Carlota a Story of the San Gabriel Mission

her refusal. The Padre had forbidden it The girl undressedMary Louise, who slept so soundly she did n't miss her mother that night. Then she waited for J immy to get into his little bed at the further end of the long room. She seemed in unnecessary haste to be gone. Jimmy sat up in his dismal corner watching Anita's shadow grow longer and longer as she walked across the uneven floor, one candle above her head, until she and the light were lost in the darkness of the corridor and her footsteps sounded from afar. The boy clutched at the bedclothes and listened. If you are frightened in the night, you should always listen; you are sure to hear something. Jimmy heard a little scurrying sound near the yawning fireplace. It might havebeen a rat, it might have been? who knows what? Jimmy's eyes stared into the darkness. He saw visions of long-ago Indian school boys trooping by his corner, gazing at him with horrible faces and threatening to deal with him when lessons were over. Then he wondered if the Mexicans would rise up and massacre every American in California according to the rumor discussed in the guard-house. Soon Jimmy's mind was so torn between imagination and realities, between the probable and the improbable, past happenings and present fears, that he almost fainted when he caught the sound of shuffling footsteps and a dark form appeared at the nearest window. It was an old-time Spanish win- l IF dow, with bars across the opening instead of ... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.