in.

"Are these thy parents little one?" asked Crescimir tenderly; the
Christchild shook his head negatively and broke into hysterical sobs.

Though the Christchild had denied that these were the bodies of his
parents, both Jovita, her mother and Crescimir felt certain that they
were.

Crescimir remained that night at the Tulucay hacienda and early next
morning the bodies were taken to the village and given burial in
consecrated ground, as the cross which the woman wore and a medal of
silver which the man carried showed them to be of the true church.

After the burial Crescimir returned to the rancheria. "I will be thy
father now, little Christchild," said he as they stood at the well with
Jovita, who had been filling the little olla for her mother's night
drink.

The child looked up with a pleased smile and then turning to Jovita,
asked with his bright eyes a question which words could not better have
expressed.

Jovita replied softly as she looked down at the strange, wistful face,
and felt the touch of Crescimir's hand on her own, "And I thy mother."

[Illustration: Scroll]

[Illustration: Scroll]

IV.

By the beginning of summer Crescimir's place had all been restored and
the house rebuilt on the summit of the knoll, far away from any danger
of another flood.

It was a pretty cottage now, in the new, American style with a
trellis-porch over which passion vines spread in the profusion of first
growth. The flower garden and the long lines and square beds of the
vegetable garden looked fresh and bright down by the arroyo.

The house had been completed by the middle of January and Crescimir by
careful and steady work had brought back his fields to their former
state. The Christchild still lived with him, always as merry as the day
was long. He was, as on the night of his arrival, still dressed in his
little, white frock or shirt of strange texture, and he would wear
nothing else, not even shoes.

Jovita's mother had, however, once made for him a suit, but when she
tried to have him put it on, he objected so strenuously that the project
had to be abandoned, for not even Crescimir's will, which usually was
all that was needed on such occasions, had not in this case any power at
all; so he ran quite wild about the gardens, the same pretty, little elf
as ever.

He was extremely fond of the water and paddled in the arroyo all day
long, so that even the little frock was for the greater time
superfl