Thanks be to God, I need not support for my back.' So saying, the abbot seated himself on the stool, and gazed at Basil with a smile of infinite benevolence.
'Your face,' he continued, 'speaks to me of a time very far away.

I see in it the presentment of your father's father, with whom, when he was much of your age, I often talked.

His mother had a villa at Nursia, the home of my youth.

Once he turned aside from a journey to visit me when I dwelt at Sublaqueum.' The reminiscence checked his tongue he kept silence for a moment, musing gravely.
'But these are old stories, my Basil, and you are young.

Tell me somewhat of your parents, and of your own life.