IN THE OLD WEST 239 



worthy man, " qui milagro es este! " [what a mir- 

 acle is this I hear !] and casting up his eyes, and 

 speaking slowly, as if he weighed every word, and 

 taxing his memory of the historical calendar of 

 saints, continued, 



" Se murio aquella santissima muger 

 en el ano 175 es decir ya hacen mil 

 quatro cientos anos." [That most holy 

 woman died in the year 175 ; that is to say, one 

 thousand four hundred years ago.] 



" Oh, what a strange thing is this ! " the padre 

 continues devoutly. " After so many ages spent 

 in heaven in company of the angels, of most holy 

 men, and of virgins the most pure and, per- 

 haps, also in the company of my worthy and es- 

 teemed friend and patron, Don Vincente Car- 

 vajal y Calvo, who died a few years ago in San 

 Lucar Xeres (bequeathing me certain arrobas 

 of dry wine, of a class I greatly esteem for 

 which act he deserved to be canonized, and, I have 

 no doubt, is), the said Don Vincente Carvajal y 

 Calvo being, moreover, a man of the purest and 

 holiest thoughts (Dios mio! what a puchero that 

 man always had on his table ! ) this holy 

 woman comes here, to these wild and remote 

 regions; this holy woman (who died fifteen hun- 

 dred years ago), abandoning the company of 

 angels, of holy men, and sanctified women and vir- 

 gins, and also of Don Vincente Carvajal y Calvo 

 (that worthy man!) comes here, I say, where 



