the shrub known locally as the "bayberry." ]

Their life was regulated with a conventual strictness. At four in the
morning, a bell roused them from the sheets of bark on which they slept.
Masses, private devotions, reading religious books, and breakfasting,
filled the time until eight, when they opened their door and admitted the
Indians. As many of these proved intolerable nuisances, they took what
Lalemant calls the _honnete_ liberty of turning out the most intrusive and
impracticable,--an act performed with all tact and courtesy, and rarely
taken in dudgeon. Having thus winnowed their company, they catechized
those that remained, as opportunity offered. In the intervals, the
guests squatted by the fire and smoked their pipes.

As among the Spartan virtues of the Hurons that of thieving was
especially conspicuous, it was necessary that one or more of the Fathers
should remain on guard at the house all day. The rest went forth on
their missionary labors, baptizing and instructing, as we have seen.
To each priest who could speak Huron [ 1 ] was assigned a certain number
of houses,--in some instances, as many as forty; and as these often had
five or six fires, with two families to each, his spiritual flock was as
numerous as it was intractable. It was his care to see that none of the
number died without baptism, and by every means in his power to commend
the doctrines of his faith to the acceptance of those in health.

[ 1 At the end of the year 1638, there were seven priests who spoke
Huron, and three who had begun to learn it. ]

At dinner, which was at two o'clock, grace was said in Huron,--for the
benefit of the Indians present,--and a chapter of the Bible was read
aloud during the meal. At four or five, according to the season, the