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Updated: May 20, 2025
The ruins of the old Mission buildings were sad to see, but the human ruins were sadder. Now Felipe understood why Father Salvierderra's heart had broken, and why his mother had been full of such fierce indignation against the heretic usurpers and despoilers of the estates which the Franciscans once held.
But she wrestled with this absorbing grief as with a sin; setting her will steadfastly to the purposes of each day's duty, and, most of all, to the duty of joyfulness. She repeated to herself Father Salvierderra's sayings, till she more than knew them by heart; and she spent long hours of the night in prayer, as it had been his wont to do. No one but Felipe dreamed of these vigils and wrestlings.
Juan Canito had been right in his sudden surmise that it was for Father Salvierderra's coming that the sheep-shearing was being delayed, and not in consequence of Senor Felipe's illness, or by the non-appearance of Luigo and his flock of sheep.
"There is another shearing yet, Father," he began, "at the Ortega's ranch. I had promised to go to them as soon as I had finished here, and they have been wroth enough with us for the delay already. It will not do to break the promise, Father." Father Salvierderra's face fell. "No, my son, certainly not," he said; "but could no one else take your place with the band?"
Barely replying to the greeting, Felipe exclaimed: "Father, I come seeking Ramona. Has she not been with you?" Father Salvierderra's face was reply to the question. "Ramona!" he cried. "Seeking Ramona! What has befallen the blessed child?" It was a bitter story for Felipe to tell; but he told it, sparing himself no shame.
Long before Father Gaspara visited San Pasquale again, Alessandro and Ramona were far away, and strangers were living in their home. It seemed to Ramona in after years, as she looked back over this life, that the news of Father Salvierderra's death was the first note of the knell of their happiness.
In the first days Ramona herself had guilelessly told him much, had told him how Alessandro, seeing her trying to sprinkle and bathe and keep alive the green ferns with which she had decorated the chapel for Father Salvierderra's coming, had said: "Oh, Senorita, they are dead! Do not take trouble with them!
"I wonder what he is going to do there," she thought. "He can't be going to cut willows;" and her eyes followed him till he disappeared among the trees. Ramona was not the only one who saw this. Margarita, looking from the east window of Father Salvierderra's room, saw the same thing.
"It is well," he said, in the brief phrase so frequent with his people. "It is well." And with a reverent inclination of his head, he walked away. Margarita, still dawdling surlily over her work in Father Salvierderra's room, heard Alessandro's voice, and running to discover to whom he was speaking, caught these last, words.
"Do you know where Margarita is?" said Ramona. "In Father Salvierderra's room, or else in the kitchen helping Marda," replied the Senora, in a whisper. "I told her to help Marda with the peppers this morning." Ramona nodded, returned to the veranda, and sat down to decide on her course of action. Then she rose again, and going to Father Salvierderra's room, looked in.
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