Flowers that Spring in Desert Places [pp. 803-807]

804 FLOWERS THAT SPRING IN DESERT PLACES. [Mar.,
great Redemptorist. Two years later another son was born. He
was called Michael, after his father, and died in a couple of
months. Then a daughter entered the humble home and was
christened Elizabeth. Next appeared the man-child I am telling
you about. He was the Benjamin of the flock.
The old women among the neighbors clustered around the
new-born infant, saying:
"'What a lovely child!"
"He looks as if he had a halo around his head!"
"Glory be to God and his holy Mother, but you've got a
priest for a son."
"He'll be a bishop, sure."
The mother pondered these predictions in her heart and
built a hope upon them. She would be proud to be the bearer of a priest. What would she not give to see the fruit of her
womb at the altar! From that moment, in her thoughts, she
consecrated him to God and resolved to make clear his way to
holy orders.
"What's his name to be?" queried one old gossip.
"Aloysius."
"What an outlandish name! " cried one rude crone; "just
like his brother's. None of his kith or kin was ever called by
such a name ez that."
But the mother made no answer, for she wanted the boy to
live and she remembered her husband's broken promise and
the fate of Michael.
Ten days later, in old St. Peter's Church, Aloysius received
his baptismal innocence and his patron saint.
The father of the family was kept poor by lack of the
money-making faculty, by ill-health, and by a big heart that
made him give to the church, to the poor, and to needy
acquaintances more than a fair share of his income.
"We're givin' it to God, mother," he used to say to his
wife, "and sure, alanna, our children will get it back with interest, if we don't."
So when he was carried off unexpectedly with pneumonia
he left his dear ones unprovided for, with the exception of a
little home in Brooklyn. Aloysius was then aged nine. Necessarily the widow had to go out to work the week after the
funeral to earn bread for her destitute children. She tried various occupations. No honest labor was degrading to her. Nothing was too hard or too low for her, because it was sanctified as a means of support for her orphans. The friends that