Page 53 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

TO AMERICA AGAIN 33

a cellar or in a garret; but, gentlemen, whether I come
up from a cellar or down from a garret, you must re-
member that I am still your bishop."
The valiant Dubois was not in the least hesitant about
being the first to approve the Ryken plan. A world of
hard experience had made him an independent thinker.
He had been the good friend and counsellor of another
Founder, Mother Seton of the Sisters of Charity. Like
Ryken he had once started a dream-project on nothing.
As the founder of Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg,
Maryland, he had developed that institution from a
collection of log huts to a group of worthwhile build-
ings, and he had seen what Ryken had never seen: the
new Mt. St. Mary's had burned to the ground the day
he was to take possession.
The Dubois letter of approval is dated November 8,
1837, and reads in part: "A good Brother named Theo-
dore Ryken provided with a letter of recommendation
from the Bishop of Bruges, has presented me with a
plan for the Christian and free education of youth and
has requested my approbation for the formation of
similar establishments in my diocese. Such intentions,
so pious and advantageous to the glory of God and the
salvation of souls, I can only approve."
Mr. Ryken's trip to the United States was a success.
He had "the written approval of one or other of the
bishops of the States."
But Mr. Ryken did not start for home. Instead he
left almost immediately for the West. By November
l3th, he had reached Rochester, N. Y., and interviewed
Father Prost, a Redemptorist: "I promise," wrote Father
Prost, "to this same foundation, inasmuch as in me lies,
to furnish every assistance consonant with the obedience
I owe my Superiors. Furthermore, I promise especially
to do everything in my power to bring about, that my