The lady declared that San Miguel had never left his
shrine in the patio of their residence except for the avowed purpose
of making rain. In seasons of protracted drouth, when crops and live
stock suffer for want of water, crowds of Mexican people, mostly
farmers' wives and their children, form processions and carry the
images of saints round about the parched fields, chanting hymns and
praying for rain.
On this occasion Dona Mercedes availed herself of the chance to extol
the prowess and power of her family's idolized saint, San Miguel. She
said as a rainmaker he had no equal. He disliked and objected to have
himself carried about the fields when there was not a certain sign of
coming rain in the heavens. Her little saint, she said, was too
honorable and too proud to risk the disgrace of failure and bring
shame on her family. Therefore, he would not consent to be carried
out in the fields until kind Nature, through unfailing signs,
proclaimed a speedy downpour. When thunder shook the expectant earth
and the first drops of rain began to fall, then he started on his
little business trip and never had he failed to make it rain
copiously. Friends of Don Jose Lopez, hearing all this talk, were not
slow to take advantage of it.
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