But
we poor, we do not hate them as the government does, because they are
good to us, and do not war with us, and sometimes those we love join
them--a brother or a cousin, perhaps,"--and Lisetta's black eyes filled,
and her lip quivered. "As for the Madre, she loved them all, and said
they were all relations.
"At this time of which I speak, the soldiers were chasing and hunting
the banditti very hard, and they had been compelled to hide for their
lives up among the mountains. There they would have died, had it not
been for the peasants, who supplied them with food. Small parties of the
bandits would come out for it. There were two very powerful men of the
banditti, who were skirmishing about in this way, not far from the
Madre Ilkana's, when they saw two soldiers, in advance of their company,
approaching them. The banditti were not afraid for themselves, but they
wanted to get back to their friends with the bread and meat, so instead
of fighting, they fled to the Madre. She took them in, and bade them be
sure they were safe with her.
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