Almighty God had given them particular inclinations for.

These assemblies of children were so many little communities of innocent
souls in which God took great complacency, and it was at this time she
made her first Holy Communion. Her mother's death occurring soon after,
she had an opportunity of practising the virtues of obedience, etc.,
under circumstances far in advance of her years. By the death of his
wife, M. Bourgeois found himself embarrassed with the care of a helpless
young family, but noticing in little Margaret a certain air of gravity
and prudence, accompanied by sincere piety, he seriously thought of
giving her charge of the household, and particularly of the education of
a younger brother and sister. Nothing is known with certainty of the
after lives of these children, except that, in 1653, when Margaret was
making arrangements to leave France for Canada, two of them were minors,
in whose favor she voluntarily dispossessed herself of _her_ share of
the family inheritance. Neither can anything be recorded of the virtues
she displayed in discharging the laborious duties of the position in
which her father placed her at so tender an age. No one could speak of
these years of responsibility except herself, and humility would never
permit her to raise the veil, or speak of what must have been a most
interesting portion of her saintly life. Only one circumstance of these
early years could she ever be induced to mention, and of this she
sometimes spoke with great bitterness of soul, and much exaggeration. It
was that, a few times, during seasons of worldly dissipation, she had
attached undue importance to dress--taking great pains to arrange her
toilette fashionably so as to display her personal attractions to
advantage. Although this happened without dressing beyond her station of
life, or exceeding the bounds of modesty, she acknowledged that it
tarnished the purity of her heart, and filled her mind with vain and
foolish thoughts. It was one of those youthful faults for which she took