And it had the miraculous propensity to ever after wink its eye in the
presence of a priest and at the approach of a Christ-hating Jew, it
would spit. This virtue saved much wealth for the family of Don Jose,
as they were ever put on their guard against Jewish peddlers.

The rumor that Don Jose Lopez had carried the household saint with him
in his wagon was at once contradicted and disproved by his wife, Dona
Mercedes. The lady declared that San Miguel had never left his shrine
in the patio of their residence except for the avowed purpose of making
rain. In seasons of protracted drouth, when crops and live stock suffer
for want of water, crowds of Mexican people, mostly farmers' wives and
their children, form processions and carry the images of saints round
about the parched fields, chanting hymns and praying for rain.

On this occasion Dona Mercedes availed herself of the chance to extol
the prowess and power of her family's idolized saint, San Miguel. She
said as a rainmaker he had no equal. He disliked and objected to have
himself carried about the fields when there was not a certain sign of
coming rain in the heavens. Her little saint, she said, was too
honorable and too proud to risk the disgrace of failure and bring shame
on her family. Therefore, he would not consent to be carried out in the
fields until kind Nature, through unfailing signs, proclaimed a speedy
downpour. When thunder shook the expectant earth and the first drops of
rain began to fall, then he started on his little business trip and
never had he failed to make it rain copiously. Friends of Don Jose
Lopez, hearing all this talk, were not slow to take advantage of it.
The time for the election of county officials was near and they
promptly placed Don Jose in nomination for the office of the sheriff of
San Miguel County.

When people applied to the parish priest for advice in this matter, he
laughingly told them that he did not know if all these current rumors
were true, quien sabe, but surely nothing was impossible before the
Lord and the blessed saints, and Don Jose being a friend, he advised
them to give him their support, as he was a very good and capable man
who would make an ideal sheriff. To be sure, the Don paid his debts and
was never remiss in his duties to Holy Church.

We crossed over the Raton Mountains and were then in the northern part
of the Territory of New Mexico. What a curious country it was! The
houses were built of adobe or