country. And if Jake could induce this handsomest squaw
he had ever seen, to come and live with him in a smaller fashion, he
would consider himself a lucky man, and also think he was doing a good
thing for the squaw. It was all very clear and simple in his mind;
and when, seeing Ramona walking alone in the village one morning, he
overtook her, and walking by her side began to sound her on the
subject, he had small misgivings as to the result. Ramona trembled as he
approached her. She walked faster, and would not look at him; but he, in
his ignorance, misinterpreted these signs egregiously.

"Are you married to your husband?" he finally said. "It is but a poor
place he gives you to live in. If you will come and live with me, you
shall have the best house in the valley, as good as the Ravallos';
and--" Jake did not finish his sentence. With a cry which haunted
his memory for years, Ramona sprang from his side as if to run; then,
halting suddenly, she faced him, her eyes like javelins, her breath
coming fast. "Beast!" she said, and spat towards him; then turned and
fled to the nearest house, where she sank on the floor and burst into
tears, saying that the man below there in the road had been rude to her.
Yes, the women said, he was a bad man; they all knew it. Of this Ramona
said no word to Alessandro. She dared not; she believed he would kill
Jake.

When the furious Jake confided to his friend Merrill his repulse, and
the indignity accompanying it, Merrill only laughed at him, and said: "I
could have told you better than to try that woman. She's married, fast
enough. There's plenty you can get, though, if you want 'em. They're
first-rate about a house, and jest's faithful's dogs. You can trust 'em
with every dollar you've got."

From this day, Ramona never knew an instant's peace or rest till she
stood on the rim of the refuge valley, high on San Jacinto. Then, gazing
around, looking up at the lofty pinnacles above, which seemed to pierce
the sky, looking down upon the world,--it seemed the whole world,
so limitless it stretched away at her feet,--feeling that infinite
unspeakable sense of nearness to Heaven, remoteness from earth which
comes only on mountain heights, she drew in a long breath of delight,
and cried: "At last! at last, Alessandro! Here we are safe! This is
freedom! This is joy!"

"Can Majella be content?" he asked.

"I can almost be glad, Alessandro!" she cried, inspired by the glorious
scene. "I dr