Page:Life and life-work of Mother Theodore Guerin Foundress.djvu/61

Rh dwelling already too small to shelter them. Two rooms, separated by a hall only wide enough to admit of a stairway leading to the attic, constituted their convent; one room served as a kitchen, the other was used for the postulants and children, the attic being the dormitory. In the winter it was not unusual to find the beds covered with snow in the morning, so badly was the roof finished. Under the stairs there was space enough for a bed and one chair; this was the Superior's apartment. The room had no other light than from the hall, no other floor than the bare earth. The narrow cell occupied by St. John of the Cross, and the equally narrow confines prescribed to St. Alexis in his father's house here found a parallel.

"Little Providence," the name they gave to their abode, was certainly very small and very poor; but the cave of Bethlehem was smaller still and poorer. This consideration, however, does not lessen the trials endured by those zealous women. Often they were without any resource save their confidence in God; yet, trusting Him they were not disappointed; for, according to the traditions of the Community and the neighboring country, they were sometimes provided for in a manner like to the multiplication of the loaves mentioned in the Gospel. As Poverty had been wooed by our Crucified Love and espoused on Calvary's height, so their primitive hardships had charms for those fervent souls which made them feel that the yoke was sweet and the burden light. Without the strength derived from the vows, which give so much courage to consecrated souls in the midst of trials and sufferings; in prayer and sacrifice; in poverty