of all; and though the other children were too
young to understand all that had befallen them, poor Gabriel and his
mother were so distressed that neither slept that night; and the next
morning when the little boy arose, tired out instead of rested by the
long night, he had scarcely the heart to go away to the Abbey, and leave
things so miserable at home. But his mother thought it best for him to
keep on with his work with Brother Stephen, because of the little sum he
earned; and then, too, he felt that he must do his part to help until
King Louis's book was finished. After that, he did not know what he
could do! He did not know how he could best try to take his father's
place and help the family; for, after all, he knew he was only a little
boy, and so things seemed very hopeless!

Indeed the grief and poverty that had come upon them at home made
Gabriel so sad that Brother Stephen was quite heart-broken, too, for he
deeply loved the lad. As he worked, he kept trying all the while to
think of some way to help them; but as the monk had passed all his life
within the walls of the Abbey, he knew but little of the ways of the
outside world; and he had no money of his own, or he would gladly have
paid the tax himself.

CHAPTER VI.

GABRIEL'S PRAYER

MEANTIME, though they worked quietly, they were both very industrious;
and at last one day, late in October, when the first snow was beginning
to fall, Brother Stephen finished the last page of the beautiful book.
He gave a sigh as he laid down his paintbrush; not because he was tired,
but because in his heart he was really sorry to finish his work, for he
knew that then it would soon be taken away, and he hated to part with
it.

As he and Gabriel laid all the pages together in the order in which they
were to go, brother Stephen's heart swelled with pride, and Gabriel
thought he had never seen anything half so lovely!

The text was written in beautiful letters of the lustrous black ink
which Gabriel had made; and at the beginnings of new chapters, wonderful
initial letters glittered in gold and colours till they looked like
little mosaics of precious stones.

Here and there through the text were scattered exquisite miniature
pictures of saints and angels; while as for the borders that enclosed
every page, they wreathed around the written words such lovely garlands
of painted blossoms, that to Gabriel the whole book seemed a marvellous
bouquet of all the sweet fl