Page 140 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

FINANCES II9
afiord the luxury of a privately supported school. The
agreement between Father Peacock and the Xaverian
Brothers had another year to run. Mr. Ryken felt sure
that the pastor could not rene\.v it. Ttr.ere simply was
not that much money available.
"The Catholics in' Bury were poor," wrote Brother
Ignatius in his "Notes." "The income of the priest was
small. In order to assist him, one of the Brotlers went
out on Saturday evenings with a member o{ the parish
to collect. These collections consisted mostly of one
penny per house. The same happened on Sunday nights.
The proceeds of the two nights amounted to about fif-
teen shillings. Besides we had some yearly subscriptions."
Fifteen shillings gathered at the rate of "a penny a
house where we called" would have represented 180
calls. Since there were only a hundred boys in the
school, some parents must have contributed more than
a penny.
The task of gathering pennies had occasional em-
barrassing moments. Brother Ignatius, who loved a
laugh and who made it a practice of jotting down in
his notebook any funny incident or humorous remark,
chronicled this one:
"Brother Ignatius and Brother Alphonse called at a
house where there was a sick child, and the motler
asked Brother Ignatius to place his hand on the head
of the child. Brother Ignatius demurred. The woman
insisted. Finally he complied. flowever, the child did
not get better. When Brother Ignatius and his com-
panion again visited the house, they were greeted with:
'Ah, you foreign Brothers are no good. Now, if one of
the Irish Brothers had touched the child, it would
have got better'."
In August, Mr. Ryken said farewell to Bury, farewell
for the time being. Departing with him was Brother