"_Valgame Dios!_" reverently exclaimed that worthy man, "_qui mïlagro es este!_" [what a miracle is this I hear!] and casting up his eyes, and speaking slowly, as if he weighed every word, and taxing his memory of the historical calendar of saints, continued,--"_Se muriô--aquella--santissima--muger--en el ano 175--es decir--ya hacen--mil--quatro--cientos--anos_" [That most holy woman died in the year 175; that is to say, one thousand four hundred years ago.] "Oh, what a strange thing is this!" the padre continues devoutly. "After so many ages spent in heaven in company of the angels, of most holy men, and of virgins the most pure--and, perhaps, also in the company of my worthy and esteemed friend and patron, Don Vincente Car-vajal y Calvo, who died a few years ago in San Lucar Xeres (bequeathing me certain arrobas of dry wine, of a class I greatly esteem--for which act he deserved to be canonized, and, I have no doubt, is), the said Don Vincente Carvajal y Calvo being, moreover, a man of the purest and holiest thoughts (_Dios mio!_ what a puchero that man always had on his table!)--this holy woman comes here, to these wild and remote regions; this holy woman (who died fifteen hundred years ago), abandoning the company of angels, of holy men, and sanctified women and virgins, and also of Don Vincente Carvajal y Calvo (that worthy man!)--comes here, I say, where there are neither pucheros, nor garbanzos, nor dry wine, nor sweet wine, neither of Xeres, nor of Val de Penas, nor of Peralta; where" (sobbed the padre, and bellowed the last word) "there is-- nothing either to eat or to drink. _Valgame Purissima Maria!_ And what is the name of this holy woman? the world will ask," continues Ven-abides. "Santa Clara of Carmona is her name, one well known in my native country, who leaves heaven and all its joys, wends her way to the distant wilds of New Spain, and spends years in inducting the savage people to the holy faith. Truly a pious work, and pleasing to God!" * * From a manuscript obtained in Santa Fé of New Mexico, describing the labors of the missionaries Fray Augustin Ruiz, Venabides, and Marcos, in the year 1585. Thus spoke Venabides the Franciscan, and no doubt he believed what he said; and many others in Old Spain were fools enough to believe it too, for the shaven heads flocked over in greater numbers, and the cry was ever, "still they come."