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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.
"I would like to see it, Alessandro," she said gently. "Oh, no, no, Majella!" he cried; "you would not. It is terrible; the houses all unroofed, all but my father's and Jose's. They were shingled roofs; they will be just the same; all the rest are only walls. Antonio's mother threw hers down; I don't know how the old woman ever had the strength; they said she was like a fury.
An old woman, a Gabrieleno, who came over to Temecula, told me she saw that. She lived at the Mission herself. The Indians did not all want to come to the Missions; some of them preferred to stay in the woods, and live as they always had lived; and I think they had a right to do that if they preferred, Majella.
Alessandro flung himself on his knees before her, and cried: "My Majella! my Majella! it seems to me I am going mad! I cannot tell what to do. I do not know what I think; all my thoughts seem whirling round as leaves do in brooks in the time of the spring rains. Do you think I can be going mad? It was enough to make me!" Ramona, her own heart wrung with fear, soothed him as best she could.
One man in San Bernardino last year, when an Indian would not take a bottle of sour wine for pay for a day's work, shot him in the cheek with his pistol, and told him to mind how he was insolent any more! Oh, Majella, do not ask me to go work in the towns! I should kill some man, Majella, if I saw things like that." Ramona shuddered, and was silent.
I don't care where! anywhere, so it is not here!" she cried. "Would Majella be afraid, now, on the high mountain, the place I told her of?" he said. "No!" she replied earnestly. "No! I am afraid of nothing! Only take me away!" A gleam of wild delight flitted across Alessandro's face. "It is well," he said. "My Majella, we will go to the mountain; we will be safe there."
Late into the night, Alessandro and Ramona sat by their sleeping baby and discussed what should be her name. Ramona wondered that Alessandro did not wish to name her Majella. "No! Never but one Majella," he said, in a tone which gave Ramona a sense of vague fear, it was so solemn. They discussed "Ramona," "Isabella." Alessandro suggested Carmena. This had been his mother's name.
This is our first home, my Majella," he added, in a tone almost solemn; and throwing his arms around her, he drew her to his breast, with the first feeling of joy he had experienced. "I wish we could live here always," cried Ramona. "Would Majella be content?" said Alessandro. "Very," she answered. He sighed. "There would not be land enough, to live here," he said.
Jeff, seeing him take a hatchet from the wagon, had understood, got his own, and followed; and now there lay on the ground enough to keep them warm for hours. As soon as Alessandro had thrown down his load, he darted to Ramona, and kneeling down, looked anxiously into the baby's face, then into hers; then he said devoutly, "The saints be praised, my Majella! It is a miracle!"
"What does Majella think would become of one Indian, or two, alone among whites? If they will come to our villages and drive us out a hundred at a time, what would they do to one man alone? Oh, Majella is foolish!" "But there are many of your people at work for whites at San Bernardino and other places," she persisted. "Why could not we do as they do?"
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