A man, a sinner, it behoved him before all else to chasten his soul that he might be pleasing unto God; and behold the way! For one who had sinned so grievously, it might well be that there was no other path of salvation.
This morning he went forth with the monks to labour.

Brother Marcus conducted him to a plot of garden ground where there was light work to be done, and there left him.

Willingly did Basil set about this task, which broke the monotony of the day, and, more than that, was in itself agreeable to him.

He had always found pleasure in the rustic life, and of late, at his Asculan villa, had often wished he could abide in quiet for the rest of his days amid the fields and the vineyards.

Working in the mellow sunlight, above him the soft blue sky of early autumn, and all around the silence of mountain and of forest, he felt his health renew itself.