A poor innocent girl of seventeen summers, a Christian who knows her Catechism, and would not harm the smallest thing that God has made--no, not a fly, which is not regarded on account of its smallness.

Why, sir, it is due to her tender heart that you are safely sheltered here, instead of being left out of doors in this tempestuous night." "To her--to this girl ?" I returned in astonishment.

"Explain, old man, for I do not know how I was saved." "Today, senor, through your own heedlessness you were bitten by a venomous snake." "Yes, that is true, although I do not know how it came to your knowledge.

But why am I not a dead man, then--have you done something to save me from the effects of the poison ?" "Nothing.

What could I do so long after you were bitten?
When a man is bitten by a snake in a solitary place he is in God's hands.