Poor girl! she had been hardly used, but she knew no other fate; and though she did not love the step-mother as she did the little Gracia, it seemed very desolate to sit there by the dying woman who had given her a home, poor though it was. She pressed the cold hand to her lips, and buried her head in the bed-clothes.
“Oh! that child!” gasped the wretched woman. “Catrina, I have no time to lose. I see every thing so differently.
“I have been crazy, but all is clear now. Catrina, when you think of me remember me only as a poor suffering woman, and forgive me, as you hope for God’s mercy.
“But the child! in that trunk you will find her clothes and papers which will prove her birth. Her father is a good and true man, as I have learned this day. My life’s great wrong came from another’s hand.
“Promise me, Catrina, that you will never rest till you have restored her to her home, and the parents who love her.”
The step-mother’s words grew fainter, but her eyes, full of the brightness of expiring fires, were fixed upon Catrina, who reverently made the sign of the cross, and bowed her head in solemn acquiescence.
“Catrina,” she continued, “go up to the cañon, keeping to the right, then over the mountain path, till you come to the great wood.” A spasm of pain convulsed her, and she ceased speaking. In a few moments it passed away, and a calm happy smile settled upon her face.
“I repent of all my sins; I forgive even the murderer of him who was dearer than my life. Now, may God have mercy upon my soul.”
The husky voice was hushed, the clasped hands relaxed, and the suffering woman was dead!
“She has gone to the land of the Great Spirit, and He has blessed her,” said the Indian, filled with amazement to see the troubled face grow so calm in death.
They buried her in the shadow of the deep cañon, and the children were left alone. The kind Indian came every day to the cottage to look after them, bringing always a bag of tortillas and fruits.
One morning, about a week after the death of the step-mother, he found Catrina and Gracia just leaving the cottage. As he gave Catrina the tortillas she shook his hand long and kindly, and the tears glistened in her eyes, but she could not speak to tell him she was going away, never to rest, until she had led Gracia back to her home.