mble and penitent Dunstan is! He has the
back-ache all day, and the legs-ache all night, and he suffers all for
the cause of purity and truth.'

"Then Dunstan told the people that the devil came to tempt him, which,
with his aches for the good cause, made his situation very trying.

"The devil, he said, wanted him to lead a life of selfish
gratification, but he would not be tempted to do a thing like that; he
never thought of himself. O no, good soul, not he!

"The people said that Dunstan must have become a very holy man, or the
devil would not appear to him _bodily_.

"The devil came to him one day, he said, as he was at work at his
forge, and, putting his nose through the window of his cell, tempted
him to lead a life of pleasure. He quickly drew his pincers from the
fire, and seized his tormentor by the nose, which put him in such pain
that he bellowed so lustily as to shake the hills.

"The boy-king Edred, who filled the throne at this time, was in poor
health, and suffered from a lingering illness for years. He felt the
need of the counsel of a good man, and he said to himself,--

"'There is Dunstan, a man who has given up all selfish feelings and
aspirations, a man whom even the devil cannot corrupt. I will bring
him to court, and will make him my adviser.'

"Then pure-hearted Edred brought the foxy prelate to his court, and
made him, of all things in the world, the royal treasurer; and he took
such good care of the money entrusted to his keeping that he was
speedily released from the responsibility. He seems to have been very
easily tempted during his political career."

The next day the party was borne away from shady Oxford, where one
would indeed like to tarry long in the midsummer days, to the old city
of Bristol, famous in the Roman conquest of Britain. In the journey
the gay poppy-fields and the picturesque cottage scenes, which give a
charm to the English landscape, often flitted into and out of view,
reminding the boys of George Howe's letter.

Glastonbury Abbey is indeed an interesting ruin. It stands apart from
the popular lines of travel, and so it figures little in the
narratives of those who make short tours abroad.

Think of the ruins of a church at least fourteen hundred years old! A
church that Joseph of Arimathaea, who provided the tomb for Jesus, is
reputed in the old monkish legends to have founded, and where St.
Patrick and St. Augustine probably did preach, and where in the Middle