"Cucumbra, you let bad thoughts use you, didn't you? Yes, you did; and you're sorry for it now. Well, there's the puppy," pointing to the little dog, which stood hesitant some yards away. "Now go and play with him," she urged. "Play with him!" rousing the larger dog and pointing toward the puppy. "Play with him! You _know_ you love him!" Cucumbra hesitated, looking alternately at the small, resolute girl and the smaller dog. Her arm remained rigidly extended, and determination was written large in her set features. The puppy uttered a sharp bark, as if in forgiveness, and began to scamper playfully about. Cucumbra threw a final glance at the girl. "Play with him!" she again commanded. The large dog bounded after the puppy, and together they disappeared around the street corner. The child turned and saw Josè, who had regarded the scene in mute astonishment. "_Muy buenos dias, Señor Padre_," dropping a little courtesy. "But isn't Cucumbra foolish to have bad thoughts?" "Why, yes--he certainly is," replied Josè slowly, hard pressed by the unusual question. "He has just _got_ to love that puppy, or else he will never be happy, will he, Padre?" Why would this girl persist in ending her statements with an interrogation! How could he know whether Cucumbra's happiness would be imperfect if he failed in love toward the puppy? "Because, you know, Padre," the child continued, coming up to him and slipping her hand into his, "padre Rosendo once told me that God was Love; and after that I knew we just had to love everything and everybody, or else He can't see us--can He, Padre?" He can't see us--if we don't love everything and everybody! Well! Josè wondered what sort of interpretation the Vatican, with its fiery hatred of heretics, would put upon this remark. "Can He, Padre?" insisted the girl. "Dear child, in these matters you are teaching me; not I you," replied the noncommittal priest. "But, Padre, you are going to teach the people in the church," the girl ventured quizzically. Ah, so he was! And he had wondered what. In his hour of need the answer was vouchsafed him. "Yes, dearest child--and I am going to teach them what I learn from _you_." Carmen regarded him for a moment uncertainly. "But, padre Rosendo says you are to teach _me_," she averred. "And so I am, little one," the priest replied; "but not one half as much as I shall learn from you."