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TheyÂd been out in the fields with their parents, who were harvesting grain, and they wandered off to explore the city. When night fell, they were quite thoroughly lost, and didnÂt know how to make their way home.
They stopped at a butcher shop, and asked for a meal and shelter for the night. The butcher welcomed them in. And as soon as the door was closed, he killed them as if he were killing pigs, and packed their bodies into a pickling barrel.
Seven years later, St. Nicholas was traveling through the city. He stopped at the butcher shop, and asked for a meal and shelter for the night. The butcher welcomed him in. As soon as the door was closed, he offered him ham, and then veal. St. Nicholas refused both, and said he would take only what was packed in the barrel.
The butcher, terrified, ran away. St. Nicholas ran after him, shouting that, if he would repent, God would forgive him.
Then he went to the barrel and touched it with three fingers. The boys bodies became whole, and then the boys opened their eyes. They said they had been sleeping, and that they had dreamed they were in paradise.
While this story may have stretched the truth of what happened, it is another saintly example of Christ's love for all of humanity.
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