On three sides of a broad, open court are the lonesome cloisters in which the Monks knelt in their ceaseless prayers.
The chapel floor is a little higher than the court and cloisters, and is paved with bricks.
It wuz at this very convent door that Columbus arrived heart-sore and weary after seven years' fruitless labor in the cause he held so clost to his heart.
Seven long years that he had spent beggin' and importunin' for help to carry out his Heaven-sent visions.
A livin' light shinin' in his sad eyes, and he couldn't git anybody else to see it.
The constant washin' of new seas on new shores, and he couldn't git anybody to hear 'em.
A constant glow, prophetic and ardent, longin' to carry the religion of Christ into a new land that he knew wuz a-waitin' him, but everybody else deaf and dumb to his heart-sick longin's.
Oh, I thought to myself as I stood there, if that poor creeter could only had a few of the gorgeous banners that wuz waved out to the air, enough to clothe an army; if he could have only had enough of 'em to made him a hull shirt; if he could have had enough of the banquets spread to his memory, enough to feed all the armies of the earth; if he could have a slice of bread and a good cup of tea out of 'em, how glad I would be, and how glad he would have been!