Page 79 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

58 LIFE AT HET WALLETJE
signal for the Offering of Works. From the earliest days
the Three O'Clock Prayer lvas recited.
Manual labor: Nine to eleven. Seghers joined Melis
and Tomballe in the vegetable gardens which \,yere to
be the support of the house. The land had lain fallow
for several years and the house unoccupied because of
the divorce of the previous owners, so it was work and
hard work for everybody.
In the house Duchateau cooked, mended, and an-
swered the doorbell. The nearsighted Smisdon, who
once set a lamp so close to his loom that he set it on fire,
was restricted to house cleaning.
Mr. Ryken, the Superior and Novice-Master, busied
himself about rnany things-at home, in Bruges, and
throughout Belgium, Holland, and Rhineland in re-
cruiting-but he always managed to exercise a close
supervision.
After the morning work-period came spiritual reading
and the particular examen. Dinner at twelve o'clock.
The hour of recreation after the midday meal was spent
in conversation: some sat around while others walked
about the grounds.
From after recreation until six-thirty the horarium
called for manual labor, {ollowed by beads and litanies,
supper, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament,* and an hour's
i'ecreation. Night prayers at eight-thirty with each mem-
ber allowed a quarter of an hour for private devotions.
Lights out: nine o'clock.
"No food or drink was allowed between meals except
in case of illness. The quantity of food was limited, so
* In 1843, Rev. Felix Dujardin, oldest son of the banker,
obtained permission for a private domestic chapel at "Het
lValletje," for which he provided the sacred vessels and the
altar furnishings.