128 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 



as it rains too fast to go out. Mamma has kindly lent me 

 her notes, which I will read to you, if you will call Mary 

 and Frederick, as I should like them both to hear the biog- 

 raphy of St. Vincent; for no one carried philanthropy to the 

 extent which he did, and his life is a bright example of the 

 good which a simple individual may do to his fellow crea- 

 tures, without any assistance but that of virtue, and the bless- 

 ing of Heaven upon his endeavors. 



Henrietta having returned with her cousins, Esther began 

 her narrative. 



ESTHER. 



Vincent de Paul was born at the close of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury,* in the obscure village of Pouy, near Dax, in the 

 centre of those sandy tracts which are known under the 

 name of the Landes. 



HENRIETTA. 



That is the country where the people walk upon stilts, is it 

 not] 



ESTHER. 



It is; for were they not to adopt this expedient, they would be 

 unable to traverse these sandy tracts, where they sink at every 

 step which they take. But to return to our biography. 



His parents were poor labourers, and Vincent spent his 

 early years in tending his father's flock, a fit preparation for 

 those pastoral duties which Providence had designed him to 

 perform. The house in which he lived was afterwards con- 

 verted into a chapel, which even revolutionary fury knew how 

 to respect; and near it, stands an ancient oak, under which, 

 tradition relates, that the youthful shepherd loved to recline, 

 and which was often perhaps the scene of his early benevolence; 

 for, even at that period of his life, he gave " according to his 

 ability," and would cheerfully endure the calls of hunger in 

 order to bestow his scanty meal upon the first beggar whom 



* In 1574. 



