hen he led Father Gaspara into his and Ramona's
bedroom. The clean whitewashed walls, the bed neatly made, with broad
lace on sheets and pillows, hung with curtains and a canopy of bright
red calico, the old carved chairs, the Madonna shrine in its bower of
green leaves, the shelves on the walls, the white-curtained window,--all
made up a picture such as Father Gaspara had never before seen in
his pilgrimages among the Indian villages. He could not restrain an
ejaculation of surprise. Then his eye falling on the golden rosary, he
exclaimed, "Where got you that?"

"It is my wife's," replied Alessandro, proudly. "It was given to her by
Father Salvierderra."

"Ah!" said the Father. "He died the other day."

"Dead! Father Salvierderra dead!" cried Alessandro. "That will be a
terrible blow. Oh, Father, I implore you not to speak of it in her
presence. She must not know it till after the christening. It will make
her heart heavy, so that she will have no joy."

Father Gaspara was still scrutinizing the rosary and crucifix. "To be
sure, to be sure," he said absently; "I will say nothing of it; but this
is a work of art, this crucifix; do you know what you have here? And
this,--is this not an altar-cloth?" he added, lifting up the beautiful
wrought altar-cloth, which Ramona, in honor of his coming, had pinned on
the wall below the Madonna's shrine.

"Yes, Father, it was made for that. My wife made it. It was to be a
present to Father Salvierderra; but she has not seen him, to give it to
him. It will take the light out of the sun for her, when first she hears
that he is dead."

Father Gaspara was about to ask another question, when Ramona appeared
in the doorway, flushed with running. She had carried the baby over to
Juana's and left her there, that she might be free to serve the Father's
supper.

"I pray you tell her not," said Alessandro, under his breath; but it
was too late. Seeing the Father with her rosary in his hand, Ramona
exclaimed:--

"That, Father, is my most sacred possession. It once belonged to Father
Peyri, of San Luis Rey, and he gave it to Father Salvierderra, who gave
it to me, Know you Father Salvierderra? I was hoping to hear news of him
through you."

"Yes, I knew him,--not very well; it is long since I saw him," stammered
Father Gaspara. His hesitancy alone would not have told Ramona
the truth; she would have set that down to the secular priest's
indifference, or hostility, to the Franciscan or