"Love her and have her for a little playmate," said Nellie.
"Well, well! Who ever heard the like!" exclaimed Aunt Mary.
"But she is _so_ sweet," repeated Nellie. "Let us have her, mother."
Alfonsa smiled at Nellie and went off with the clothes.
Nellie still persisted in her pleading. Mr. Page was reading within hearing distance. He now looked up from his paper and said to his wife:
"Martha, since we came to California you have not had an orphan to care for. Before that there were always one or two."
"Yes, that is so," agreed his wife. "Some one would die, or some waif would come along and we would keep them till a home was provided."
"Suppose you take the little Indian," said her husband. "I am greatly interested in the boy. He and I have a chat nearly every day. We might be able to give _him_ some kind of a chance also. If I buy that ranch up at Poway he could be of use there."
"What do you wish me to do--not to take the child into the family as one of us, surely?"
"Oh, no, not exactly; but we could take her in now, and later send her to the Mission, or perhaps to school in town. If she is anything like her brother she will become a help to you some day."
"Well, I am willing to try it," said the mother. "That is, if her brother consents, and we can get her thoroughly washed and combed and clothed before we bring her here. How is that to be done?"
"Alfonsa will do it," cried Nellie. "She has the _cleanest_ house, mother--the _cleanest_--and you see how neat she looks."
"Well, we can ask her after we have seen Dionysio," said her mother.
It was trying for Nellie to wait until they laid the old woman away on the hillside, where the Indians bury their dead.
Alfonsa was first approached with regard to the child. "Yes," she said, she would take the little one gladly; "and scrub and comb her every day for a week till she is clean enough to bring under the roof of the good, kind lady."
"But will the brother give her to us?" asked Mrs. Page.
"If he is wise, he will," said Alfonsa. "And he has always been wise."
Dionysio was pleased. His eyes brightened when the subject was broached to him.
"But she is not clean," he said. "I could not bring her to you as she is."
The talk with Alfonsa was then repeated. Dionysio had no objection to make, and Margarita herself was willing. A week of "quarantine," as Mr. Page humorously referred to it, and one morning Dionysio made his appearance, leading his sister by the hand. She wore a clean blue calico dress, and a red ribbon in her neatly braided hair. Her face was radiant, and when Mrs. Page approached, she at once went forward and placed one little brown hand in hers.
