BIRDS AT THEIR BEST 11 



asked him what he was doing. " I am lighting the 

 chm'ch," said the old man ; and he then went on 

 to explain that it was a large and a fine church, full 

 of rich ornaments, but very dark inside — so dark 

 that when people came to service the greatest con- 

 fusion prevailed, and they could not see each other 

 or the priest, nor the priest them. It had always 

 been so, he continued, and it was a great mystery ; 

 he had been engaged by the fathers of the village a 

 long time back, when he was a young man, to carry 

 sunlight in to light the interior ; but though he had 

 grown old at his task, and had carried in many, 

 many thousands of sackfuls of sunlight every year, 

 it still remained dark, and no one could say why it 

 was so. 



It is not necessary to relate the sequel : the reader 

 knows by now that in the end the dark church was 

 filled with light, that the traveller was feasted and 

 honoured by all the people of the village, and that 

 he left them loaded with gifts. 



Parables of this kind as a rule can have no moral 

 or hidden meaning in an age so enlightened as this ; 

 yet oddly enough we do find among us a delusion 

 resembling that of the villagers who thought they 

 could convey sunshine in a sack to light their dark 

 church. It is one of a group or family of indoor 



