Page:Tales from the Fjeld.djvu/175

Rh know, and which I do not know, is whether any of you has a bit of cloth to patch that hole. Amen."

Some few of the hearers were very well pleased with this sermon. They thought it sure he would make a brave priest in time; but, to tell the truth, most of them thought it too bad, and when the dean came they complained of the priest, and said no one had ever heard such sermons before, and there was even one of them who knew the last by heart, and wrote it down and read it to the dean.

"I call it a very good sermon," said the dean, "for it was likely that he spoke in parables as to seeking light and shunning darkness and its deeds, and as to those who were walking either on the broad or the strait path; but most of all," he said, "that was a grand parable when he gave that notice about the priest's black mare, and how it would fare with us all at the last. The pocket with the hole in it was to show the need of the church, and the piece of cloth to patch it was the gifts and offerings of the congregation." That was what the dean said.

As for the parish, what they said was, "Ay! ay! so much we could understand that it was to go into the priest's pocket."

The end was, the dean said he thought the parish had got such a good and understanding priest, there was no fault to find with him, and so they had to make the best of him; but after awhile, as he got worse instead of better, they complained of him to the bishop.

Well! sooner or later the bishop came, and there was to be a visitation. But, the day before, the priest