They must go where they can get work;
they are hired by the farmers, or to do work on the great ditches, or
to go as shepherds; and some of them take their wives and children
with them. I do not believe the Senorita has ever seen any very
poor people."
"Oh, yes, I have, Alessandro, at Santa Barbara. There were many
poor people there, and the Sisters used to give them food every
week."
"Indians?" said Alessandro.
Ramona colored. "Yes," she said, "some of them were, but not like
your men, Alessandro. They were very different; miserable
looking; they could not read nor write, and they seemed to have no
ambition."
"That is the trouble," said Alessandro, "with so many of them; it is
with my father's people, too. They say, 'What is the use?' My father
gets in despair with them, because they will not learn better. He
gives them a great deal, but they do not seem to be any better off
for it. There is only one other man in our village who can read and
write, besides my father and me, Senorita; and yet my father is all
the time begging them to come to his house and learn of him.
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