Page:Don-bosco-pine.djvu/26



In April, 1826, when John was eleven years old, a mission was given by some renowned preachers at Buttigliera, a small town in the vicinity. Crowds from all the neighboring parishes attended, and among them the aged and saintly Cure of Murialdo, Don Calosso. As he was returning home one day he observed a little boy walking along the road in deep reflection.

"What is your name, my child?" he asked.

"John Bosco, padre mio," was the reply.

"And you come to hear the missionaries?" questioned the Curé, with a smile. "Very likely your mother could give you a sermon better suited to your capacity."

"That's true, sir," said John, with glowing face; "but I like to hear the missionaries, too."

"Now, my little one," said Don Calosso, in a challenging voice, "I will give you three pence if you will repeat four sentences of the last sermon."

This had been one of the most forcible sermons of the mission, "The Danger of Delay in Conversion." John paused a moment as if to gather up the divisions of the discourse and put them in order. Then clearly and without embarrassment, he gave almost word for word the exordium, the