where she was welcomed with great rejoicings; but
her Indians never forgot her, and the religious who went later to share
in the labors of the mission, could bear testimony to the veneration in
which she was held among them. Nor did she lose any of the interest she
had always felt in them. She continued to pray for them, appealing
especially in their favor to her great patron, St. Francis Regis.
Moreover, she used all her influence in obtaining supplies for the
mission, sending them clothes and bed quilts, which she made herself, as
also whatever suitable articles of piety were given to her by her
friends.

At St. Charles, Mother Duchesne had the consolation of finding the
office of Superior held by Mother Regis Hamilton, the dearest of the
daughters she had trained in the way of perfection. She could no longer
do any hard work as of old, but she employed her remaining strength in
the service of God and of the community. She presided at the studies of
the children preparatory to their classes; she taught the catechism to
those of the servants who were without proper religious instruction, and
prepared them for the sacraments. She was often seen engaged in the
lighter household labors, and even in the garden when the weather was
favorable. Long after her death the nuns could point out the trees she
had planted with her own hands. We have already mentioned her occupation
in making quilts for the Indians, and the same service she rendered also
to the orphans of the St. Louis house. Her spirit of mortification
showed no decrease as she grew in years. Indeed, it seemed to have
reached the limit of possibility even from her youth, and Mother
Hamilton wisely refrained from interfering with habits which, through
long practice, had become a second nature. Many pages might be filled
with touching anecdotes illustrating her regularity, humility,
obedience, zeal, and all the religious virtues she practised in so
heroic a degree. She spent, as usual, long hours in the chapel in
prayer; and on Sundays, Feast-days, First Fridays, and all Exposition
days, she scarcely left it at all. So notable was her assiduity that the
people of the town designated her as the "Sister of the Blessed
Sacrament." Here also she was sometimes seen with a supernatural light
forming a halo around her head, or shining upon her face.

CHAPTER VII

AFFECTION FOR MOTHER BARAT

Her life, to all outward appearances, flowed on quietly enough at St.
Charle