his hands
clasped, his face set. Hour after hour, night and day, indoors and out,
he bore her in his arms, trying to give her relief. Prayer after prayer
to the Virgin, to the saints, Ramona had said; and candles by the dozen,
though money was now scant, she had burned before the Madonna; all in
vain. At last she implored Alessandro to go to San Bernardino and see a
doctor. "Find Aunt Ri," she said; "she will go with you, with Jos, and
talk to him; she can make him understand. Tell Aunt Ri she seems just as
she did when they were here, only weaker and thinner."

Alessandro found Aunt Ri in a sort of shanty on the outskirts of San
Bernardino. "Not to rights yit," she said,--as if she ever would be.
Jeff had found work; and Jos, too, had been able to do a little on
pleasant days. He had made a loom and put up a loom-house for his
mother,--a floor just large enough to hold the loom, rough walls, and
a roof; one small square window,--that was all; but if Aunt Ri had
been presented with a palace, she would not have been so well pleased.
Already she had woven a rag carpet for herself, was at work on one for
a neighbor, and had promised as many more as she could do before spring;
the news of the arrival of a rag-carpet weaver having gone with despatch
all through the lower walks of San Bernardino life. "I wouldn't hev
bleeved they hed so many rags besides what they're wearin'," said Aunt
Ri, as sack after sack appeared at her door. Already, too, Aunt Ri
had gathered up the threads of the village life; in her friendly,
impressionable way she had come into relation with scores of people, and
knew who was who, and what was what, and why, among them all, far better
than many an old resident of the town.

When she saw Benito galloping up to her door, she sprang down from
her high stool at the loom, and ran bareheaded to the gate, and before
Alessandro had dismounted, cried: "Ye're jest the man I wanted; I've
been tryin' to 'range it so's we could go down 'n' see yer, but Jeff
couldn't leave the job he's got; an' I'm druv nigh abaout off my feet,
'n' I donno when we'd hev fetched it. How's all? Why didn't yer come in
ther wagon 'n' fetch 'em 'long? I've got heaps ter tell yer. I allowed
yer hadn't got the rights o' all them things. The Guvvermunt ain't on
the side o' the thieves, as yer said. I knowed they couldn't be,' an'
they've jest sent out a man a purpose to look after things fur yer,--to
take keer o' the Injuns 'n' nothin' e