Page 82 - March On! God will Provide by Brother Aubert

LrrE AT HET WALLETJE 6l

mittee for 1842, "income is one franc a day for a whole
family and still called good."
Because of the hard times the Government had re-
quested the Bishops to establish fnfant-schools in the
various parishes, and St. Giles Parish had the poorest
of the poor. The Xaverian Brothers Free Infant-School
took the place of the one Father Van Coillie would have
tried to operate. It was aided financially by a Committee
of Patronage. A lunch was provided at noontime.
The Iittle boys, ages two to six, some self-propelled
and others not so self-sufficient, arrived at "Het Walletje"
between eight and nine in the morning and remained
until five. Provision was made for an afternoon nap.
The program called for the gradual reaching of reading,
writing, ciphering, and singing
On September 20, 1843, Ryken wrote to Baroness Osy
of Drunen in North Brabant: "We have opened an
fnfant-School which counts already fifty children. . . .
It is so that our Congregation makes its way step by
step in spite of the lack of temporal means. Someiimei
I have to catch pyself from crying out: 'Lord, Thy ways
are inscrutable 'but they are always adorable.",
In his interview with Bishop Rosati in St. Louis,
Theodore Ryken had assured His Excellency rhar he
would provide teaching-Brothers for the deaf and dumb
and that his men would be rained by his good friend,
Father Martin Van Beek who had devised in excellent
method of instruction.
In September, 1843, Tomballe and Van den Boorn
left-"Het-Wall-etje" to begin a two-year course o[ training
under this Father Van Beek at his Institure for the DeaI
and Dumb in North Brabant. Ordained in 1821, Father
Van Beek had been assigned to Gemert where his pastor
induced him to do something for the deaf and iumb.
Reluctantly the priest made a starr in 1828 and on l,
July