 Practical
jokes worthy of the English wits of the first quarter of the far-off nineteenth
century were sprung here and there and yonder along the line, and compelled the
delightedest applause; and sometimes when a bright remark was made at one end of
the procession and started on its travels toward the other, you could note its
progress all the way by the sparkling spray of laughter it threw off from its
bows as it plowed along; and also by the blushes of the mules in its wake.
    Sandy knew the goal and purpose of this pilgrimage, and she posted me. She
said:
    »They journey to the Valley of Holiness, for to be blest of the godly
hermits and drink of the miraculous waters and be cleansed from sin.«
    »Where is this watering place?«
    »It lieth a two day journey hence, by the borders of the land that hight the
Cuckoo Kingdom.«
    »Tell me about it. Is it a celebrated place?«
    »Oh, of a truth yes. There be none more so. Of old time there lived there an
Abbot and his monks. Belike were none in the world more holy than these; for
they gave themselves to study of pious books, and spoke not the one to the
other, or indeed to any, and ate decayed herbs and naught thereto, and slept
hard, and prayed much, and washed never; also they wore the same garment until
it fell from their bodies through age and decay. Right-so came they to be known
of all the world by reason of these holy austerities, and visited by rich and
poor, and reverenced.«
    »Proceed.«
    »But always there was lack of water there. Whereso, upon a time, the holy
Abbot prayed, and for answer a great stream of clear water burst forth by
miracle in a desert place. Now were the fickle monks tempted of the fiend, and
they wrought with their Abbot unceasingly by beggings and beseechings that he
would construct a bath; and when he was become aweary and might not resist more,
he said have ye your will, then, and granted that they asked. Now mark thou what
'tis to forsake the ways of purity the which He loveth, and wanton with such as
be worldly and an offence. These monks did enter into the bath and come thence
washed as white as snow; and lo, in that moment His sign appeared, in miraculous
rebuke! - for His insulted waters ceased to flow, and utterly vanished away.«
    »They fared mildly, Sandy, considering how that kind of crime is regarded
