Page:The strange experiences of Tina Malone.djvu/40

40 the voices of the children and nuns rising pure and sweet—so sweet that the tears would rush to my eyes. All this with the quiet calming atmosphere of the convent which met me as I entered it, seemed to sort out and smooth away all the worries I brought in, sending me away with a feeling of sanity, which made me love the place.

There was the day when, as I arrived, I saw little white-robed figures flitting about the garden.

"The little Communicants," said Mother Joseph, in answer to my question! "Five of the little ones made their First Communion to-day. Would you like to see their room? They have made their little confessions." She laughed kindly as she spoke. "They hardly know what their little sins are. Come with me."

We went together along the convent pasagespassages [sic] to the room set aside for the little Communicants for the day. They were as important as five little brides in their white frocks, white shoes and wreaths and veils. So sweet they looked, and each came bounding forward to show me her own particular little rosary given to her and specially blessed for the occasion. They had each a little altar for the day, decked out with little pictures of the saints—presents from the older girls, little posies from their gardens and little images of "Our Blessed Lady," or the "Child Jesus." They flitted about innocently happy, the elder girls wandering in as they wished to admire the little altars and make much of the children.

It was their Day.

"See my Rosary," said one to me. "Look at my altar," said another. "Millie had no prayer-book so I lent her mine," said a last-year's Communicant who had come in to inspect.

They were kept there all day—a holiday to them, of course, with little intervals of prayers and serious talks.

Those little girls at the convent were so precious. There was an unwritten law there always that they were to be protected by their elders. From the window sometimes I watched them at lunch-time as they went to the playing-field. First one class would line up on each side of the door, all mushroom-hatted alike, and wait for the signal. Then, as the mistress in attendance came out and gave it, with a bound off they would go, unaffected and unconscious of the supervision which was always there. Another class would follow and the same thing would happen. But the tiniest girls were kept back to go hand-in-hand with only the very tallest—their special charge for the day—a charge well-kept and loved.

One day after my lunch I wandered about to find a room where a class was not to be held at once, for they were always arranged by the monitresses ready for use.