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Updated: June 16, 2025
He could not restrain an ejaculation of surprise. Then his eye falling on the golden rosary, he exclaimed, "Where got you that?" "It is my wife's," replied Alessandro, proudly. "It was given to her by Father Salvierderra." "Ah!" said the Father. "He died the other day." "Dead! Father Salvierderra dead!" cried Alessandro. "That will be a terrible blow.
Do you believe it?" "The old woman laughed when she told it," he answered. "She said it was a joke; so I think it was true. I know I would have killed the man who tried to crop my ears that way." "Did you ever tell that to Father Salvierderra?" asked Ramona. "No, Majella. It would not be polite," said Alessandro. "Well, I don't believe it," replied Ramona, in a relieved tone.
With trembling hands she wrote him a letter, imploring him to be brought to her, and sent it by messenger, who was empowered to hire a litter and four men to bring the Father gently and carefully all the way. But when the messenger reached Santa Barbara, Father Salvierderra was too feeble to be moved; too feeble even to write.
When the hymn ended, she listened eagerly, hoping Father Salvierderra would strike up a second hymn, as he often did; but he did not this morning; there was too much to be done; everybody was in a hurry to be at work: windows shut, doors opened; the sounds of voices from all directions, ordering, questioning, answering, began to be heard.
"Ha!" he said, "Father Salvierderra comes next month, does he? Let's see. To-day is the 25th. That's it. The sheep-shearing is not to come off till the Father gets here. Then each morning it will be mass in the chapel, and each night vespers; and the crowd will be here at least two days longer to feed, for the time they will lose by that and by the confessions. That's what Senor Felipe is up to.
And long before he had become a man he had acquired the habit of keeping to himself most of the things he thought and felt about his little playmate sister, a dangerous habit, out of which were slowly ripening bitter fruits for the Senora's gathering in later years. IT was longer even than the Senora had thought it would be, before Father Salvierderra arrived.
"Father Salvierderra has to do with everything," she said boldly. "He knows Alessandro, He will not forbid me to marry him, and if he did " Ramona stopped. She also was smitten with a sudden terror at the vista opening before her, of a disobedience to Father Salvierderra. "And if he did," repeated the Senora, eyeing Ramona keenly, "would you disobey him?" "Yes," said Ramona.
In vain the Brothers again and again supplied him with a warm cloak; he gave it away to the first beggar he met: and as for food, the refectory would have been left bare, and the whole brotherhood starving, if the supplies had not been carefully hidden and locked, so that Father Salvierderra could not give them all away.
His hesitancy alone would not have told Ramona the truth; she would have set that down to the secular priest's indifference, or hostility, to the Franciscan order; but looking at Alessandro, she saw terror and sadness on his face. No shadow there ever escaped her eye. "What is it, Alessandro?" she exclaimed. "Is it something about Father Salvierderra? Is he ill?" Alessandro shook his head.
I suppose he is right in thinking so, as you yourself told me that even if Father Salvierderra forbade it, you would disobey him. Of course, if this is your determination, we are powerless.
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