Page 181 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

160 No EscAPE FRoM Loursvrr,r,E
relax. He handed over to Brother Nicholas all the mail
addressed to him unless it was strictly personal. He re-
served for his attention what concerned the missions in
England and America, Manchester and Louisville.
On December fourth, he wrote Father McElroy in
Boston, urging him to draw up immediately a conract
or at least some sort of agreement. ffe wrote out what
he had to say, but since he did nor think highly of his
command of written English, he instructed one of the
Brothers to translate it into French for despatch to
Boston.
To the Jesuit Rector he explained that a prompr re-
sponse was of the essence because an agreement should
be entered into during the absence of Bishop Malou
in Rome. Only in this way, he pointed out, no doubt
to the dismay of the forthright Father McElroy, was it
possible to forestall a protest from Bishop Spalding in
Louisville.
On the business details he was less Machiavellian:
"As for my proposition, it is very simple-$300 per
annum for each of the six Brothers for the first year and
$200 for each succeeding year. . . . Then I would expect
you to find us a house sufficiently large to allow us to
accept a certain number of postulants, with drinking
water in the house, a cellar-in a word, a suitable home."
The extra hundred dollars that he asked for the first
year, he explained, was to provide ffain fare for the
Brothers from Louisville to Boston and to take care of
the freight charges on their belongings, personal and
household. "Water in the house" was a modern im-
provement that he had first seen when he visited Boston.
When six weeks had passed with no word from Boston,
Brother Ryken wrote again on January 17, 1855: "I
would like a definite answer as soon as possible, because
if you cannot accept my proposals I shall have to write