ster Rufa, "one plenary is enough;
you should not squander the holy indulgences. Do as I do."

"I said to myself, the more there are the better," replied young
sister Juana, smiling; "but what do you do?"

Sister Rufa did not respond at once; she chewed her buyo, and scanned
her audience attentively; at length she decided to speak.

"Well, this is what I do. Suppose I gain a year of indulgences; I say:
Blessed Senor Saint Dominic, have the kindness to see if there is some
one in purgatory who has need of precisely a year. Then I play heads
or tails. If it falls heads, no; if tails, yes. If it falls heads,
I keep the indulgence, and so I make groups of a hundred years, for
which there is always use. It's a pity one can't loan indulgences at
interest. But do as I do, it's the best plan."

At this point Sisa appeared. She said good morning to the women,
and entered the manse.

"She's gone in, let us go too," said the sisters, and they followed
her.

Sisa felt her heart beat violently. She did not know what to say to the
curate in defence of her child. She had risen at daybreak, picked all
the fine vegetables left in her garden, and arranged them in a basket
with platane leaves and flowers, and had been to the river to get a
fresh salad of pako. Then, dressed in the best she had, the basket
on her head, without waking her son, she had set out for the pueblo.

She went slowly through the manse, listening if by chance she might
hear a well-known voice, fresh and childish. But she met no one,
heard nothing, and went on to the kitchen.

The servants and sacristans received her coldly, scarcely answering
her greetings.

"Where may I put these vegetables?" she asked, without showing offence.

"There--wherever you want to," replied the cook curtly.

Sisa, half-smiling, placed all in order on the table, and laid on
top the flowers and the tender shoots of the pako; then she asked a
servant who seemed more friendly than the cook:

"Do you know if Crispin is in the sacristy?"

The servant looked at her in surprise.

"Crispin?" said he, wrinkling his brows; "isn't he at home?"

"Basilio is, but Crispin stayed here."

"Oh, yes, he stayed, but he ran off afterward with all sorts of things
he'd stolen. The curate sent me to report it at the quarters. The
guards must be on their way to your house by this time."

Sisa could not believe it; she opened her mouth, but her lips moved
in vain.

"Go find your children," sa