--you can if you will only learn."

"What for should I? Look you; she has a devotion for the tall one--the
boy Brown! Ah! I want him not."

Yet, notwithstanding this lack of noble ambition, Concha seemed to have
absorbed the "devotion" of the boys, big and little, and as the master
presently discovered even that of many of the adult population. There
were always loungers on the bridle path at the opening and closing
of school, and the vaquero, who now always accompanied her, became an
object of envy. Possibly this caused the master to observe him closely.
He was tall and thin, with a smooth complexionless face, but to
the master's astonishment he had the blue gray eye of the higher or
Castilian type of native Californian. Further inquiry proved that he was
a son of one of the old impoverished Spanish grant holders whose leagues
and cattle had been mortgaged to the Hoovers, who now retained the son
to control the live stock "on shares." "It looks kinder ez ef he might
hev an eye on that poorty little gal when she's an age to marry,"
suggested a jealous swain. For several days the girl submitted to her
school tasks with her usual languid indifference and did not again
transgress the ordinary rules. Nor did Mr. Brooks again refer to their
hopeless conversation. But one afternoon he noticed that in the silence
and preoccupation of the class she had substituted another volume for
her text-book and was perusing it with the articulating lips of the
unpracticed reader. He demanded it from her. With blazing eyes and
both hands thrust into her desk she refused and defied him. Mr.
Brooks slipped his arms around her waist, quietly lifted her from the
bench--feeling her little teeth pierce the back of his hand as he did
so, but secured the book. Two of the elder boys and girls had risen with
excited faces.

"Sit down!" said the master sternly.

They resumed their places with awed looks. The master examined the book.
It was a little Spanish prayer book. "You were reading this?" he said in
her own tongue.

"Yes. You shall not prevent me!" she burst out. "Mother of God! THEY
will not let me read it at the ranch. They would take it from me. And
now YOU!"

"You may read it when and where you like, except when you should be
studying your lessons," returned the master quietly. "You may keep it
here in your desk and peruse it at recess. Come to me for it then. You
are not fit to read it now."

The girl looked up with astounded eyes