CHAPTER XXII
DON BOSCO IN FRANCE
Up to his last years, Don Bosco was accustomed to visit regularly his institutions in France. They had no revenue except public charity; and the Fathers confessed that each visit of his was to them a harvest while everywhere he enlisted new Co-operators. His life during these visitations was full of activity. After his Mass and breakfast the house was crowded with visitors, whom he received till midday. Dinner over, he again gave audiences, generally from one o'clock till eight. He took his meals with the community, where he was always cheerful and witty. After supper he attended to his correspondence; the mail brought him daily a hundred letters or more, and he scrupulously endeavored to answer all. An Italian and a French secretary read to him the letters ordinarily, and received his instructions as to the answers, which were read aloud to him the next morning and signed by him. He was consulted by persons of all ranks on the most diverse subjects, for his judgment was regarded with unlimited confidence. He retired at eleven o'clock, to spend, no doubt, hours of prayer and close union with the Holy Spirit after the long day of labor for God's glory. From his seminary life he had limited his hours of sleep to five. "My mother taught me to
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