heaven favoured him very strongly, and the saints watched over
him; still, without the boldness of his own courage, and the
faith in his own heart, they would not have done so. I suppose,
too, that when knights in their armour, and soldiers in their
camps, saw such a little fellow all alone, they helped him, and
perhaps struck some blows for him, and so sped him on his way,
and protected him from robbers and from wild beasts. Still, be
sure that the real shield and the real reward that served
Findelkind of Arlberg was the pure and noble purpose that armed
him night and day. Now, history does not tell us where Findelkind
went, nor how be fared, nor how long he was about it; but history
does tell us that the little barefooted, long-haired boy,
knocking so loudly at castle gates and city walls in the name of
Christ and Christ's poor brethren, did so well succeed in his
quest that before long he had returned to his mountain home with
means to have a church and a rude dwelling built, where he lived
with six other brave and charitable souls, dedicating themselves
to St. Christopher, and going out night and day to the sound of
the Angelus, seeking the lost and weary. This is really what
Findelkind of Arlberg did five centuries ago, and did so quickly
that his fraternity of St. Christopher, twenty years after,
numbered among its members archdukes, and prelates, and knights
without number, and lasted as a great order down to the days of
Joseph II. This is what Findelkind in the fourteenth century did,
I tell you. Bear like faith in your hearts, my children; and
though your generation is a harder one than this, because it is
without faith, yet you shall move mountains, because Christ and
St. Christopher will be with you.

Then the good man, having said that, blessed them, and left