going by, gathered round, and could
make no more of the business than the porter. They asked
him who was the abbot when he left the garden, and what
king reigned in the country, and shook their heads when
lie mentioned their names. They thought they were speak-
ing with a man out of his mind, till at last one of them
said, " Let us bring him to ljmih.Qv So-and-so. He's a hun-
dred and ten years old, and maybe he'll help us in our
puzzle." They brought him to the old brother through
passages and rooms he never saw before, they wondering
at his strange dress and he at theirs.
When the old, old mail heard the story, he began to
speak. " Brothers, when I entered this monastery very
young, I often heard from an old brother, who was then as
old as I am now, that when himself was a novice the
oldest of the monks used to be telling of a brother So-and-
so that left the house one evening, and never was heard of