re a flea. Just that and nothing more.

"But after a time all was quiet again; the houses were rebuilt and
Concha went back to Santa Barbara. By that time she knew that Rezanov
would never come, although it was several years before she had a word.
Such stories have been told that she did not know of his death for
thirty years! Did not Baranhov, Chief-manager of the Russian-Alaskan
Company up there at Sitka, send Koskov--that name was so like!--to
Bodega Bay in 1812, and would he fail to send such news with him? Was
not Dr. Langsdorff's book published in 1814? Did not Kotzbue, who was on
his excellency's staff during the embassy to Japan, come to us in 1816,
and did we not talk with him every day for a month? Did not Rezanov's
death spoil all Russia's plans in this part of the world--perhaps, who
knows? alter the course of her history? It is likely we were long
without hearing the talk of the North! Such nonsense! Yes, she knew it
soon enough, but as that good Padre Abella once said to us, she had the
making of the saint and the martyr in her, and even when she could hope
no more she did not die, nor marry some one else, nor wither up and spit
at the world. Long before the news came, indeed, she carried out a plan
she had conceived, so Padre Abella told us, even while Rezanov was yet
here. There were no convents in California in those days--you may know
what a stranded handful we were--but she joined the Tertiary or Third
Order of Franciscans, and wore always the grey habit, the girdle, and
the cross. She went among the Indians christianizing them, remaining a
long while at Soledad, a bleak and cheerless place, where she was also a
great solace to the wives of the soldiers and settlers, whose children
she taught. The Indians called her 'La Beata,' and by that name she was
known in all California until she took the veil, and that was more than
forty years later. And she was worshipped, no less. So beautiful she
was, so humble, so sweet, and at the same time so practical; she had
what the Americans call 'hard sense,' and something of Rezanov's own
way of managing people. When she made up her mind to bring a sinner or a
savage into the Church she did it. You know.

"But do not think she had her way in other things without a struggle.
Don Jose and Dona Ignacia--her mother--permitted her to enter upon the
religious life, for they understood; and Luis and Santiago made no
protest either, for they understood also and had loved