the first gospel and get the benediction at the Ite missy est; or for those who make a pretext of the least sickness, or of a show of bad weather to excuse themselves from attending the holy mass and their pastors' sermons!
This zeal for prayer and instruction (and I preached to them regularly four times a day) instead of declining, increased up to the time of my departure. They told me often that it was their delight to hear the word of God. The day after my arrival among them, I had nothing more urgent to do than to translate the prayers into their language, with the aid of a good interpreter. [Gabriel Prudhomme]. Fifteen days later, at instructions, I promised a medal to the first who should be able to recite without a mistake the Pater, the Ave, the Credo, the ten commandments of God and the four acts. A chief rose: " Father," he said,
" your medal belongs to me." And to my great surprise, he recited all these prayers without missing a word; I em braced him and made him my catechist. The good savage put so much zeal and perseverance into his task that in less than ten days the whole nation knew their prayers.
During my stay among this good people, I have had the happiness of regenerating nearly 6oo of them in the saving waters of baptism; all [the others] ardently desired to obtain the same favor; and their dispositions were without doubt excellent; but since the absence of missionaries could only be momentary, I thought it prudent to put them off until the following year, to give them a high idea of the dignity of the sacrament, and to try them in regard to the indissolubility of the bonds of marriage, which is an unknown thing among the Indian nations of America; for they often part for the most frivolous causes. Among the adults baptized were the two head chiefs of the Flatheads and Pend d'Oreilles, both octogenarians. Before bestowing the holy sacrament upon them, as I was urging them to renewed repentance for their sins, Walking Bear, the second of the two named, answered me: " %Vhen I was young, and even as I became old, I was plunged in profound ignorance of good