THE APOSTLE OF YOUTH
this, that a person lying sick in bed for twenty-one days, almost without food, with his mind extremely enfeebled, all on a sudden recovers, understands everything, feels strong and almost able to get up, to write and to work? Yes, at this moment I feel as well as if I had never been sick at all. If any one were to ask the reason why, you might answer thus: Quod Deus imperio, tu prece Virgo potes! (What God does by His power, Thou obtainest, Virgin! by Thy intercession). This is certainly not my hour yet; it may be ere long but not now.'
"This unexpected respite in Don Bosco's illness was beyond doubt the result of many prayers offered up through Our Lady in many parts of the world. He was thus enabled to set in order many affairs, to give directions for the management of the Oratory and to decide about the personnel of our Houses."
He would often joke about his sufferings; and, alluding to his spine which bent more and more painfully, he would repeat laughingly the refrain of a Piedmontese song:
O schina, povra schina
T'as fini de portè fascina.
O back, my poor back
Thou hast ceased to bear burdens.
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast," so the poet, and his saying is confirmed by experience. Don Bosco's brethren and friends still looked
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