After many questions asked and answered, the friar became
thoughtful and abstracted, as if he had been brought in contact with a
new class of persons and ideas, which he could not at once comprehend.
L'Isle now asked him, "When and why he had put on St. Francis' frock?"
"I do not remember when I wore any other dress. I was not four years
old when I was seized with a violent sickness, and soon at the point
of death. My mother vowed that if St. Francis would hear her prayer,
and spare me, her only son, she would devote me to his service. From
that moment, as my mother has often told me, I began to mend. As soon
as a dress of the order could be made for me, I put it on. From that
day I grew and strengthened rapidly, and have not had a day's sickness
since. When old enough I was sent to school, and then served my
noviciate in the Franciscan convent in Villa Vicosa. I am now on leave
to visit my mother and sisters, who live near Ameixial."
"If you had chosen for yourself," L'Isle suggested, "perhaps you would
not have been a friar."
"Perhaps not," said the young friar, hesitating. "Indeed, I have been
lately told, though I am loath to admit it, that, urgent as the
necessity was that gave rise to our order, and great as its services
have been, especially in former days, our holy mother, the Church, can
be better served now, by servants who assume a more polished exterior,
and obeying St.
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