misfortune, and appear, asking for the place, he took every opportunity to praise Alessandro to the Señora. She never visited his bedside that he had not something to say in favor of the lad, as he called him.
“Truly, Señora,” he said again and again, “I do marvel where the lad got so much knowledge, at his age. He is like an old hand at the sheep business. He knows more than any shepherd I have,—a deal more; and it is not only of sheep. He has had experience, too, in the handling of cattle. Juan Jose has been beholden to him more than once, already, for a remedy of which he knew not. And such modesty, withal. I knew not that there were such Indians; surely there cannot be many such.”
“No, I fancy not,” the Señora would reply, absently. “His father is a man of intelligence, and has trained his son well.”
“There is nothing he is not ready to do,” continued Alessandro's eulogist. “He is as handy with tools as if he had been 'prenticed to a carpenter. He has made me a new splint for my leg, which was a relief like salve to a wound, so much easier was it than before. He is a good lad,—a good lad.”
None of these sayings of Juan's were thrown away on the Señora. More and more closely she watched Alessandro; and the very thing which Juan had feared, and which he had thought to avert by having Alessandro his temporary substitute, was slowly coming to pass. The idea was working in the Señora's mind, that she might do a worse thing than engage this young, strong, active, willing man to remain permanently in her employ. The possibility of an Indian's being so born and placed that he would hesitate about becoming permanently a servant even to the Señora Moreno, did not occur to her. However, she would do nothing hastily. There would be plenty of time before Juan
