As Basil was praying thus in the hour before dawn, once more the Angel, clothed in silver and blue-green, as though it had been a semblance of the starry night, came to him, and said: "Give me thy hand;" and Basil touched the hand celestial, and the Angel drew him from his pillar, and placed him on the ground, and said: "This is that land of the west in which thou art to learn what is for thy good.  Take for staff this piece of tree, and follow this road till thou reachest the third milestone; and there, in the early light, thou shalt meet him who can instruct thee.  For a sign, thou shalt know the man by the little maid of seven years who helpeth him to drive the geese.  But the man, though young, may teach one who is older than he, and he is one who is greatly pleasing in God's eyes."