edless and as lacking in foresight as children, and did not know how
to take care of themselves. Many of them fell sick of throat and lung
diseases, and nearly one hundred of them died, in spite of the best
efforts of the Fathers and the nuns. During this time Mother Duchesne
was very assiduous in her care of them, visiting them in their miserable
huts, assisting and consoling them in their sufferings, and helping them
to die piously. At the same time she prayed ardently for these dear
children of her heart. They were touched beyond measure and would have
laid down their lives for her. To give expression to their gratitude and
admiration, they offered her the best things they could find--living
birds, which they trapped, meat from their hunting, dried pumpkin, ears
of new corn, when it was in season, and eggs from the nests of the
prairie hens. They were delighted when they could offer these gifts to
the "Great Queen of the Great Spirit," as they called her. The other
nuns were "Queens of the Great Spirit," she was the "Great Queen." But
they also had another name for her. They were struck with her appearance
in prayer, and impressed by her intense recollection and the length of
time she devoted to it. As her weakness increased so that she was
compelled to give up her active work by degrees, she prolonged her
prayer, spending many hours every day before the Blessed Sacrament, in
her well-known motionless attitude. The Indians seeing her thus were
filled with awe, and looking upon her as a being more than human, they
called her by a name which meant "the woman who always prays." They
would steal up to her, and kneeling down they would reverently kiss the
hem of her dress, and then withdraw as noiseless as shadows, fearing to
disturb her communings with the Great Spirit. Mother de Galitzin found
her very much prostrated when she visited the mission, in the spring of
1842, but seeing her so happy where she was, she had not the heart to
remove her. Four months later, however, Bishop Peter Richard Kenrick,
Coadjutor of St. Louis, having arrived there for his pastoral
visitation, and finding her so exhausted, declared that to leave her
there would be to condemn her to a speedy death, and resolved to take
her back with him. This was the matter of a heroic sacrifice on her
part, especially as she herself did not realize its necessity; but
seeing that his mind was made up, she obeyed with a good grace. He took
her to St. Charles,