PREPARATION 7

and, nearer, without the help of a telescope, the
steeples or towers of no less than ninety-seven village
churches. During the days of the fall, nothing is more
striking than this immense region. The fog is then so
dense over the plain that it is transformed into the
very picture of the sea, which seems to start at one’s
feet, from the edge of the broad plateau which forms
the top of the so-called mountain, then to all appear-
ances an island in mid-ocean."!

Father Morice remained there three years, during
which time he completed his classical course, and
incidentally gave another significant token of the
great versatility which he was so persistently to
display during his whole career.

Though at times slightly at variance with the
Director of the Juniorate, young Morice was more or
less of a favourite with him. His superior therefore
procured for him a tiny printing outfit, something so
very elementary that it would have seemed almost
impossible to print a single page with it. Any printer
will understand that when he is told that the outfit
did not even comprise an inking roller! The operation
had to be done with a sort of rounded plug, which was
repeatedly stamped over the form!

Our student, however, printed a whole book there-
with, page after page—a veritable tour de force, accord-
ing to the Rt. Rev. Father Fabre, O.M.I., who saw
both the outfit and its products.

Another incident in this connection will affix the
proper mark on Father Morice’s usual way of working.
So taken up was he by his type-setting and printing
enterprise that, the first evening he undertook the
former, he forgot to go to bed until it was half-past one

1l Cf. Morice, Voyages et Aventures de Lebret.ala Haye, p. 159.
F.M.—2