Good Reading: "The Monk and the Bird" by Ludwing Bechstein (translated into English)

 Many years ago the young monk Urban lived in a cloister. He stood out as more earnest and devout than his fellows and was therefore entrusted with the key of the convent library. He took very good care of the books and scrolls and other things there, besides reading in the books himself. One day he read, "A day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." The thought seemed impossible to him.

One morning the monk went out of the library into the cloister-garden and saw a little bird perched on the bough of a tree there, singing sweetly. The bird was a nightingale, and did not move when the monk came nearer until he was quite close. Then she flew to another bough and again another as the monk followed her. Still singing the same sweet song, the nightingale flew on. The monk, eager to hear her song, followed her on out of the garden into the world outside for three minutes. Then he stopped and turned back to the cloister.

But everything about it seemed changed to him. Everything had become larger, more beautiful and older - both the buildings and the garden. And in the place of the low, humble cloister-church there was a large cathedral with three towers toward the sky. This seemed very strange to the monk, but he walked on to the cloister-gate and timidly rang the bell.

A porter that was wholly unknown to him answered his summons and drew back in amazement when he saw the monk.

The monk went in and wandered through the church, gazing with astonishment on memorial-stones that he never remembered to have seen before. Then the brethren of the cloister entered the church, but all stepped back when they saw the monk.

The abbot only - but not his abbot - stooped and stretched a crucifix before him, exclaiming, "Who are you? And what do you seek here among the living?"

The monk suddenly trembled and tottered like an old man. When he looked down, he noticed for the first time a long silvery beard was flowing from his chin and down over his girdle, where the key of the library was still hanging.

The monks now led him to the chair of the abbot with a mixture of awe and admiration. There the long-bearded monk gave the key of the library to a young man, who opened it and read a chronicle about the monk Urban who had disappeared three hundred years ago. No one knew what had become of him.

"Forest bird, is this due to your song?" said the monk Urban with a heavy sigh. "I followed you for three minutes it seemed, listening to your notes, and yet three hundred years passed away! You must be an awfully old bird! Now I know."

With these words he sank to the ground while his spirit swooshed into heaven.