THE APOSTLE OF YOUTH
children, she spoke with affection and even authority to John, entering into minute, confidential details:
"Despise splendor in your works; have effective and real poverty as your object…… Have confidence in your fellow-laborers in the Lord's vineyard, but see that their aim is the glory of God…… As your Institute gloriously increases, it should increase in humility, and not esteem itself as superior to other religious houses. Each member should willingly be second to others in the wide road of charity, where there is abundant room for all. God will bless those who act thus."
More than once Margaret expressed her happiness at seeing the numbers of Don Bosco's children who now wore the soutane. "They are my children, too," she would add with a smile.
On the 25th of November the end seemed near, and the happiness of Heaven beamed upon her face. In the evening Don Bosco administered the last Sacraments to his dying mother. His grief was excessive and affected Margaret to such a degree that after the ceremony was over, and the last kiss and good-by given, she said tenderly to this favorite son: "Now, Giovanni mio, do not stay: you suffer, and it frets me."
He obeyed her, and kneeling in his own room where he could hear the murmur of prayers around her bedside, poured out his grief and tears at the foot of the crucifix. At three in the morning Joseph entered. Don Bosco arose. Joseph, with
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