Page 81 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

60 LIFE AT HET WALLETJE
Brothers worked their way into teaching catechism to
the boys of St. Giles' parish who were preparing for
First Communion.
Hard as the life was at "Het Walletje" candidates
kept coming, and several of them remained. In 1842
appeared Hubert Thyssens and his cousin, Michael
Van den Boorn, both from Gronsfeld, Holland; Peter
Lucas, a native of Stokkem, Belgium, but more recently
a resident of St. Trond; Francis X. Dondorft from Aix-
Ia-Chapelle (Aachen) West Germany. All but Thyssens
persevered, and he would have remained except that
Mr. Ryken insisted on his leaving. The Superior had
some qualms dbout Thyssen's lack of judgment, but he
was aghast at what happened when he assigned this
young man to prune some fruit trees. Thyssens pruned
so drastically that all he left was the trunk of the tree
and the main branches.
Again in 1843, the dauntless Ryken accepted four
more candidates. Two proved invincible: Adrian Van
Ravels and Peter Schmitt at whose father's house in
Antwerp, Mr. Ryken had stayed in August, 1828, on
his return from Rome. Master Schmitt was only ten
at the time, but even then he felt drawn to Ryken.
With the acceptance of Peter Schmitt, Ryken had his
twelve apostles: three Belgians, one German, and eight
Hollanders.
In 1843 he opened at "flet Walletje" the Xaverian
Brothers Free Infant-School and not long afterwards a
pay-school. He was not happy at being involved in an
Infant-School but he felt that conducting this school
was an act of charity for the parishioners of St. Giles.
Beginning in the mid Eighteen-thirties, unemploy-
ment had been worsening all over Flanders. "In gen-
eral," according to the Report of the Investigating Com-