solely for gold!"

He folded the letter and looked out through the rear door to where
Carmen sat, teaching Cucumbra a new trick. He realized then that never
before had he been so far from the Holy Catholic faith as at that
moment. And Carmen--

"Good God!" he muttered, as his eyes rested upon the child. "If the
Church should get possession of Carmen, what would it do with her?
Would it not set its forces to work to teach her that evil is a
reality--that it is as powerful as good--that God formed man and the
universe out of dust--that Jesus came down from a starry heaven that
he might die to appease the wrath of a man-like Father--that Mary
pleads with the Lord and Jesus, and by her powerful logic induces them
to spare mankind and grant their foolish desires--all the dribble and
rubbish of outlandish theology that has accumulated around the nucleus
of pure Christianity like a gathering snowball throughout the ages! To
make the great States up north dominantly Catholic, Rome must--simply
_must_--have the children to educate, that she may saturate their
absorbent minds with these puerile, undemonstrable, pagan beliefs
before the child has developed its own independent thought. How wise
is she--God, how worldly wise and cunning! And I still her priest--"

Carmen came bounding in, followed pellmell by Cucumbra. Cantar-las-horas
stalked dignifiedly after her, and stopped at the threshold, where he
stood with cocked head and blinking eyes, wondering what move his
animated young mistress would make next.

"Padre!" she exclaimed, "the sun is down, and it is time for our
walk!"

She seized his hand and drew him out into the road. The play of her
expression as she looked up and laughed into his face was like the
dance of sunbeams on moving water. They turned down the narrow street
which led to the lake. As was her wont, in every object about her, in
every trifling event, the child discovered rich treasures of
happiness. The pebbles which she tossed with her bare toes were mines
of delight. The pigs, which turned up their snouts expectantly as she
stooped to scratch their dusty backs--the matronly hens that followed
clucking after her--the black babies that toddled out to greet the
_Cura_--all yielded a wealth of delight and interest. She seemed to
Jose to uncover joy by a means not unlike the divining rod, which
points to hidden gold where to the eye there is naught but barren
ground.

Near the margin of the lake they stop