Let us return to the first day that the nuns returned to St. Charles after leaving the cabin almost ten years earlier. The Jesuits may have urged them to come back, but they did not seem to think to prepare the log cabin or even to clean it up for them!
"We commenced first by sweeping the part destined for the recitation of prayers,then-little by little-all the house. But cleaning up, on the other hand, we fell into a new embarrassment, for the rats (who is such filth found an abundance of food) gave us no peace. They walked abroad in our midst in full daylight, and came at night to give us sweet kisses.
As to our furniture, it was in harmony with the hourse; we had no beds, and were obliged to sleep on the floor. We took an old carpet from the Chrusch to serve as bed covering; but the dust and the fleas with which it was filled did not allow us a moment's rest.
The day after the nun's arrival was to be the consecration of the new church. The bishop and twelve priests said their holy office in the nuns' log cabin the night before since they could not enter the church until it had been consecrated. The next day mass was offered nine times in the cabin. Mother O'Connor has all she could do chasing rats all the time she was serving!"
Tomorrow we will finish with an account of the consecration of the church and some mistakes made that now seem funny to us, but I suspect made the Religious feel silly.
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