him that the unhappy children had variously described the complexion of their new fellow pupil, and it was believed that the “No’th’n” schoolmaster, aided and abetted by “capital” in the person of Hiram Hoover, had introduced either a “nigger wench,” a “Chinese girl,” or an “Injin baby” to the same educational privileges as the “pure whites,” and so contaminated the sons of freemen in their very nests.  He was able to reassure many that the child was of Spanish origin, but a majority preferred the evidence of their own senses, and lingered for that purpose.  As the hour for her appearance drew near and passed, he was seized with a sudden fear that she might not come, that Mr. Hoover had been prevailed upon by his compatriots, in view of the excitement, to withdraw her from the school.  But a faint cheer from the bridle path satisfied him, and the next moment a little retinue swept by the window, and he understood.  The Hoovers had evidently determined to accent the Spanish character of their little charge.  Concha, with a black riding skirt over her flounces, was now mounted on a handsome pinto mustang glittering with silver trappings, accompanied by a vaquero in a velvet jacket, Mr. Hoover bringing up the rear.  He, as he informed the master, had merely come to show the way to the vaquero, who hereafter would always accompany the child to and from school.  Whether or not he had been induced to this display by the excitement did not transpire.  Enough that the effect was a success.  The riding skirt and her mustang’s fripperies had added to Concha’s piquancy, and if her origin was still doubted by some, the child herself was accepted with enthusiasm.  The parents who were spectators were proud of this distinguished accession to their children’s playmates, and when she dismounted amid the acclaim of her little companions, it was with the aplomb of a queen.

The master alone foresaw trouble in this encouragement of her precocious manner.  He received her quietly, and when she had removed her riding skirt, glancing at her feet, said approvingly, “I am glad to see you have changed your slippers; I hope they fit you more firmly than the others.”

The child shrugged her shoulders.  “Quien sabe.  But Pedro (the vaquero) will help me now on my horse when he comes for me.”

The master understood the characteristic non sequitur as an allusion to his want of gallantry on the previous day, but took no notice of it.  Nevertheless, he was pleased to see during the day that she was paying more attention to her studies, although they were generally rehearsed with the languid indifference to all mental accomplishment which belonged to her race.  Once he thought to stimulate her activity through her personal vanity.

“Why can you not learn as quickly as Matilda Bromly?  She is only two years older than you,” he suggested.

“Ah!  Mother of God!—­why does she then try to wear roses like me?  And with that hair.  It becomes her not.”