Page:Twelve Years in a Monastery (1897).djvu/55

 harmless, even in the hands of a fanatic. I remember what mental threats we uttered against a bloodthirsty little Portuguese friar who told us tales (with the suggestion to imitate) of the way they took discipline; but before the end of the novitiate we had learned the true value of the edifying tales with which visitors invariably entertained the novices.

The remainder of the evening was spent in private devotions or spiritual reading, and at 9.30 we were obliged to retire. Our beds were quite in harmony with the rest of the establishment; straw mattresses with a few blankets were all that we received. Besides the bed a wooden chair and a plain desk with half-a-dozen necessary books completed the furniture of the cell; a small plaster crucifix was the only effort at mural decoration. Our dormitory was cut off from the others by a special partition which was locked every evening, for the regulations for our isolation were very stringent. Even the superior of the monastery was not allowed to enter our department except in the company of one of the older friars.

Such was the ordinary tenor of our lives throughout the year of the novitiate, and indeed it had few variations. Feast-days were the principal events we looked forward to, and it would be safe to assert that few boys would persevere in their condition if the feast-days were abolished. A score of festivals were indicated in the constitutions on which the superior was directed to allow conversation at dinner, and to