A Tale of a Western Isle Continued
I heard another version of the tale that ends in this way:
When Coel had finished reading the Gospels and then finished his prayer, he opened his eyes and saw the boy was still sitting before him.
“I have marked all that you have read,” the boy said. “Tell me, is there any hope of forgiveness in those words for my people?”
“I am sorry to say that there is not.”
“You just now read that ‘there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, than on a multitude who do not need to repent.’”
“Sooner would my walking stick here sprout branches and leaves than God would forgive you,” Coel said and walked back to the beach where he made fire, ate, and slept.
The next morning he woke up and remembered that he had left his walking stick near the forest. He went back to retrieve it and found that it had, indeed, sprouted branches and leaves. It had, in fact, become a deeply rooted tree. At first he could not believe it, but he recognised the area around it, and he saw markings on the trunk of the tree that were only known by him from his stick.
The boy was sitting below the tree.
Coel recognised this as a true miracle and began praying for the boy’s salvation and instructing him in the true path. And the boy added this knowledge to the knowledge that he’d gained from the hidden people, and he grew as great in knowledge as he did in power. And though he was born all those years ago, his days have not yet run out.