.

At the mention of it Ramona shuddered, recollecting the scene in
the Temecula graveyard. "Oh, no, no! Not that!" she cried. "It is
ill-fated;" and Alessandro blamed himself for having forgotten her only
association with the name.

At last Alessandro said: "The people have named her, I think, Majella.
Whatever name we give her in the chapel, she will never be called
anything but 'Eyes of the Sky,' in the village."

"Let that name be her true one, then," said Ramona. And so it was
settled; and when Father Gaspara took the little one in his arms,
and made the sign of the cross on her brow, he pronounced with some
difficulty the syllables of the Indian name, which meant "Blue Eyes," or
"Eyes of the Sky."

Heretofore, when Father Gaspara had come to San Pasquale to say mass, he
had slept at Lomax's, the store and post-office, six miles away, in the
Bernardo valley. But Ysidro, with great pride, had this time ridden to
meet him, to say that his cousin Alessandro, who had come to live in the
valley, and had a good new adobe house, begged that the Father would do
him the honor to stay with him.

"And indeed, Father," added Ysidro, "you will be far better lodged and
fed than in the house of Lomax. My cousin's wife knows well how all
should be done."

"Alessandro! Alessandro!" said the Father, musingly. "Has he been long
married?"

"No, Father," answered Ysidro. "But little more than two years. They
were married by you, on their way from Temecula here."

"Ay, ay. I remember," said Father Gaspara. "I will come;" and it was
with no small interest that he looked forward to meeting again the
couple that had so strongly impressed him.

Ramona was full of eager interest in her preparations for entertaining
the priest. This was like the olden time; and as she busied herself with
her cooking and other arrangements, the thought of Father Salvierderra
was much in her mind. She could, perhaps, hear news of him from Father
Gaspara. It was she who had suggested the idea to Alessandro; and when
he said, "But where will you sleep yourself, with the child, Majella,
if we give our room to the Father? I can lie on the floor outside; but
you?"--"I will go to Ysidro's, and sleep with Juana," she replied. "For
two nights, it is no matter; and it is such shame to have the Father
sleep in the house of an American, when we have a good bed like this!"

Seldom in his life had Alessandro experienced such a sense of
gratification as he did w