This man's promise to Pablo, that he and his people should
always live in the valley undisturbed, was all the title Pablo had to
the village lands. In the days when the promise was given, it was
all that was necessary. The lines marking off the Indians' lands
were surveyed, and put on the map of the estate. No Mexican
proprietor ever broke faith with an Indian family or village. thus
placed on his lands.
But Pablo had heard rumors, which greatly disquieted him, that
such pledges and surveyed lines as these were corning to be held
as of no value, not binding on purchasers of grants. He was
intelligent enough to see that if this were so, he and his people
were ruined. All these perplexities and fears he confided to
Alessandro; long anxious hours the father and son spent together,
walking back and forth in the village, or sitting in front of their
little adobe house, discussing what could be done. There was
always the same ending to the discussion,-- a long sigh, and, "We
must wait, we can do nothing."
No wonder Alessandro seemed, to the more ignorant and
thoughtless young men and women of his village, a cold and
distant lad.
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