he answered that he was nearer to being drowned than fed. When the boy
dipped three of his fingers into the swelling water, and, standing on a
dry place, he thrice sprinkled the water in the form of a cross, and in
the name of the Holy Trinity commanded the well that forthwith it
should subside. And behold a miracle! Immediately all the flood
retired with a refluent course, and the dryness returned, nor was there
hurt or damage seen in the vessels or in the furniture of his dwelling.
And they who looked on saw that sparks of fire instead of drops of
water were sprinkled from the fingers of the holy child, and that the
waters were licked up and absorbed thereby; and the Lord, "who collects
the waters as in a heap, and lays up the depths in his treasury," who
had worked such great works through his beloved child Patrick, is
praised of all; and the child also is magnified who was so powerful in
Him, great and worthy of all praise.




CHAPTER V.

_How he produced Fire from Ice._

Though Saint Patrick, in his childish years, sometimes thought as a
child and acted as a child, yet do his illustrious works declare how
precious was he in the eyes of Him who was for us born a child. And on
a certain day, the winter then freezing everything, the boy Patrick,
being engaged in their sports with boys of his own age, gathered many
pieces of ice in his bosom, and bore them home, and cast them down in
the court-yard; but his nurse, seeing this, said to him that it were
better he had collected wood for the hearth than have played with