to me this evening after the Doctrina, and I will set you your penance."

When the boy, with downcast look, came to him in his room that evening,
the Father said to him, "What made you do it, Te--filo?" And the boy
answered "I did not mean to do harm, Padre, but the pictures are so
beautiful, and I tried to make some like them. Then I tried to rub them
out, but they would not come off." The Father smiled indulgently. "No,
my son," he said, "the wrong things we do, even innocently, do not come
off. You must remember that in future. But they can be forgiven by the
good God, Te--filo, and even so I forgive you for the book. And your
penance shall be to come each evening at this time and learn to draw
properly. What do you say?"

"Oh, Padre!" cried the boy; and he took the Father's hand and put it,
Indian fashion, to his forehead in token of gratitude.

Agust'n the mayordomo was, next to the Father, the most important man
about the Mission. He it was who, under the priest's supervision, had
charge not only of the labors and general governance of the Indians, but
also of the business affairs of the establishment, even to the care and
sale of the cattle, hides, and tallow, which, produced in enormous
quantity, were almost the only, but a quite considerable, source of
revenue to all the California Missions. Agust'n was a half-breed, or
mestizo, the son of one of the Spanish soldiers who had come to Alta
California with Serra and Portola. His mother was an Indian woman, to
whom his father had been married by Father Serra himself. That was in
1776, the year of the establishment of the Mission, and Agust'n, the
oldest son of the marriage, had risen before the age of thirty-five to
his important post, partly by natural ability, and partly by the fact of
his mixed Spanish blood, which of itself gave him prestige and authority