be nobody
about, to stop him; and, tired out, I suppose, with a day of exploring
in the strange land, St. Patrick lay down and fell asleep. A little
Irish boy chanced to come along, and, seeing a stranger asleep, crept up
on tip-toe to look at him. What a lovely, kind face he had! The boy
thought to himself that he had never before seen anybody who looked so
nice, and he longed to do him some good turn. He couldn't think of
anything to do for someone who was asleep, but at last he got an idea.
Picking all the best flowers he could find, he put them round St.
Patrick for a surprise for him.

When St. Patrick woke up you can imagine how pleased he was with the
flowers, and still more pleased to see a little Irish boy smiling at him
shyly from among the bushes. Before long St. Patrick and the boy had
become great friends, and the boy simply wouldn't go away, but stuck to
St. Patrick. Then God made known a secret of the future to St. Patrick,
and he said: "Some day he will be the heir to my kingdom." And, sure
enough, the boy, whose name was Benignus, succeeded St. Patrick as
Bishop of Armagh. Don't you wish you were that boy, always to stay with
St. Patrick?

After this the most wonderful adventures began to befall St. Patrick;
but even more wonderful than the adventures were the miracles by which
he managed to escape out of them, not only alive, but victorious.

Getting into his ship again, St. Patrick landed farther north. Once more
the fierce Irish set on him and his little band, and their chief, Dichu,
raised his sword to bring it crashing down on St. Patrick's head. But,
somehow, his arm stayed stiff in mid-air, and he could not strike the
blow. Dichu was an honest man, and soon understood that such a miracle
must be a sign from the true God. If once you believe in God--well, the
only possible thing is to serve Him. So Dichu became a Christian, and
humbly learned from St. Patrick how he should serve God.

Then St. Patrick went to the house of the very chief who had kept him as
a slave, and converted his children to the true Faith. But it was at
Easter that something very thrilling happened, and was the beginning of
St. Patrick's real triumphs.

The Chief-King of Erin (as Ireland was called) was just going to hold
his solemn festival at Tara. All the Irish princes and all the priests
of the pagan religion had collected together. One of their ceremonies
was the lighting of fire at dawn, with magic rites and ceremo