Many a time I have laughed to see it."
"Know you the priest at San Diego?" asked Ramona.
"Not well," replied Alessandro. "He came seldom to Temecula
when I was there; but he is a friend of Indians. I know he came
with the men from San Diego at the time when there was fighting,
and the whites were in great terror; and they said, except for Father
Gaspara's words, there would not have been a white man left alive
in Pala. My father had sent all his people away before that fight
began. He knew it was coming, but he would have nothing to do
with it. He said the Indians were all crazy. It was no use. They
would only be killed themselves. That is the worst thing, my
Majella. The stupid Indians fight and kill, and then what can we
do? The white men think we are all the same. Father Gaspara has
never been to Pala, I heard, since that time. There goes there now
the San Juan Capistrano priest. He is a bad man. He takes money
from the starving poor."
"A priest!" ejaculated Ramona, horror-stricken.
"Ay! a priest!" replied Alessandro. "They are not all good, -- not
like Father Salvierderra.
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