e women and
children gathered together, waiting for us. As soon as they saw us they
burst out weeping and lamenting, for, by our manner, they knew our padre
was gone. Silently we turned loose our horses, and went back to our old
life and work, but with sorrow in our hearts. That is all, Senor."

I had listened to the old man with great and constantly increasing
interest, and long before he had finished, found myself with brush held
idly in my hand. He had told his story with simple earnestness, crossed,
now and then, with deep emotion, as his love for the Franciscan father,
and sorrow at his loss, came to the surface. After an interval of
silence, I asked him if he had ever heard of the padre since that day.

"Only two or three times," he answered. "A few months afterward we had
news of him from Mexico; he was then about to return to Spain. Two years
after we heard he was at his old home and, a little later, that he was
gone to Rome. Some one told us he lived there till his death, but we
never knew positively."

Padre Peyri is one of the most picturesque figures in California's
mission history: the zeal he showed in calling his mission into
existence; the intensity of enthusiasm with which he labored for it; his
long career of usefulness; the love the neophytes had for him; his
agony at the ruthless destruction of the missions--too great for him
to endure, old and feeble as he then was growing; and his dramatic
departure, hastening away under cover of the night, to escape the
importunities of his devoted flock: all this had been pictured with keen
clearness in the old Indian's simple tale.

I thanked him for his story as he rose to go. Wishing me "adios" with
grave politeness, he walked slowly away, and left me to dream of the old
mission times, full of color and romance, which have given so much to
the present day, until the sun sinking behind the hills in the west
recalled me to myself and my surroundings.

I fear I shall never again see Pala; but I shall not forget its charm
and beauty, the quaint old campanario and near-by buildings, and, above
all, Antonio, the Indian, and his tale of mission life in the old days.

Father Zalvidea's Money

Father Zalvidea was in despair! After having lived for twenty years
at Mission San Gabriel, devoting himself all that time to bringing the
mission to a condition of so great size and wealth that it took its
place at the head of nearly all of the missions of Nueva C