already related that M. le Coq gave her a sleeping outfit, consisting of
a mattress, palliasse, two comforters, and a pillow. Although the first
winter she spent in Montreal was an unusually severe one, she never used
these articles of comfort _herself_, but freely bestowed them on
_others_. A poor soldier, badly frozen, hastened to tell her his misery;
the mattress was instantly given to him. A comrade hearing of his good
fortune, presented himself for relief; the palliasse became his
property, the comforters being bestowed on a third, who was as
wretchedly lodged as the others. There was as yet no applicant for the
pillow, which was a useless article of furniture to her, as she slept on
the bare ground, or a plank, resting her head upon straw,
notwithstanding the inclemency of Canadian winters. Yet she felt amply
rewarded for her privations, by being permitted to perform charitable
offices for others. She was the common mother of the young colonists,
being an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, consolation to the
afflicted, a support to the weak and indigent, making herself like the
Apostle, "all to all, in order to gain all to Christ." But her principal
aim was the instruction of the little ones, and as she had no
school-room to teach in, she followed them from house to house,
instructing them in their religious duties, and inspiring them with
devotion to the Immaculate Mother of God. While M. de Maisonneuve, her
faithful fellow-laborer, struggled for the material prosperity of the
colony, she endeavored to erect a spiritual empire in the hearts of the
faithful. But as the population increased the extent of her
foot-journeys covered a vast tract of country, and the number of
children she instructed was greater than one teacher could attend to.
Although her strength and courage never flagged, she evidently required
assistance, which Almighty God provided in His own mysterious and
adorable manner, as will soon be related.