The peddler nodded. "Yes, children, it really happened, and the experience changed my whole life. It is very strange, but whenever I tell this story, someone soon afterward learns for himself that it was true."
The children opened their eyes in astonishment. But their father laughed at them, and mamma said it was time to go to bed. Very reluctantly did the youngsters rise and scamper off to rest. The peddler also went to bed.
When the peddler had gone, Charles and Betty thought a great deal about what he had told them. It was Charles who suggested: "Betty, let us go and search for the monk?"
"Oh, Oh!" exclaimed Betty, opening wide her large blue eyes. "Do you really mean it? But suppose the monk should see us?"
"Well, and if he did? We have not shot his birds."
So Betty stared open-eyed while Charlie outlined his plans. They were to steal away that afternoon, taking with them their favorite dog, Don.
As soon as dinner was over, Charlie and Betty, attended by Don, struck off into the woods with light hearts. They took the old, familiar path, over which they had many a time before played hide and seek. However, it soon vanished into a new and unknown winding trail. They were delighted to find a road so easily traveled in the heart of the wood. Though they did not know it, the path was really a deer's runway. For at least two long hours the children wandered, whither they did not know. At times they would stand and shout, just to see the squirrels scramble and talk back at them, and even Don would stretch out his neck and howl in unison. Occasionally a wild bird scurried away. Don always gave pursuit.
Suddenly Don cocked up his short ears and whined. The children looked and saw a few yards away a little vine-covered hut.
"This is the monk's home, I believe!" whispered Charlie.
"Oh!" exclaimed Betty, clapping her hands; "isn't it fun?"