“Thou art well enough as thou art,” comforted her father, trying to hide his pride in her under frowning brows, and to sterilize the praise with a tone of belittlement.

“I love that pretty senora,” sighed Teresita, turning in the saddle to glance wistfully back at the meager little camp.  “She shall have the black puppy Rosa gave me when last I was at the Mission San Jose.  But I hope,” she added plaintively, like the child she was at heart, “she will make that big, ugly beast they called Tige be kind to her; and the milk must be warm to the finger when Chico is fed.  To-night, Senor Allen, you shall teach me Americano words that I may say to the senora what is necessary, for the happiness of my black puppy.  I must learn to say that her name is Chico, and that the milk must be warm to the finger, and that the big dog must be kind.”

CHAPTER XI

AN ILL WIND

A wind rose in the night, blowing straight out of the north; a wind so chill that the senora unpacked extra blankets and distributed them lavishly amongst the beds of her household, and the oldest peon at the hacienda (who was Gustavo and a prophet more infallible than Elijah) stared into the heavens until his neck went lame; and predicted much cold, so that the frost would surely kill the fruit blossoms on the slope behind the house; and after that much rain.

Don Andres, believing him implicitly, repeated the warning to Dade; and Dade, because that was now his business, rode here and there, giving orders to the peons and making sure that all would be snug when the storm broke.

The Senorita Teresa, bethinking her of the “pretty senora” who would have scant shelter in that canvas-topped wagon-box, even though it had been set under the thickest branches of a great live oak, called guardedly to Diego who was passing, and ordered Tejon, her swiftest little mustang, saddled and held ready for her behind the last hut, where it could not be seen from the house.

Tejon, so named by his mistress because he was gray like a badger, hated wind, which the senorita knew well.  Also, when the hatred grew into rebellion, it needed a strong hand indeed to control him, if the mood seized him to run.  But the senorita was in a perverse mood, and none but Tejon would she ride; even though—­or perhaps because—­she knew that his temper would be uncertain.

She wanted to beg the pretty Senora Simpson to come and stay with them until the weather cleared and the cabin was finished.  But more than that she wanted to punish Senor Jack Allen for laughing when she tried to speak the Americano sentence he had taught her the night before, and got it all backwards.  Senor Jack would be frightened, perhaps, when he learned that she had ridden away alone upon Tejon; he would ride after her—­perhaps.  And she would not talk to him when he found her, but would be absolutely implacable in her displeasure, so that he would be speedily reduced to the most abject humility.