THE VINEYARD
the first grapes are cnt ib will be you, so I think, to garner them. This is why you must obey absolutely. Nothing will be left to your judgment. A message will come, and you will obey."
"How am I to tell who your messenger is?"
Nicholas smiled.
"Some afternoon, when you are sitting in the spring sunshine, or perhaps some night in this next winter, when you ure sleeping, a monk will come to you and say, 'There is a man here, or a boy it may be, or a girl even, who wishes to see you, and we cannot understand what be means.' Then you will delay not, but go and see what it is. You will say, 'I am Father Priketes; you have a messuge for me?' And the message will be in this form: 'I am bidden to ask you if there is corn to be given to those who need it?' And you will say, 'Is it black corn they need, and are the needy hungry, or are they Turks?' And the messenger will say, 'Send black corn for the Turks to Kalamata or Kalavryta, or where-ever it is, and let two hundred or five hundred or a thousand men carry it.' Other instructions may come aswell, but always in that form. And as you obey, so may the Lord give you a place among His saints in heaven."
Father Priketes was silent for a moment.
"You are right, Nicholas," he said; "and I swear by the picture of the mother of God that I will obey in all things. Come, shall we go up again?"
They climbed up into the chapel, and went out down the vaulted stone passage to the story below, where another passage, whitewashed and boarded on both sides, led to the monks' library and Father Priketes's own rooms. Nicholas, who carried in his hand an olive-wood stick, tapped the panelling carelessly as he went along, and once stopped a moment and smiled at Germanos.
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