The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, 28 September 1911, Page 1892

The Storyteller

A FRIEND INDEED (Concluded from last week.) I was in Colorado Springs last month,’ she said. Her voice was like music. On the nineteenth he queried. ‘ I went away that night.’* It was that afternoon I caught it.’ You must send it to me,’ she spoke as one used to being obeyed, ‘ my mother would not wish a stranger to have my picture.’ Of course,’ he acquiesced meekly, inwardly determining it should be taken, not sent. She gave him her card and he asked if he might offer one of his own. They left the church together, and as she turned in the direction he intended to go, he did not see, so long as she did not object, that it was necessary for him to change his path. They talked of the joys of the Springs and found they had several mutual acquaintances, and it seemed to him but a moment before she stopped and said, ‘ This is where my mother and I live.’ ‘lt is just a little way from the church isn’t it?’ his tone suggested a grievance. ‘ Nearly a mile,’ was her reply. ‘Do you go to St. Anthony’s regularly ?’ ~ He hesitated. ‘Yes, I live in- the parish.’ Why not be bold ? He would see that priest this very day, he would go regularly enough hereafter. ‘Don’t forget the picture;’ she was gone with the words. Forget? No danger, he did not know what had happened to him, but he knew, the picture was in his heart and would be always. He tried to write to Barney and failed miserably, so gave it up and went to call upon Father Steele* pastor of St. Anthony’s, who received him most graciously and listened as patiently as Marie Annunciata to his story. He told the priest of his going West with nothing but his name to indicate he had ever belonged to anybody, of his childhood, and early struggles to take care of himself, of Marie Annunciata’s introducing him to S. Anthony and something of the way in which the good saint had befriended him ; he even told of the homesick feeling the Mass gave him and Father Steele seemed to understand. Before he left he had arranged to begin receiving instructions preparatory to making his First Communion. ‘ I think I ought to tell- you, Father,’ he said as he rose to go, ‘ that there’s a girl in it.’ Father Steele laughed and gave the young man’s broad shoulder a gentle slap, ‘ Mr. Carey, there very often is a girl in it, and it’s not a little thing for a man to have his Faith strengthened through the love of a good woman.’ _ That young Mr. Carey lost no time in presenting himself at the Farquir home, armed with the picture and personal credentials of such value that Dulcinea’s mother could not but he favorably impressed by them is a matter of course. When he told that lady and her daughter about Marie Annunciata and St. Anthony there were tears in Mrs. Farquir’s eyes and in Miss Mary s but presumably it was Miss Mary’s tears that made him resolve more earnestly than before that he would thank St. Anthony for his friendship by striving with all his might to be worthy of the great things it had brought him. 5 . Ifc was some months later, after he had been received once more by Holy Church, and had again acquired control of his beloved picture and the right to address the original as Mary, that he said to Marie Annunciata, ‘ Signonna, your St. Anthony has done everything you said he would and more too/ ask Marie * ‘ he V6ry gOod to H who • i e S^ re * s ’ ear > but what about your other saint, St. Joseph? I want to know him too St Anthony found my Faith for me what will* St. Josenh" do for me if I ask him V ‘ ose P“ ; St Joseph will help you to keep it, always ’ said Mane Annunciata,— Extension ’