little madre, hath. So thou hast held the basket with the flat green
leaves."

"Oh! Madre Moreno, I can never understand you, but you must be careful
of the leaves you have just gathered, for they contain a most powerful
poison. I am more afraid, since the plant is rare or even unknown in the
Californias, that you do not know its power; you surely can never have
found it before, and how it came to be growing here is incomprehensible
to me."

The witch bent her head and looking into my face from under her
overhanging reboso, raised her finger and shook it before me saying as
she did so, "Thou art a learned señorito, Carlos Sotos, but although
Ambrosia Moreno hath never been in the college, she knows more of the
little flowers and bright leaves of this plant thou speakest of than all
the Jesuits or thy people shall ever learn. The very plant growing here
among these fallen stones is as old as thou art, Carlos Sotos, and that
almost to a year. It has ever grown on, season after season, and shall
live until its duty is performed, then let it wither when it shall no
longer be needed here. Thou must come down and see me, Carlos," she
continued in an altered voice, "for I have some new flowers which thou
shalt have; come for I am lonely and like young company, though I be a
witch as they say. Where goest thou to-day?"

"Above on the divide where I hope to find some of the Indian pinks for
my new collection."

"When doest thou return, before sundown?" asked Madre Moreno as she
prepared to go.