The priest's loving petition was never forgotten. When Perrine
taught its first prayer to her first child, the little creature
was instructed to end the few simple words pronounced at its
mother's knees, with, "God bless Father Paul."
In those words the nun concluded her narrative. After it was
ended, she pointed to the old wooden cross, and said to me:
"That was one of the many that he made. It was found, a few years
since, to have suffered so much from exposure to the weather that
it was unfit to remain any longer in its old place. A priest in
Brittany gave it to one of the nuns in this convent. Do you
wonder now that the Mother Superior always calls it a Relic?"
"No," I answered. "And I should have small respect indeed for the
religious convictions of any one who could hear the story of that
wooden cross, and not feel that the Mother Superior's name for it
is the very best that could have been chosen."
PROLOGUE TO THE SIXTH STORY.
On the last occasion when I made a lengthened stay in London, my
wife and I were surprised and amused one morning by the receipt
of the following note, addressed to me in a small, crabbed,
foreign-looking handwriting.
"Professor Tizzi presents amiable compliments to Mr. Kerby, the
artist, and is desirous of having his portrait done, to be
engraved from, and placed at the beginning of the voluminous work
on 'The Vital Principle; or, Invisible Essence of Life,' which
the Professor is now preparing for the press--and posterity.
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