"
The next day he was at his usual duties, with perhaps a slight
increase of sternness in his manner. The fulfillment of his
prophecy related by Sanchez added to the superstitious reputation
in which he was held, although Faquita voiced the opinions of a
growing skeptical party in the statement that it was easy to
prophesy the Doctor's accident, with the spectacle of the horse
actually running away before the prophet's eyes. It was even said
that Dona Maria's aversion to Pereo since the accident arose from a
belief that some assistance might have been rendered by him. But
it was pointed out by Sanchez that Pereo had, a few moments before,
fallen under one of those singular, epileptic-like strokes to which
he was subject, and not only was unfit, but even required the
entire care of Sanchez at the time. He did not attend the funeral,
nor did Mrs. Saltonstall; but the family was represented by Maruja
and Amita, accompanied by one or two dark-faced cousins, Captain
Carroll, and Raymond. A number of friends and business associates
from the neighboring towns, Aladdin and a party from his house, the
farm laborers, and a crowd of working men from his mills in the
foot-hills, swelled the assemblage that met in and around the rude
agricultural sheds and outhouses which formed the only pastoral
habitation of the Rancho of San Antonio. It had been a
characteristic injunction of the deceased that he should be buried
in the midst of one of his most prolific grain fields, as a grim
return to that nature he was impoverishing, with neither mark nor
monument to indicate the spot; and that even the temporary mound
above him should, at the fitting season of the year, be leveled
with the rest of the field by the obliterating plowshares.
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