lf obey him, as if I were a lad still."

"What else, then, but a lad do you call yourself, I wonder?" thought
Juan; but he answered, "It is not so with us. The old are not held in
such reverence."

"That is not well," replied Alessandro. "We have been taught
differently. There is an old man in our village who is many, many years
older than my father. He helped to carry the mortar at the building of
the San Diego Mission, I do not know how many years ago. He is long past
a hundred years of age. He is blind and childish, and cannot walk; but
he is cared for by every one. And we bring him in our arms to every
council, and set him by my father's side. He talks very foolishly
sometimes, but my father will not let him be interrupted. He says
it brings bad luck to affront the aged. We will presently be aged
ourselves."

"Ay, ay!" said Juan, sadly. "We must all come to it. It is beginning to
look not so far off to me!"

Alessandro stared, no less astonished at Juan Can's unconscious
revelation of his standard of measurement of years than Juan had been
at his. "Faith, old man, what name dost give to yourself to-day!" he
thought; but went on with the topic of the raw-hide bed. "I may not so
soon get speech with Senor Felipe," he said. "It is usually when he is
sleepy that I go to play for him or to sing. But it makes my heart heavy
to see him thus languishing day by day, and all for lack of the air and
the sun, I do believe, indeed, Juan."

"Ask the Senorita, then," said Juan. "She has his ear at all times."

Alessandro made no answer. Why was it that it did not please him,--this
suggestion of speaking to Ramona of his plan for Felipe's welfare? He
could not have told; but he did not wish to speak of it to her.

"I will speak to the Senora," he said; and as luck would have it, at
that moment the Senora stood in the doorway, come to ask after Juan
Can's health.

The suggestion of the raw-hide bed struck her favorably. She herself
had, in her youth, heard much of their virtues, and slept on them.
"Yes," she said, "they are good. We will try it. It was only yesterday
that Senor Felipe was complaining of the bed he lies on; and when he
was well, he thought nothing could be so good; he brought it here, at a
great price, for me, but I could not lie on it. It seemed as if it would
throw me off as soon as I lay down; it is a cheating device, like all
these innovations the Americans have brought into the country. But Senor
Felip