e to be away, I thought, that is the time; and I told
her, 'When we come back with our baby well, you shall have your little
Jesus again, too; now, Holy Mother, you go with us, and make the doctor
cure our baby!' Oh, I have heard, many times, women tell the Senora they
had done this, and always they got what they wanted. Never will she let
the Jesus be out of her arms more than three weeks before she will
grant any prayer one can make. It was that way she brought you to me,
Alessandro. I never before told you. I was afraid. I think she had
brought you sooner, but I could keep the little Jesus hid from her only
at night. In the day I could not, because the Senora would see. So she
did not miss him so much; else she had brought you quicker."

"But, Majella," said the logical Alessandro, "it was because I could not
leave my father that I did not come. As soon as he was buried, I came."

"If it had not been for the Virgin, you would never have come at all,"
said Ramona, confidently.

For the first hour of this sad journey it seemed as if the child were
really rallying; the air, the sunlight, the novel motion, the smiling
mother by her side, the big black horses she had already learned to
love, all roused her to an animation she had not shown for days. But
it was only the last flicker of the expiring flame. The eyes drooped,
closed; a strange pallor came over the face. Alessandro saw it first.
He was now walking, Ramona riding Benito. "Majella!" he cried, in a tone
which told her all.

In a second she was at the baby's side, with a cry which smote the
dying child's consciousness. Once more the eyelids lifted; she knew her
mother; a swift spasm shook the little frame; a convulsion as of
agony swept over the face, then it was at peace. Ramona's shrieks were
heart-rending. Fiercely she put Alessandro away from her, as he strove
to caress her. She stretched her arms up towards the sky. "I have killed
her! I have killed her!" she cried. "Oh, let me die!"

Slowly Alessandro turned Baba's head homeward again.

"Oh, give her to me! Let her lie on my breast! I will hold her warm!"
gasped Ramona.

Silently Alessandro laid the body in her arms. He had not spoken since
his first cry of alarm, If Ramona had looked at him, she would have
forgotten her grief for her dead child. Alessandro's face seemed turned
to stone.

When they reached the house, Ramona, laying the child on the bed, ran
hastily to a corner of the room, and lifti