Leave them
there. I do not want them. We will return to the Mission.' 'If you do
not want them, then may I have them?' I asked--the blood flew all over
my body, my friends. He scowled as if I had asked him for the candles on
the altar. 'No,' he said, 'you cannot.' Then he put his big hand on my
shoulder--he could twist your neck in a minute with those hands--
'Listen to me, my son,' he said, very soft, and looking so kind now, you
can't think. 'There is poison in those stones, pretty as they are,
deadly poison. It has murdered millions of souls and hundreds of bodies.
Therefore I will not let you touch it--only a priest can touch it
without ruining his soul. Therefore I forbid you---forbid you--' he
shouted this over me, 'to tell any one of what you have seen to-day.
Neither your father nor your mother--no one. Do you understand?' I said
'Yes,' but I did not promise, and he was excited and did not notice.
Then he dragged me away, and I looked about for other rocks that
glittered. But there were none--not anywhere. And then I knew that they
had come out of the hill; but I said nothing, and when we got back to
the Mission and had had dinner and he was himself again and would have
spoken alone with me, I ran and got on my horse, and all the brothers
stood on the corridor to see me go.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131