L'hoir then began to send anybody with difficulties to me, and God gave me grace to settle them.

Then murmurs arose that he was too much under my influence, and he was removed from his position over the studies.

But afterwards they replaced him; he was very efficient in his place." The confidence of his superiors in Brother Hecker was shown by their causing him to receive tonsure and minor orders at the end of his first year at Wittem, though he had made no progress whatever in his studies.
The following notes are found in the memoranda: "The time in my whole life when I felt I had gained the greatest victory by self-exertion was when, after weeks of labor, I was able to recite the _Pater Noster_ in Latin.
"My memory finally failed me in my studies to that degree that at last I took all my books up-stairs to the library and told the prefect of studies I could do no more to acquire knowledge by study.
"_Question._ How long were you unable to study?
_Answer._ Two years in Holland and one year in England.

I never went to class those years.

I was a kind of a scandal, of course, in the house.