eld her breath. Felipe was a slender man; Alessandro was much heavier,
and many inches taller. Still, could any man carry such a burden safely
on that narrow beam! Ramona looked away, and shut her eyes, through
the silence which followed. It was only a few moments; but it seemed an
eternity before a glad murmur of voices told her that it was done, and
looking up, she saw Felipe lying on the roof, unconscious, his face
white, his eyes shut. At this sight, all the servants broke out afresh,
weeping and wailing, "He is dead! He is dead!"

Ramona stood motionless, her eyes fixed on Felipe's face. She, too,
believed him dead; but her thought was of the Senora.

"He is not dead," cried Juan Canito, who had thrust his hand under
Felipe's shirt. "He is not dead. It is only a faint."

At this the first tears rolled down Ramona's face. She looked piteously
at the ladder up and down which she had seen Alessandro run as if it
were an easy indoor staircase. "If I could only get up there!" she said,
looking from one to another. "I think I can;" and she put one foot on
the lower round.

"Holy Virgin!" cried Juan Can, seeing her movement. "Senorita! Senorita!
do not attempt it. It is not too easy for a man. You will break your
neck. He is fast coming to his senses."

Alessandro caught the words. Spite of all the confusion and terror of
the scene, his heart heard the word, "Senorita." Ramona was not the
wife of Felipe, or of any man. Yet Alessandro recollected that he had
addressed her as Senora, and she did not seem surprised. Coming to the
front of the group he said, bending forward, "Senorita!" There must
have been something in the tone which made Ramona start. The simple word
could not have done it. "Senorita," said Alessandro, "it will be nothing
to bring Senor Felipe down the ladder. He is, in my arms, no more
than one of the lambs yonder. I will bring him down as soon as he is
recovered. He is better here till then. He will very soon be himself
again. It was only the heat." Seeing that the expression of anxious
distress did not grow less on Ramona's face, he continued, in a tone
still more earnest, "Will not the Senorita trust me to bring him safe
down?"

Ramona smiled faintly through her tears. "Yes," she said, "I will trust
you. You are Alessandro, are you not?"

"Yes, Senorita," he answered, greatly surprised, "I am Alessandro."

VI

A BAD beginning did not make a good ending of the Senora Moreno's
sheep-shear