from Lysa, her sister-in-law, and from Friar Thomas, her first confessor. At the period in which she used largely her permission to give to the poor whatever she wished, it happened that the wine of a hogshead which the family was using at table was found to be spoiled. Catherine who in respect to wine, bread and all kinds of food, desired to give to the poor, in honor of God, what was the best in its kind, drew some good wine from another hogshead, that no one had yet touched, and distributed it daily. This cask, according to its dimensions could suffice for the family, for fifteen or twenty days, by close economising. Before the family had touched it, Catherine had distributed it plentifully during a long time — No one in the house had leave to prevent her. The one charged with the wine-cellar began also to draw from the cask for the common use, and Catherine was not at all remiss on her side; she even augmented her donations of it, presuming there would be less complaint when every one partook of it. Not only fifteen days, but twenty and even a month elapsed, without the hogshead suffering any apparent diminution in its contents. Catherine's brothers and the domestics told this to her father, and all were delighted to see the same wine answering so long the daily wants of the family. Not only it lasted well, but none of them ever remembered to have tasted any so good or so pleasant. The quantity and the quality were equally amazing. Each and all profited by it, without being capable of explaining the phenomenon; Catherine who was alone in the secret of the Benefactor, drew continually and gave to all the poor that she could find; yet the wine continued to flow, and its flavor was unchanged. A second month passed, and a third, and yet there was no difference. At length the vintage-time arrived and
