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By Helen Hunt Jackson

Condensation by MARY BROOKS "RAMONA! The blessed child!" Father Salvierderra, nearing his journey's end, cried out with joy. Through the golden mustard tangle that overhung his path a dark-haired maiden came swiftly to meet him. At sight of Ramona's angelic face the aged Franciscan forgot his weariness, almost forgot his burden of grief over his beloved missions, despoiled and crumbling. A silent blessing, and he followed her contentedly to the Moreno ranch, where sheep-shearing had been delayed until his visit, that he might confess the shearing band. Before Mexico's surrender of California, General Moreno's estates were lordly indeed; now huge portions had been lopped away by the United States Land Commission and the general's widow revenged her losses by denouncing all Americans as "hounds." A marvelous manager, the Senora Moreno, whom her handsome, gentle son Felipe obeyed in everything and knew it not! Yet she never suspected that Felipe's affection for Ramona could be more than brotherly; she had never loved the girl. For Ramona was not of Moreno blood. Her father was a tempestuous Scotchman who, cruelly jilted by the senora's sister, married an Indian woman. To his old love, childless and unhappy, he gave his beautiful blue-eyed baby to rear as her own. At Senora Ortegna's death the child came as a legacy to Senora Moreno, but at nineteen Ramona still waited to learn the mystery of her parentage. The stern, silent senora would not tell.