d we were free from care. On the other hand, we
had so much to do that time sped swiftly, and though we were sometimes
tired we were never weary. The abbe made me the civil governor of the
mission, and gave orders that I should be as implicitly obeyed as himself.
My duties in this capacity, though not arduous, were interesting,
including as they did all that concerned the well-being of the people, the
maintenance of the _azequia_, and the irrigation of the oasis. My leisure
hours were spent in study, working in the abbe's laboratory, and with
Angela, who nearly always accompanied me on my excursions to the head of
the aqueduct which, as I have already mentioned was at the foot of the
snow-line, two days' journey from the valley lake.

It was during one of these excursions that we planned our new home, a
mountain nest which we would have all to ourselves, and whither at the
height of summer we might escape from the heat of the oasis, for albeit
the climate of Quipai was fine on the whole, there were times when the
temperature rose to an uncomfortable height. The spot on which we fixed
was a hollow in the hills, some two miles beyond the crater reservoir and
about eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. By tapping the
_azequia_ we turned the barren valley into a garden of roses, for in that
rainless region water was a veritable magician, whatsoever it touched it
vivified. This done we sent up timber, and built ourselves a cottage,
which we called Alta Vista, for the air was superb and the view one of the
grandest in the world.

Angela would fain have persuaded the abbe to join us; yet though I made a
well-graded road and the journey was neither long nor fatiguing he came
but seldom. He was so thoroughly acclimatized that he preferred the warmth
of San Cristobal to the freshness of Alta Vista, and the growing burden of
his years indisposed him to exertion, and made movement an effort. We
could all see, and none more clearly than himself, that the end was not
far off. He contemplated it with the fortitude of a philosopher and the
faith of a Christian. For the spiritual wants of his people he provided by
ordaining (as in virtue of his ecclesiastical rank he had the right to
do), three young men, whom he had carefully educated for the purpose; the
reins of government he gave over entirely to me.

"I have lived a long life and done a good work, and though I shall be
sorry to leave you, I am quite content to go," he sa