children are sometimes detected trying to imitate the doings of their favorite story-book characters, so we are not surprised to find the little Spanish girl inciting her younger brother to run away with her to undergo martyrdom in the country of the Moors.
“I had a brother,” wrote Theresa, in describing this childish experience, “about my own age, to whom, though I loved all the others much, I bore especial affection. We delighted in hearing the lives of the saints; and when we saw what tortures they endured for the love of God, it seemed to me that all this was as nothing to give for the enjoyment of Him. . . . My brother and I often discoursed together upon the matter, and at last we agreed that we would go into the country of the Moors, asking alms, that so we might come to be beheaded.”
Thus when only seven years of age, these two little mites toddled off to a distant country to die for their religion; but like many other imaginative children, they were brought home in disgrace before they had passed beyond the city walls. They were grievously disappointed