But how can it
happen, if it is not God's will?"
It does not need that one be educated, to see the logic in this
formula. Generations of the oppressed and despoiled, before
Alessandro, had grappled with the problem in one shape or
another.
At the shearing-shed, Alessandro found his men in confusion and
ill-humor. The shearing had been over and done by ten in the
morning, and why were they not on their way to the Ortega's?
Waiting all day,-- it was now near sunset,-- with nothing to do, and
still worse with not much of anything to eat, had made them all
cross; and no wonder. The economical Juan Can, finding that the
work would be done by ten, and supposing they would be off
before noon, had ordered only two sheep killed for them the day
before, and the mutton was all gone, and old Marda, getting her
cue from Juan, had cooked no more frijoles than the family needed
themselves; so the poor shearers had indeed had a sorry day of it,
in no wise alleviated either by the reports brought from time to
time that their captain was lying on the ground, face down, under
Senor Felipe's window, and must not be spoken to.
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