And my
father said he was all his life sorry that he himself had not thought
to do the same thing; but he was like one dumb and deaf and with
no head, he was so unhappy at the Father's going."
"Was it here, in this very harbor?" asked Ramona, in breathless
interest, pointing out towards the blue water of which they could
see a broad belt framed by their leafy foreground arch of oak tops.
"Ay, just there he sailed,-- as that ship goes now," he exclaimed, as
a white-sailed schooner sailed swiftly by, going out to sea. "But the
ship lay at first inside the bar; you cannot see the inside harbor
from here. It is the most beautiful water I have ever seen, Majella.
The two high lands come out like two arms to hold it and keep it
safe, as if they loved it."
"But, Alessandro," continued Ramona, "were there really bad men
at the other Missions? Surely not the Franciscan Fathers?"
"Perhaps not the Fathers themselves, but the men under them. It
was too much power, Majella. When my father has told me how it
was, it has seemed to me I should not have liked to be as he was.
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