for? Once, but once, since the long journey and the finding of
that bad Antonio came she to Pedro's hut. Give back the basket. For
her, of the bright hair, it is; my finest, and, maybe, my last. Why
not? Yet still again I will keep the fiesta, si. The child. Many have
I loved, but none like my little maid. The basket."

This was a long speech for the silent dweller on the mesa, and there
was more of anger in his usually calm eyes than Samson had never seen
there, as he rose and extended his skinny hands for his treasure.

The herder restored it, his heart growing heavier as he did so.

"Think fast, good Pedro. The old are wise, and hark ye! These many
hours the child is from home. The mistress--you love her?"

"She is my mistress," answered the shepherd, in a tone which conveyed
all his deep feeling. To him his "mistress" represented a material
Providence. From her hand came all the simple necessaries of his life.
From her, on the approaching nativity, would also come some things
which were not necessaries, but infinitely more precious to the
centenarian than such could be. On the nativity he would be sent, upon
the gentlest mount his lady owned, to the mission service which he
loved. Thereafter he would ride back to Sobrante, his own priest
beside him, to feast his fill on such food as he tasted but once a
year. At nightfall of that blessed day he would gather the ranchmen
about him, in that old corridor where once he had seen the ancient
padres walk, breviary in hand, and tell his marvelous tales of the
days when the land was new, when whole tribes of redfaces came to be
taught at the padres' feet, and when the things which now were had not
been dreamed of. Some who listened to these Christmas stories believed
that the secrets at which the shepherd hinted were vagaries of his
enfeebled mind, but others, and among them Samson, gave credence to
them, and yearly did their best to worm from him their explanation.

That mention of the "mistress" had touched him, also, to anxiety, and
he motioned the herder to repeat his statement. He then straightened
himself to almost the erectness of the younger man, and begun at once
to gather his rushes and rap them carefully in a moistened cloth. With
an expressive gesture toward his cabin, he suggested that Samson was
free to enter it and provide such entertainment for himself as he
chose, or could find. And so well did the herder know the shepherd
that he fully understood this