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THE MEXICAN TWINS

By Lucy Fitch Perkins

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

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Geographical Series

THE DUTCH TWINS PRIMER. Grade I.
THE DUTCH TWINS. Grade lit.
THE ESKIMO TWINS. Grade II.
THE JAPANESE TWINS. Grade IV.
THE IRISH TWINS. O<wfc K.
THE SCOTCH TWINS. Grades V and VI.
THE MEXICAN TWINS. Grade VI.
TWC BELGIAN TWINS. Grade VI.
THE FRENCH TWINS. Grade VII.

Historical Series

THE CAVE TWINS. Grade IV.

THE SPARTAN TWINS. Grades V-VI.

Each volume is illustrated by the author

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON Nw YORK CHICAGO'

prrft

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
V . S . A

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION THE MEXICAN TWINS .
I. SAN RAMON'S DAY IN -HE MORNING
II. THE BLESSING . ...

III. THE PARTY

IV. TONIC'S BAD DAY .
V. JUDAS ISCARIOT DAY

VI. THE ADVENTURE

VII. WHILE THEY WERE GONE . .
VIII. THE SECRET MEETING

IX. CHRISTMAS AT THE HACIENDA

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5

19
45
59

85
109

123
i33
161

2209409

THE MEXICAN TWINS

This is a picture of Antonio Francisco Gomez 1
and his twin sister, Margarita Teresa Gomez.

They live on the great hacienda* or plantation,
of Senor Fernandez, 3 in the wonderful country of
Mexico, and they are eight years old.

The boy is named Antonio for Saint Antonio
and Francisco for his father, and the girl is named
Margarita for Saint Margarita and Teresa for her
mother.

But nobody ever thinks of calling the Twins by
all these names. They are called just Tonio and
Tita, to save time.

Even their father is n't called by his long name I
Everybody calls him Pancho 4 that is, everybody
but the Twins, of course.

Their mother is n't called anything at all for
short. She is always called Dona Teresa* I do not
know why this is, unless perhaps it is because she

1 Pronounced Go'mess. 4 Pahn'cho.

2 Ah-sl-en'-dah. 5 Don'ya Tay-ray'sa.

3 Fer-nahn'dess.

can make better tortillas, and chicken mole, and
candied sweet potatoes than any one else on the
whole hacienda.

Pancho is a vaquero, or cowboy.

There are hundreds of cows and oxen and sheep
and goats on Senor Fernandez's hacienda, and all
day long, every day, Pancho rides about on his
horse Pinto, rounding up cattle, driving the cows
to pasture after milking, or getting the oxen to-
gether for the plowing.

The Twins think it is a fine thing to be a vaquero
and ride horseback all the time.

Tonio means to be one when he grows up. He
practices riding on Tonto, the donkey, now, and
he has had his own lasso since he was six.

If you will turn the page you will find a picture
of the little adobe hut where Tonio and Tita and
Pancho and Dona Teresa live. Pancho is n't in
the picture, because he and Pinto are away in the
fields, but Dona Teresa is there grinding her corn,
and Tita is feeding the chickens, while Tonio plays
with his dog, Jasmin. 1

Tonto is looking out from the shed at the end of
the hut. Tita's cat is on the roof. She is almost
always on the roof when Jasmin is about.

Beside the hut is a fig tree, which bears the most
1 Hahss-meen'.

delicious figs. Every night the red rooster, the five
hens, and the turkey go to roost in its branches, and
every day its green boughs make a pleasant shade
across the dooryard.

Back of the hut there is a tiny garden with bee-
hives, and beyond that there is a path through the
woods that leads down to a little river. It was in this
very path, just where the stepping-stones cross the
river, that Tonio met But there ! it tells all about
that in the story and you can read it for yourselves.

SAN RAMON'S DAY IN THE
MORNING

SAN RAMON'S DAY IN THE
I MORNING

ONE summer morning the red rooster on
his perch in the fig tree woke up and took a
look at the sky.

He was a very responsible rooster. He
was always the first one up in the morning,
and I really think he believed that if it were
not for him the sun himself would forget to
rise.

It was so very early that a few stars still
shone, and a pale moon was sailing away
toward the west. Over the eastern hills the
rooster saw a pink cloud, and knew at once
that it was time to wake the world. He stood
up and stretched his wings. Then he crowed
so long and loud that he nearly fell off his

perch backward, on to the cat, who was
sleeping on the roof just below.

" Cock a doodle do-o-o!" he screamed.
"I 'm awake, are you-oo-oo?"

At least that is the way it must have
sounded to all the other roosters in the lit-
tle village, for they began at once to answer
him.

" Cock a doodle doo-oo, we 're up as soon
as you-oo," they cried; and soon there was
such a chorus of them calling back and forth
that the five hens woke up, one after an-
other, and flew down from the perch, to hunt
bugs for their breakfast.

Last of all the turkey opened his eyes and
flapped heavily to the ground, gobbling all
the way.

The cat stretched herself and sprang from
the roof to the fig tree and sharpened her
claws on its bark.

The birds began to sing, and still there
was no sound from the tiny gray adobe
house under the fig tree.

The little white hen tiptoed round to the

front of the hut and peeped in at the open
door. There in one corner of their one room
lay Tonio and Tita and their father and
mother, all sound asleep.

The little white hen must have told the red
rooster what she saw, for he followed her and
looked into the hut too. Then he ruffled his
neck feathers, flapped his wings, and crowed
so loudly that Pancho and Dona Teresa and
the Twins all woke at once and sat up with
a bounce, to see what was the matter.

It startled the little white hen to see them
all sit up suddenly in a row, so she
squawked and scrambled out through the
open door as fast as she could go.

The red rooster ran too, and the two of
them never stopped until they disappeared
behind the bee-hives in the garden.

The moment she was really awake, Dona
Teresa began to talk.

"Upon my soul!" she cried, crossing
herself, "the red rooster gave me a dread-

ful turn. I was just in the midst of a most
beautiful dream ! But now he has driven it
all out of my head with his silly noise,
and I cannot even remember what it was
about!"

Dona Teresa rose, and while she talked
she deftly rolled up the mat on which she
had slept and stood it on end in the corner
of the room. You see it did n't take any time
at all to dress, because they always slept
with their clothes on. But Dona Teresa was
very particular about one thing. She made
them all wash their faces and hands the very
first thing every single morning!

For a wash-basin there was a part of a
log, hollowed out like a trough. Beside the
hollow log there was a large red olla, with a
gourd in it. Pancho had dipped water from
the olla into the trough and was already
splashing about, while Dona Teresa rolled
the Twins off on to the floor and placed their
mats in the corner with the others.

" Come, my pigeons," she said to them,
"it is time to be stirring. We are very lazy

to lie in bed after cockcrow on San Ramon's '
Day ! "

"Oh, Little Mother," cried Tita, picking
herself up, " is it really the fiesta of San
Ramon ? And may I take the little white
hen to be blessed, all myself?"

" You may take the little white hen if
you can catch her," Dona Teresa answered.
" Indeed, we must take all the animals, or at
the very least one of each kind to stand for
all the others. The turkey must be caught,
and the goat must be brought from the field
so I can milk her. Tonto [that was what
they called the donkey] is waiting in the
shed to be made ready, not to speak of
the cat and dog! Bless my soul, how many
things there are to be done ! "

While his mother talked, Tonio had taken
his lasso down from the nail where it hung,
and was just quietly slipping out of the door
with it, when Dona Teresa saw him. " Here
you --Tonio," she cried, "come back and
wash yourself!"

1 Pronounced Sahn Rah-mon'.
10

" Can't I wait until I 've caught Pinto ? "
Tonio begged. "What's the use of wash-
ing? You only get dirty again. Lots of the
boys don't wash at all except on Sunday."

"Come right back and wash yourself this
minute," commanded Dona Teresa. "You
might as well say it 's no use to eat your

1 1

breakfast because you '11 be hungry again
right away ! As long as I 'm your mother
you shall begin the day right at least."

Tonio groaned a little, and came back to
the trough. There he did something that he
called washing, though I feel quite sure that
there were corners behind his ears that were
not even wet!

On the wall above the place where the
sleeping mats had been spread, there was a
picture of the Virgin and Child, and Dona
Teresa kept a little taper always burning
before the picture.

When they had all washed, Dona Teresa
called Pancho and the Twins to her side, and
all four knelt in a row before the picture,
crossed themselves, and murmured a little
prayer.

"If you want the day to go right," said
Dona Teresa as she rose from her knees,
" always begin with saying your prayers and
washing your face. And now, Tonio, run and
catch Pinto for your father while I get his
breakfast, for the cows must be rounded up

for milking even if it is San Ramon's Day;
and Tita, you take the little red olla and go
for water! "

. in

While the Twins were gone on these er-
rands, Pancho fed the donkey, and Dona
Teresa made the fire in her queer little stove ;
only she did n't call it a stove she called
it a brasero? It was a sort of box built up
of clay and stones. The brasero stood in an

1 Brah-say'ro.
13

alcove, and beside it was a large red olla,
which Dona Teresa kept filled with water
for her cooking. Beyond the brasero was a
cupboard for the dishes.

Dona Teresa knelt before the brasero and
pulled out the ashes of yesterday's fire. Then
she put in some little sticks, lighted them,
and set a flat red dish on top of the brasero
over the tiny flames.

In the corner of the room there was a
pretty basket covered with a white drawn-
work napkin. Dona Teresa turned back the
napkin and counted out ten flat cakes, made
of corn meal. They were yesterday's tortil-
las. These she put in the dish to heat.

When they were warm, she brought some
of them to Pancho, with a dish of beans and
red chile sauce. Pancho sat down on a flat
stone under the fig tree to eat his breakfast.
He had no knife or fork or spoon, but he
really did not need them, for he tore the tor-
tillas into wedge-shaped pieces and scooped
up the beans and chile sauce with them, and
ate scoop, 'beans, chile sauce, and all in one

mouthful. The chile sauce was so hot with
red pepper that you would have thought
that Pancho must have had a tin throat in
order to swallow it at all ; but he was used
to it, and never even winked his eyes when
it went down. Just as he was taking the last
bite of the last tortilla, Tonio came back, lead-
ing Pinto by the rope of his lasso.

Tonio was very proud of catching Pinto
and bringing him back to his father all by
himself. He even put the saddle on. But the
moment he felt the saddle-girth around him
Pinto swelled up like everything, so that
Tonio could n't buckle it! Tonio pulled and
tugged until he was red in the face, but Pinto
just stood still with his ears turned back, and
stayed swelled.

Then Pancho came up. He took hold of
the strap, braced his knee against Pinto's
side, and pulled.

Pinto knew it was no use holding his
breath any longer, so he let go, and in a min-
ute Pancho had the strap securely fastened
and had vaulted into the saddle.

He was just starting away, when Dona
Teresa came running out of the hut with
something in her hand. "Here 's a bite of
lunch for you," she said, "in case you get
hungry in the field. There 's beans and chile
sauce and four tortillas."

She had put it all nicely in a little dish
with the tortillas fitted in like a cover over
the chile sauce and beans, and it was all tied
up in a clean white cloth.

Pancho took off his sombrero, put the dish
carefully on his head, and clapped his hat
down over it. The hat was large, and the
dish just fitted the crown, so it seemed quite
safe. Then he galloped off, looking very
grand and gay, with his red serape flying
out behind him.

When he was out of sight, Dona Teresa
and the Twins had their breakfasts too, sit-
ting on the stones under the fig tree.

THE BLESSING

WHEN breakfast was over you could tell by
the long, long shadow of the fig tree that
it was still very early in the morning. On
sunny days Dona Teresa could tell the time
almost exactly by its shadow, but on rainy
days she just had to guess, because there
was no clock in her little cabin.

It was lucky that it was so early, because
there were so many things to be done. The
Twins and their mother were not the only
busy people about, however, for there were
two hundred other peons beside Pancho
who worked on the hacienda, and each one
had a little cabin where he lived with his
family.

There were other vaqueros besides Pan-
'9

cho. There were ploughmen, and farmers,
and water-carriers, and servants for thegreat
white house where Senor Fernandez lived
with his wife and pretty daughter Carmen.
And there was the gatekeeper, Jose, whom
the Twins loved because he knew the most
wonderful stories and was always willing to
tell them.

There were field-workers, and wood-cut-
ters, and even fishermen. The huts where
they all lived were huddled together like a
little village, and the village, and the country
for miles and miles around, and the big
house, and the little chapel beside it, and
the schoolhouse, and everything else on
that great hacienda, belonged to Senor Fer-
nandez.

It almost seemed as if the workers all
belonged to Senor Fernandez, too, for they
had to do just what he told them to, and
there was no other place for them to go and
nothing else for them to do if they had
wanted ever so much to change.

1 Ho-sa .
20

All the people, big and little, loved the
fiesta of San Ramon. They thought the
priest's blessing would cause the hens to
lay more eggs, and the cows to give more
milk, and that it would keep all the creatures
well and .strong.

Though it was a feast day, most of the
men had gone away from their homes early,
when Pancho did; but the women and chil-
dren in all the little cabins were busy as bees,
getting themselves and their animals ready
to go in procession to the place where the
priest was to bless them.

As soon as breakfast was eaten, Dona
Teresa said to Tonio : " Go now, my Tonio,
and make Tonto beautiful ! His coat is rough
and full of burs, and he will make a very poor
figure to show the priest unless you give him
a good brushing. Only be careful of his hind
legs. You know Tonto is sometimes very
wild with his hind legs. It is strange to me
that his front ones should be so much more
tame, but it seems to be the nature of the
poor creature."

Tonio went to Tonto's shed and brought
him out and tied him to a tree. Then he
brushed his coat and took out the burs, and
braided the end of his tail, and even made a
wreath of green leaves and hung it over his
left ear. And Tonto seemed to know that it

was San Ramon's Day, for he never kicked
at all, and brayed only once, when Tonio
pulled a very large bur out of his ear.

While Tonio was making Tonto beauti-
ful, Tita swept the ground under the fig
tree and sprinkled it with water, and washed
and put away the few dishes they had
used.

Her mother was very busy meanwhile,
grinding the corn for tortillas. You see,
every single meal they had tortillas. It was
their bread, and their meat too, most of the
time, so it would never do to miss getting
the corn ground, not even if it were the
greatest feast day of the whole year.

When Tita had finished putting things
in order, her mother said to her, " Now, my
pigeon, see if you can't catch the little white
hen, and the red rooster, and the turkey.
The red rooster crows so sweetly I shall
miss him when he is put in the pot, but he
is not long for this world ! He is so greedy

there 's no satisfying him with food. He has
no usefulness at all, except to wake us in
the morning.

" But the little white hen now ! There is
the useful one ! She has already begun to
lay. She must surely go to the priest. And
as for the turkey, he needs to go for the sake
of his temper 1 I hope thzpadrecito will lay
a spell on him to stop his gobbling from
morning till night. It will be no grief to me
when he is put on to boil."

The red rooster, the hen, and the turkey
were all wandering round in the little patch
of garden behind the house, when Tita came
out, rattling some corn in a dish.

The red rooster began to run the moment
he heard corn rattle, and he called to the
hens to come too. He seemed to think they
would n't know enough even to eat corn un-
less he advised them to.

They swarmed around Tita's feet, peck-
ing at each other and snatching greedily at
each kernel as it fell.

" You all need to go to the priest for your
24

manners," Tita said to them severely. "You
behave like the pigs."

She set the dish down on the ground, and
when they all tried to get their heads into it
at once, she picked out the legs of the red
rooster and seized them with one hand, and
those of the little white hen with the other,
and before they could guess what in the
world was happening to them she had them
safely in the house, where she tied them to
the legs of the table.

When Tita went back after the turkey,
she found him eating the very last kernels
of corn out of the dish. He had driven all
the hens away and was having a very nice
time by himself. Tita made a grab for his
legs, but he was too quick for her. He flew
up into the fig tree and from there to the
roof. Tita looked up at him anxiously.

" Don't you think you ought to get
blessed?" she said. "Come down now,
that's a good old gobbler! Mother says

your temper is so bad you must surely go
to the priest, and how can I take you if you
won't come down?"

" Gobble," said the turkey, and stayed
where he was.

Tita was in despair. She threw a stick
at him, but he only walked up the thatched
roof with his toes turned in, and sat down
on the ridge-pole.

Just then Tita looked down the river path,
and there was Tonio coming with the goat !
At least he was trying to, but the goat
did n't seem to care any more about being '
blessed than the turkey did. She was stand-
ing with her four feet braced, pulling back
with all her might, while Tonio pulled for-
ward on the lasso which was looped over
her horns.

Tonio looked very angry. He called to
Tita, " Come here and help me with this fool
of a goat! I believe the devil himself has got
into her 1 She has acted just like this all the
way from the pasture 1 "

Tita ran down the path and got behind
the goat. She pushed and Tonio pulled, and
by and by they got her as far as the fig tree.
Then they tied her to a branch, and while
Dona Teresa milked her, the Twins went
after the turkey again.

Tonio had practiced lassoing bushes and
stumps and pigs and chickens and even Tita
herself, ever since he could remember, and
you may be sure no turkey could get the
best of him. He stood down in the yard and
whirled his lasso in great circles round his
head, and then all of a sudden the loop flew
into the air and dropped right over the tur-
key on the ridge-pole, and tightened around
his legs !

If he had n't had wings the turkey cer-
tainly would have tumbled off the roof. As
it was, he spread his wings and flopped
down, and Tita took him into the cabin and
tied him to the third leg of the table. There
he made himself very disagreeable to the
little white hen, and gobbled angrily at the
red rooster, and even pecked at Tita herself
when she came near.

"There! " sighed Dona Teresa, when the
turkey was safely tied ; "at last we have them
all together. Now we will make them all

gay-"

She went to the chest which held all their
28

precious things, took out three rolls of tissue
paper, and held them up for the Twins to
see. One was green, one was white, and one
was red.

"Look," said she. "These are all Mex-
ican animals, so I thought it would be nice
for them to wear the Mexican colors. Come,
my angels, and I will show you how to
make wreaths and streamers and fringes
and flowers for them to wear. Our creatures
must not shame us by looking shabby and
dull in the procession. They shall be as gay
as the best of them."

For a long time they all three worked, and
when they had made enough decorations for
all the animals, Dona Teresa brought out
another surprise. It was some gilt paint and
a brush ! She let Tonio gild the goat's horns
and hoofs, and Tita gilded the legs and feet
of the little white hen.

While she was doing it, the red rooster
stuck his bill into the dish and swallowed
two great big bites of gold paint on his own
account! Dona Teresa saw him do it.

4 ' If he is n't trying to gild himself on the
inside ! " she cried. " Did you ever see such
sinful pride ! " And then she made him swal-
low a large piece of red pepper because she
was afraid the paint would disagree with
him.

The red rooster seemed depressed for a
long time after that; but whether it was
because of the paint, or the pepper, or be-
ing so awfully dressed up, I cannot say.
His bill was gilded because he had dipped
it in the gold paint, so they gilded his legs to
match. Then they tied a white tissue-paper
wreath with long streamers around his neck.

They tied a red one on the little white hen.
They tried to decorate the turkey, too, but
he was in no mood for it, and gobbled and
pecked at them so savagely that Dona
Teresa had to tie up his head in a rag!

They stuck some red tissue-paper flowers
in Tonto's wreath, and tied red tissue-paper
streamers to the goat's horns. They put a
green ruff around the cat's neck, and a red
one on the dog ; but the dog ran at once to
the river and waded in and got it all wet, and
the color ran out and dyed his coat, and the
ruff fell off, before they were even ready to
start.

At last a gong sounded from the big
house.

The gong was the signal for the proces-
sion to start, and the moment they heard it,
the people began pouring out of their cabins,
and getting their animals together to drive
toward the place where the blessing was
to be.

3 1

Dona Teresa and Tita threw their rebozos
over their heads, and Tonio put on his som-
brero. Then Dona Teresa untied the tur-
key's legs and took him in her arms ; and
though his head was still tied in the cloth,
he gobbled like everything.

Tita took the little white hen on one arm,
and her kitten on the other, and Tonio led
the donkey, with Jasmin following behind.

They were all ready to start, when Dona
Teresa cried out, " Upon my soul ! We
nearly forgot the goat! Surely she's need-
ing a blessing as much as the worst of
them."

She hurried back to the fig tree and un-
tied the goat with one hand, because she
was still carrying the turkey with the other.
When the goat felt herself free, she gave a
great jump and nearly jerked the rope out
. of Dona Teresa's hand; then she went gal-
loping toward the gate so fast that poor
Dona Teresa was all out of breath keeping
up with her.

''Bless my soul, but that goat goes
32

gayly ! " she panted, as she joined the Twins
at the gate. " If I led her about much I
should have no chance to get fat."

Already there were crowds of people and
animals going by. It was a wonderful pro-
cession. There were horses and cows all
gayly decorated with garlands and colored
streamers. There were donkeys and pigs

and guinea-fowls and cats and dogs and
birds in cages, and so many other creatures
that it looked very much like the procession
of animals going into Noah's ark.

Dona Josefa, 1 who lived in a hut near the
river, was driving two ducks and two white
geese, --only she had dyed the geese a
bright purple, and Jose's wife had painted
stripes of red clear around her pig. She was
having a dreadful time keeping the pig in
the road, for all the little boys, and all the
little dogs and there were a great many
of both - - frisked and gamboled around the
procession and got in the way, and made
such a noise that it is no wonder the crea-
tures were distracted and tried to run away.

It was not a very great distance to the
large corrals back of the big house where
the people were to meet, and as they drew
near the grounds Tonio and Tita could see
Pancho dashing about on Pinto after stray

1 Ho-sSf'-ah.
34

cows, and other cowboys rounding up the
calves and putting them in a corral by them-
selves.

The bulls were already safely shut awa)r
in another inclosure, and all the open space
around the corrals was filled with horses,
and donkeys, and sheep, and goats, and
dogs, and cats, and fowls of all kinds, all
dressed in such gay colors and making such
a medley of sounds that the Fourth of July,
fire-crackers and all, would have seemed

like Sunday afternoon beside the celebration
of San Ramon's Day in Mexico.

Senior Fernandez, looking very grand in
his black velvet suit and big sombrero, sat
on his fine horse and watched the scene.
Beside him, on their own horses, were Dona
Paula, his wife, and pretty Carmen, their
daughter.

The servants of the big house were
grouped around them, and all the rest of
the people passed back and forth among the
animals, trying to make them keep still and
behave themselves until the priest should
appear.

It was not long before the priest came
out of his house, with a small boy beside
him carrying a basin of holy water.

Dona Teresa and all the people knelt on
the ground when they saw him coming.
The priest walked among them chanting a
prayer and sprinkling drops of holy water
over the animals and over the people too.
Of course the people behaved very well, but
I am sorry to have to tell you that when he

felt the drops of water fall on the rag that
his head was tied up in, the turkey gobbled
just exactly as if it were Tita or Dona
Teresa instead of the priest!

And the cat stuck up her tail and arched
her back, in a most impolite way. Perhaps
that was not to be wondered at, because we
all know that cats can never bear water, not
even holy water.

But when Tonto, who should have known
better, and who was used to being out in
the rain even, stuck his nose up in the air
and let out a " hee-haw, hee-haw" that set
every other donkey in the crowd hee-haw-
ing too, Dona Teresa felt as if she should
die of mortification.

Only the red rooster, the little white hen,
the goat, and the Twins behaved as if they
had had any bringing up at all ! However,
the priest did n't seem to mind it. He went
in and out among the people, sprinkling the
water and chanting his prayer until the basin
was empty. Then he pronounced the bless-
ing.

When he had finished, the people drove
their creatures back to their homes, or to
the fields.

Pancho came riding along and took Tita
and the white hen up on Pinto's back with
him. Tonio rode Tonto and carried the
rooster. Tita had to put the cat down to get
up on the horse, and when Tonio's dog saw
her he barked at her, and she ran just as fast
as she could and got to the cabin and up on
the roof out of reach.

Dona Teresa walked along with Dona
Josefa, and talked with her about her rheu-
matism and about how badly the animals
behaved, and how handsome Dona Josefa's
purple geese were, until she turned in at
their own gate.

When she was in their own yard once
more, she set the turkey down and untied
his head. Tonio let the rooster go, and Tita
set the little white hen free, and they all three
ran under Tonto's shed as if they were afraid

they might get blessed again if they stayed
where they could easily be caught. And they
never came out until they had torn the tissue
paper all to pieces and left it lying on the
ground.

Tonio got the goat back to pasture by
39

walking in front of her, holding a carrot just
out of reach, and Pancho took Pinto and the
donkey down to the river for a drink, while
Tita and her mother went into the cabin to
get the second breakfast ready. When peo-
ple get up so very early they need two break-
fasts.

Dona Teresa was just patting the meal
into cakes with her hands and cooking them
over the brasero, when Pancho came in the
cabin door with dreadful red streams run-
ning down his head and face and over his
white cotton clothes!

When Dona Teresa saw him, she
screamed and flew to his side. "What is
it, my Pancho?" she cried. "You are hurt
you are killed, my angel ! Oh, what has
happened ? "

She asked so many questions and poured
out so many words that Pancho could n't
get one in edgewise; so he just took off his
hat, and there was the dish of chile sauce
and tortillas broken all to bits, and the chile
sauce spilled all over his face and clothes!

"It was that foolish Tonto that did
it," he said, when he could say anything
at all. "I was just putting him back in
his shed when he cried, 'Hee-haw,' and
let fly with both hind feet at once and one
of them just grazed my head, and broke
the dish."

Dona Teresa sat down heavily with her
hand on her heart. "If anything had hap-
pened to you, my rose, my angel," she said,
"I should have died of sorrow! Tonto is
indeed a very careless beast. It would seem
as if the padrecito's blessing might have put
more sense into him. It must be the will of
God that there should be a great deal of
foolishness in the world, but without doubt
donkeys and goats have more than their
share."

Just then she smelled the tortillas burn-
ing and ran back to attend to them, while
Pancho washed himself at the trough, and
mopped the chile sauce off his clothes.

In a little while the Twins and their fa-
ther and mother were all sitting about on

4 1

the stones under the fig tree, eating their
second breakfast. And when they had all
had every bit they could hold, it was almost
noon.

Ill

THE PARTY

Ill

THE PARTY

EARLY that evening, when Pancho had
rounded up the cows and taken them back
again to pasture, and the goat had been
milked, the animals fed, and supper eaten
and cleared away, the Twins and their father
and mother sat down together outside their
cabin door.

The moon had risen and was shining
so brightly that it made beautiful patterned
shadows under the fig tree. There were
pleasant evening sounds all about. Some-
times it was the hoot of an owl or the chirp
of a cricket, but oftener it was the sound of
laughter and of children's voices from the
huts near by.

The red rooster, the turkey, and the hens
were all asleep in the fig tree. Tita could see

their bunchy shadows among the shadows
of the leaves. The cat was away hunting for
field-mice. Jasmin sat beside Tonio, with
his tongue hanging out, and everything was
very quiet and peaceful.

Then suddenly, quite far away, they heard
a faint tinkling sound. " Ting-a-ling-ling ;
ting-a-ling-ling," it went, and then there was
a voice singing : -

" Crown of the high hill
That with your cool shadow
Gives me life,
Where is my beloved ?
Oh, beautiful hill,
Where dwells my love ?
If I am sleeping,
I 'm dreaming of thee ;
If I am waking, thee only I see."

The voice came nearer and nearer, and
children's voices began to join in the sing-
ing, and soon Tonio and Tita could see dark
forms moving in the moonlight. There was
one tall figure, and swarming around it there
were ever so many short ones.

"It's Jose with his guitar!" cried the
46

Twins, and they flew out to meet him.
Dona Teresa and Pancho came too.

" God give you good evening," they all
cried out to each other when they met; and
then Jose said, " Have you plenty of sweet
potatoes, Dona Teresa? We have come with
our dishes and our pennies."

"Yes," laughed DonaTeresa. "I thought
you might come to-night and I knew your
sweet tooth, Jose ! And all these little ones,
have they each got a sweet tooth too?"

" Oh yes, Dona Teresa, please cook us
some sweet potatoes, won't you ? " the chil-
dren begged. They held up their empty
dishes.

"Well, then, come in, all of you," said
DonaTeresa, "and I will see what I can do."

She hurried back to the cabin. Pancho
went with her, and Jose and the Twins and
all the other children came trooping after
them and swarmed around the cabin door.

Pancho made a little brasero right in the
middle of the open space beside the fig tree.
He made it of stones, and built a fire in it.

While he was doing that, Dona Teresa got
her sweet potatoes ready to cook, and when
she came out with the cooking-dish and a
jug of syrup in her hands, the children set
up a shout of joy.

" Now sit down, all of you," commanded
Dona Teresa, as she knelt beside the bra-
sero and poured the syrup into the cooking-

pan, " It will take some time to cook enough
for every one, and if you are in too much
of a hurry you may burn your fingers and
your tongue. Jose, you tell us a story while
we are waiting."

So they all sat down in a circle around
Dona Teresa with Jose opposite her, and
the fire flickered in the brasero, and lighted
up all the eager brown faces and all the
bright black eyes, as they watched Dona
Teresa's cooking-pan.

Then Jose told the story of Br'er Rabbit
arid the Tar Baby; and after that he told
how Br'er Rabbit made a riding-horse out
of Br'er Fox ; and when he had finished, the
sweet potatoes were ready.

"Who shall have the first piece?" asked
Dona Teresa, holding up a nice brown slice.

"Jose, Jose," cried all the children.

Jose took out his penny and gave it to
Dona Teresa, and held out his dish. She
took up a big piece of sweet potato on the

end of a pointed stick. It was almost safely
landed in Jose's dish, when suddenly there
was a great flapping of wings and a loud
"Cock-a-doodle-doo," right behind Jose!

The red rooster had opened his eyes, and
when he saw the glow of the fire, he thought
it must be morning. So he crowed at once,
and then flew right down off his perch, and
before any one knew what he was after or
could stop him, he had snatched Jose's can-
died sweet potato off the end of Dona Te-
resa's stick, and was running away with it
as fast as he could go !

"Thanks be to God," said Jose, "that
piece was still very hot!"

The red rooster soon found that out for
himself. He was so afraid that somebody
would get his morsel away from him that he
swallowed it whole, boiling hot syrup and all !
He thought it was worse than the red pepper
and the gold paint he had taken that morning.

He opened his bill wide and squawked
with pain, and his v eyes looked wild. The
children rolled on the ground with laughter.

The last they saw of the red rooster he was
running to the back of the house, where a
dish of water was kept for the chickens; and
it is perfectly true that for three days after
that he could hardly crow at all!

Dona Teresa was dreadfully ashamed of
the red rooster. She apologized and gave
Jose another piece of sweet potato at once,
and then she passed out more pieces to the
children, and said : -

"Now mind you don't behave like the
rooster ! You see what he got for being
greedy."

The children sucked their pieces slowly,
so as to make them last a long time, and
while they got themselves all sticky with
syrup, Jose told them the story of Cinder-
ella and her glass slippers and her pumpkin
coach, and two ghost stories.

"Where did you learn so many beauti-
ful stories, Jose ? " asked Tonio when he had
finished the last one. "Did you read them
out of a book?" (You see Tonio and Tita
and some of the older children went to
school and were beginning to read a little.)

Jose shook his head. "No," he said, "I
did n't read them out of books. I never had
a chance to go to school when I was a boy.
I tell you these stories just as they were told
to me by my mother when I was as small
as you are. And she could n't read either,
so somebody must have told them to her.
Not everything comes from books, you
sec."

" Yes," said Dona Teresa. " I heard them
5*

from my mother when I was a child, and
she could n't read any more than Pancho
and I can. But with these children here it
will be different. They can get stories from
you, and out of the books too. It is a great
thing to have learning, though a peon can
get along with very little of it, praise
God."

Up to this time Pancho had not said a
single word. He had brought sticks for the
fire and had listened silently to the stories ;
but now he spoke.

"When the peons get enough learning,
they will learn not to be peons at all," he
said.

"But whatever will they be then?"
gasped Dona Teresa. "Surely they must
be whatever the good God made them, and
if they are born peons

She stopped and looked a little alarmed,
as if she thought perhaps after all it might
be as well for Tonio and Tita to be like
most of the people she knew quite un-
able to read or write.

She crossed herself, and snatched Tita to
her breast.

" You shall not learn enough to make you
fly away from the nest, my bird ! " she said.

Then Pancho spoke again. "With girls
it does not matter," he said. " Girls do not
need to know any thing but how to grind corn
and make tortillas, and mind the babies -
that is what girls are for. But boys - - boys
will be men and - But here it seemed to
occur to him that perhaps he was saying
too much, and he became silent again.

Jose had listened thoughtfully, and when
Pancho finished he sighed a little and made
a soft little "ting-ting-a-ting-ting" on his
guitar-strings. Then he jumped up and be-
gan to sing and dance, playing the guitar
all the while. It was a song about the little
dwarfs, and the children loved it.

" Oh, how pretty are the dwarfs,
The little ones, the Mexicans !
Out comes the pretty one,
Out comes the ugly one,
Out comes the dwarf with his jacket of skin."

Jose sang, and every time he came to
the words, -

" Out comes the little one,
Out comes the pretty one,"

he stooped down as he danced and made
himself look as much like a dwarf as he
possibly could.

When he had finished the Dwarf Song,
Jose tucked his guitar under his arm, and
bowed politely to Dona Teresa and Pancho.

" Adios ! " he said. " May you rest well."

" Adios, adios ! " shouted all the children.

And Pancho and Dona Teresa and the
Twins replied: "Adios I God give you sweet
sleep."

Then Jose and the children went away,
and the tinkle of the guitar grew fainter and
fainter in the distance. When they could no
longer hear it, Dona Teresa went into the
cabin, unrolled the mats, and laid out the
pillows, arid soon the Twins and their father
and mother were all sound asleep on their
hard beds.

When at last everything was quiet, the
red rooster came stepping round from be-
hind the house, and looked at the dying
coals of the fire as if he wondered whether
they were good to eat. He seemed to think
it best not to risk it, however, for he flew up
into the fig tree once more and settled him-
self for the night.

TONIC'S BAD DAY

IV
TONIC'S BAD DAY

IT is hard for us to understand how they
tell what season it is in a country like Mex-
ico, where there is no winter, and no snow
except on the tops of high mountains, and
where flowers bloom all the year round.

Tonio and Tita can tell pretty well by the
way they go to school. During the very hot
dry weather of April and May there is vaca-
tion. In June, when the rainy season be-
gins, school opens again. Then, though the
rain pours down during some part of every
day or night, in between times the sky is so
blue, and the sunshine so bright, and the air
so sweet, that the Twins like the rainy sea- ,
son really better than the dry.

If you should pass the open door of their
school some day when it is in session, you

would hear a perfect Babel of voices all
talking at once and saying such things as
this, --only they would say them in Span-
ish instead of English,

"The cat sees the rat. Run, rat, run.
Two times six is thirteen, two times seven
is fifteen " (I hope you 'd know at once that
that was wrong). " Mexico is bounded on
the north by the United States of America,
on the east by the Gulf of Mexico, on the
west by the Pacific Ocean, on the . . .
Cortez conquered Mexico in 1519 and
brought the holy Catholic religion to Mex-
ico. The Church is . . ."

Then perhaps you would clap your hands
on your ears and think the whole school had
gone crazy, but it would only mean that in
Mexico the children all study aloud. The
sixth grade is as high as any one ever goes,
and most of them stop at the fourth.

Senor Fernandez thinks that is learning
enough for any peon, and as it is his school,
and his teacher, and his land, of course
things have to be as he says.

Pancho asked the priest about it one day.
He said : " I should like to have Tonio get
as much learning as he can. Learning must
be a great thing. All the rich and powerful
people seem to have it. Perhaps that is what
makes them rich and powerful."

But the priest shook his head and said,
" Tonio needs only to know how to be good,
and obey the Church, and to read and write
and count a little. More knowledge than
that would make him unhappy and discon-
tented with his lot. You do not wish to make
him unhappy. Contentment with godliness
is great gain. Is it not so, my son ? "

The priest called everybody, even Sefior
Fernandez himself, " my son," unless he
was speaking to a girl or a woman, and then
he said, "my daughter."

Pancho scratched his head as if he were
very much puzzled by a good many things
in this world, but he only said, " Yes, little
father," very humbly, and went away to
mend the gate of the calves' corral.

I am not going to tell you very much about
the Twins' school, because the Twins did n't
care so very much about it themselves.

But I am going to tell you about one
particular day, because that day a great deal
happened to Tonio. Some of it was n't at all
pleasant, but you will not be surprised at
that when I explain the reason why.

A good many months had passed by since
San Ramon's Day, and it was a bright beau-
tiful spring morning, when the Twins left
their little adobe hut to go to school.

They had to be there at half past eight,
and as the schoolhouse was some distance
down the road and there were a great many
interesting things on the way, they started
rather early.

Dona Teresa gave them two tortillas
apiece, rolled up with beans inside, to eat
at recess, and Tonio wrapped them in a cloth
and carried them in his hat just the way
Pancho carried his lunch, only there was no

chile sauce, this time. Dona Teresa waved
good-bye to them from the trough where
she was grinding her corn.

The air was full of the sweet odor of
honeysuckle blossoms, and the roadsides
were gay with flowers, as the Twins walked
along. The birds were flying about getting
material for their nests, and singing as if
they would split their little throats.

Sheep were grazing peacefully in a pas-
ture beside the road, with their lambs gam-
boling about them. In a field beyond, the
goats were leaping up in the air and butting
playfully at each other, as if the lovely day
made them feel lively too. Calves were
bleating in the corrals, and away off on the
distant hillside the children could see cows
moving about, and an occasional flash of red
when a vaquero rode along, his bright ser-
ape flying in the sun.

Farther away there were blue, blue moun-
tain-peaks crowned with glistening snow,
and from one of them a faint streak of white
smoke rose against the blue of the sky. It

was a beautiful morning in a beautiful world
where it seemed as if every one was meant
to be happy and good.

The school was not far from the gate
where Jose, the gate-keeper, sat all day,
waiting to open and close the gate for cow-
boys as they drove the cattle through.

The Twins stopped to speak to Jose, and
64

just then on a stone right beside the gate
Tonio saw a little green lizard taking a sun
bath. He was about six inches long and he
looked like a tiny alligator.

Tonio crept up behind him very quietly
and as quick as a flash caught him by the tail.
Just then the teacher rang the bell, and the
Twins ran along to join the other children
at the schoolhouse door, but not one of them,
not even Tita herself, knew that Tonio had
that green lizard in his pocket!

Tonio did n't wear any clothes except a
thin white cotton suit, and he could feel the
lizard squirming round in his pocket. Tonio
did n't like tickling, and the lizard tickled
like everything.

As they came into the schoolroom, the
boys took off their hats and said, "God give
you good day," to the Senor Maestro '-
that is what they called the teacher.

Then they hung their hats on nails in the
wall, while the girls curtsied to the teacher
and went to their seats.

1 Mah-*s'tr6.
65

When they were all in their places and
quiet, the Senor Maestro stood up in front
^f the school, and raised his hand. At once

^1 the children knelt down beside their seats.
The Maestro knelt too, put his hands to-
gether, bowed his head, and said a prayer.
He was right in the middle of the prayer
when the lizard tickled so awfully in Tonio's
pocket that Tonio, --I really hate to have
to tell it, but facts are facts, - - Tonio laughed
aloud 1

Then he was so scared, and so afraid he
would laugh again if the lizard kept on tick-
ling, that he put his hand in his pocket and
took it out. Kneeling in front of Tonio was
a boy named Pablo, and the bare soles of
his feet were turned up in such a way that
Tonio just could n't help dropping the lizard
on to them.

The lizard ran right up Pablo's leg, inside
his cotton trousers, and Pablo let out a yell
like a wild Indian on the warpath, and began
to act as if he had gone crazy.

He jumped up and danced about clutch-
66

ing his clothes, and screaming! The Senor
Maestro and the children were perfectly
amazed. They could n't think what ailed
Pablo until, all of a sudden, the green lizard
dropped on the floor out of his sleeve and
scuttled as fast as it could toward the girls'
side of the room. Then the girls screamed
and stood on their seats until the lizard got
out of sight.

Nobody knew where it had gone, until
the Senor Maestro suddenly fished it out of

a chink in the adobe wall and held it up by
the tail.

" Who brought this lizard into the school-
room? " he asked.

Tonio did n't have to say a word. I don't
know how they could be so sure of it, but all
the children pointed their fingers at Tonio
and said, " He did."

The Maestro said very sternly to Tonio,
"Go out to the willow tree and bring me a
strong switch." Tonio went.

He went very slowly and came back with
the willow switch more slowly still.

I think you can guess what happened
next - - 1 hope you can, for I really cannot
bear to tell you about it. When it was over
Tonio was sent home, while all the other
children sat straight up in their seats, look-
ing so hard at their books that they were
almost cross-eyed, and studying their les-
sons at the top of their lungs.

If you had asked them then, they would
every one have told you that they con-
sidered it very wrong to bring lizards to

school, and that under no circumstances
would they ever think of doing such a thing.

Tonio walked slowly down the road to-
ward his home. He did n't cry, but he
looked as if he wished he could just come
across somebody else who was doing some-
thing wrong ! He 'd like to teach him better.

When Jose saw him, he called out to him,
"Is school out?"

"No," said Tonio. " I am," and he never
said another word to Jose.

He had the willow switch in his hand.
The Maestro had given it to him, " to re-
member him by," he said. Tonio felt pretty
sure he could remember him without it, but
he switched the weeds beside the road with
it as he walked along, and there was some
comfort in that.

At last he remembered that he had a
luncheon in the crown of his hat. He sat
down beside the road and ate all four tor-
tillas and every single bean. Then he went
home. His mother was not in the house
when he got there.

Jasmin came frisking up to Tonio and
jumped about him and licked his hand. It
seemed strange to Tonio that even a dog
could be cheerful in such a miserable world.
He took his lasso down from the wall and
went out again with Jasmin.

The cat was lying back of the house in
the sunshine asleep. Tonio pointed her out
to Jasmin and he sent her up the fig tree in
a hurry. Then Jasmin chased the hens. He
drove the red rooster right in among the

beehives, and when the bees came out to
see what was the matter they chased Jasmin
instead of the rooster, and stung him on the
nose. Jasmin ran away yelping to dig his
nose in the dirt, and Tonio went on by him-
self through the woods.

Soon he came to the stepping-stones that
led across the river to the goat-pasture,
and there he met Jose's son and another
boy.

" Hello, there ! Where are you going? "
Tonio called to them.

"We aren't going; we've been," said
Jose's son, whose name was Juan. 1 The
other boy's name was Ignacio. 2

" Well, where have you been then ? " said
Tonio.

" Down to the lake hunting crabs. We
did n't find any," they said.

You see there is no law in Mexico that
every child must go to school, and the par-
ents of Juan and Ignacio did n't make them
go either, so they often stayed away.

1 Hwahn. * Ig-nah'sI-5.

"What's the reason you're not in
school?" Juan said to Tonio. "I thought
your father always made you go."

"Well," said Tonio, "I---I--hum
well - - I thought I would rather play bull-
fight up in the pasture ! I Ve got an old goat
up there trained so he '11 butt every time he
sees me. Come along."

The three boys crossed on the stepping-
stones, and ran up the hill on the other side
of the river to the goat-pasture.

There was a growing hedge of cactus
plants around the goat-pasture. This kind
of cactus grows straight up in tall, round
spikes about as large around as a boy's leg,
and higher than a man's head. The spikes
are covered with long, stiff spines that stick
straight out and prick like everything if you
run into them. The only way to get through
such a fence is to go to the gate, so the
boys ran along until they came to some
bars. They opened the bars (and forgot
to put them up again) and went into the
pasture.

When they got inside the pasture the boys
looked about for the goat. This goat was
quite a savage one, and was kept all by him-
self in a small field. It did not take them
long to find him. He was grazing quietly in
the shadow of a mesquite 1 tree. As Tonio
had the only lasso there was, he knew he
1 Mes'keet.
73

could have the game all his own way, so he
said,

" I '11 take the first turn with the lasso,
Ignacio ; you wave your red scrape at the
goat while Juan stirs him up from behind."

The goat had his head down, eating grass,
and did not notice the boys until suddenly
Juan split the air behind him with a fearful
roar and prodded his legs with a stick.

" Ah, Toro ! ' ' roared Juan at the top of his
lungs just as he had heard the matadors do
at a real bull-fight, and at the same moment
Ignacio shook out his red serape.

The goat looked up, saw Tonio and the
red serape, and immediately stood up on
his hind legs. Then he came down with a
thump on his fore feet, put his head down,
and ran at Ignacio like a bullet from a gun.
Ignacio waved the serape and shouted, and
when the goat got very near, he jumped to
one side as he had seen the matadors do,
and the goat butted with all his might right
into the serape.

When he struck the serape his horn went
74

through one end of it. Ignacio had hold of
the other end and before he knew what had
happened he was rolling backward down a
little slope into a pool of water which was
the goat's drinking-place.

Meanwhile the goat went bounding about
75

the pasture with the scrape hanging from
one horn. Every few minutes he would
stamp on it and paw it with his fore feet.
Ignacio picked himself out of the water, and
then all three boys began a wild chase to
get back the serape. It would be a sad day
for Ignacio if he went home without it.

Scrapes are the most valuable things there
are in a peon's hut, and were never intended
to be used by goats in this way.

Tonio could n't lasso the goat because
the serape covered his horns, so the boys
all tried to snatch off the serape as the goat
went galloping past, but every time they
tried it the goat butted at them, and they
had to run for their lives.

At last the goat stood up on his hind legs
and came down on the serape so hard that
there was a dreadful tearing sound, and there
was the serape torn clear in two and lying
on the ground 1

When his horns were free, the goat looked
around for the boys. He was a very mad
goat, and when he saw them he went for

them like an express train. Juan ran one
way, and Ignacio ran the other. Tonio was
a naughty boy, but he was n't a coward.
He kept his lasso whirling over his head,
and as the goat came by, out flew the loop
and dropped over his horns!

The goat was much stronger than he, but
Tonio braced back with all his might and
held on to the rope. Then began a wild
dance! The goat went bounding around
the pasture with Tonio at the other end of
the rope bouncing after him.

'It was a sight to see, and Juan, and
Ignacio were not the only ones who saw it
either.

Sefior Fernandez was going by on his
fine black horse, and when he heard the
yells of the boys he rode up to the pasture
to see what was going on. He was right
beside the bars when the goat and Tonio
came tearing through.

The goat jumped over the bars that the
77

boys had left down, but Tonio caught his
foot and fell down, and the goat jerked the
rope out of his hands and went careering
off over the fields and was soon out of sight.

Tonio sat up all out of breath and looked
at Senor Fernandez. Senor Fernandez
looked at Tonio. Juan and Ignacio were
nowhere to be seen. They were behind
bushes in the goat-pasture, and they were
both very badly scared.

"Well," said Senor Fernandez at last,
"what have you been doing?"

"Just playing bull-fight a little," Tonio
answered in a very small voice.

" Did n't you know that was my goat?"
said Senor Fernandez severely. "What
business have you driving it mad like that?
Get up."

Tonio got up. He was stiff and sore all
over. Moreover, his hands were all skinned
inside, where the rope had pulled through.

"Were you alone?" asked Senor Fer-
nandez.

"Not very- ' stammered Tonio.

"Where are the other boys?" demanded
the Sefior Fernandez.

" I d don't know," gasped poor Tonio.
"I I don't see them anywhere." (Tonio
was looking right up into the top of the cac-
tus hedge when he said this, so I am quite
sure he spoke the truth.)

"Humph," grunted Senor Fernandez.
"Go look for them."

Tonio began to hunt around stones and
bushes in the pasture with Sefior Fernandez
folio wing right behind on his horse. It wasn't
long before he caught a glimpse of red. It
was the pieces of the scrape, which Ignacio
had picked up. Tonio pointed it out, and
Senor Fernandez galloped to it and brought
out the two culprits. Then he marched the
three boys back to the village in front of his

horse, Tonio with his blistered hands and
i

torn clothes, Juan with bumps that were al-
ready much swollen, and Ignacio wet as a
drowned rat and carrying the rags of the
serape.

When they got back to the river they
79

found Dona Teresa there washing out some
clothes. When she saw them coming she
stopped rubbing and looked at them. She
was perfectly astonished. She supposed, of
course, that Tonio was in school.

" Here, Dona Teresa, is a very bad boy,"
Senor Fernandez said to her. "He has been
chasing my goat all around the pasture and
lassoing it, and he left the bars down and
they are broken besides, and no one knows
where the goat is by this time. I '11 leave
him to you, but I want you to make a thor-
ough job of It."

He didn't say just what she should make
a thorough job of, but Tonio had n't the
smallest doubt about what he meant. Dona
Teresa seemed to understand too.

Senor Fernandez rode on and left Tonio
with his mother while he took the other two
boys to their homes. What happened there
I do not know, but when she and Tonio
were alone I do know that Dona Teresa said
sternly, " Go bring me a strong switch from
the willow tree," and that Tonio thought, as

he went for it, that there were more willow
trees in the world than were really needed

And I know that when Dona Teresa had
done "IT' -whatever it was that Sefior
Fernandez had asked her to do thoroughly
-Tonio felt that it would be a very long
time before he took any interest in either
lizards or goats again.

That evening Pancho went out with Pinto
and hunted up the goat and put him back
in the pasture and brought home Tonio's
lasso, and when he hung it up on the nail
he said to Tonio, " I think you 're too young
to be trusted with a lasso. Let that alone
for two weeks."

That was the very worst of all. To be
told that he was too young ! Tonio went out
and sat down under the fig tree and thought
perhaps he'd better run away.

But pretty soon Tita came out and sat
down beside him and told him she was sure
he never meant any harm about the lizard,
and his mother washed his skinned ta.nds
and put oil on them, and brought him some

molasses to eat on his tortillas just as if she
still loved him in spite of everything.

So Tonio went to bed quite comforted,
and that was the end of that day.

V
JUDAS ISCARIOT DAY

ONE day, later in spring, in the week just be-
fore Easter, Dona Teresa got ahead of the
red rooster. It happened in this way. Early
in the morning, when everything was still as
dark as a pocket, and not a single rooster
in the neighborhood had yet thought of
crowing, Dona Teresa woke up and lighted
a candle. Then she went over to the Twins'
mat and held up her candle so she could
look at them. They were both sound asleep.
"Wake up, my lambs," said Dona Te-
resa. But her lambs did n't wake up. Dona
Teresa shook them gently. " Wake up, dor-
mice ! Don't you know this is Judas Isca-
riot Day, and you are all going to town?
Come, we are going in Pedro's boat, and
he has to start early."

Tita began to rub her eyes, and Tonio
was sitting up with both of his wide open
the moment Dona Teresa said the word
" boat." They bounced out in a minute, and
they even washed without being told, and
they used soap, too!

Pancho was roused by the noise they
made. He got up at once and went to attend
to the donkey and to Pinto. When he opened
the door the gleam of Dona Teresa's candle
woke the red rooster. He began to crow, and
then all the other roosters crowed, and almost
right away candles were glimmering in every
hut in the village and every one was up and
getting ready to start to town.

Everybody was going. Some were going
on horseback and some on donkeys ; more
were walking, and as it was many miles from
the hacienda to the town it was necessary
to start very early.

The quickest way to go was by boat, but,
of course, not every one could go that
way because there were not enough boats.
Pedro's boat went back and forth every day

between the hacienda and the town, carry-
ing wood and all kinds of supplies. He was
a friend of Pancho's and that was how they
were so fortunate as to be invited to go with
him.

Dona Teresa got breakfast very quickly,
and while they were eating it they heard a
voice calling, " Here, buy your Judases -
at six and twelve cents your Judases."

''There comes the Judas-seller. Run,
children, run," cried Dona Teresa. "You
may each have twelve cents and you may
buy two little ones or one big one, as you
like."

The Judas-seller had a long branch cut
from a tree, with little twigs growing out of
it. On each twig hung a "Judas." They
were small dolls, with sticky pink-painted
faces and sticky black-painted hair, and they
were dressed in tissue paper. The hands of
the Judases were stuck straight out on each
side and from one hand to the other there
was a string stretched. Fire-crackers were
hung along on this string. When these fire-

crackers go off, one after another, they set
fire to the Judas and burn him up.

You remember that long years ago, when
Jesus was on earth, He was betrayed by a
man named Judas Iscariot, who sold Him
to his enemies for thirty pieces of silver. In
Mexico, Judas Iscariot Day is kept in re-
membrance of this, and all the Judases
which the people buy and burn up are to
show how very wicked they believe the real
Judas to have been.

But the Judas dolls did n't look the least
bit as the real Judas must have looked.
Some of them were made to look like Mex-
ican donkey-boys and some like water-car-
riers, while others represented priests, or
policemen, or cowboys.

Tita could n't make up her mind whether
to buy a donkey-boy or a policeman. But
Tonio found what he wanted right away.
It was a " Judas " made like a thin young
school-teacher! Tonio thought it looked
like the Senor Maestro, and he thought it
would be very pleasant to see him burn up,

and so, though he cost twelve cents, he
bought him at once.

When Pancho and Dona Teresa and the
Twins were ready they went in a little pro-
cession to the lake-shore. They found Pe-
dro with his wife and baby and Pablo al-
ready there.

This was the very same Pablo on whose
feet Tonio had put the lizard. He was Pe-
dro's son.

Pedro was loading the boat with bundles
of reeds. They were the reeds used for
weaving the petates ' or sleeping-mats. The
reeds grew all about the lake, but the peo-
ple in the town could not easily get them,
so Pedro had gathered a supply to sell to
them.

The boat was quite large. It had one sail
and there was a thatched roof of reeds over
,the back part of it. It was too large to bring
into the shallow water near the shore, so

1 Pay-tab 'lays.
89

Pedro had rolled up his white trousers and
was wading back and forth from the boat to
the beach, carrying a bundle of reeds each
time and stowing it away under the thatch.

Pancho at once took off his sandals,
rolled up his trousers, and began to help
carry the bundles, while Dona Teresa and
the Twins sat on the sand with Pablo and
the baby and their mother.

There was a large sack of sweet potatoes
lying on the sand beside Pedro's wife. You
could tell they were sweet potatoes because

the bundle was so knobby. Besides Tonio
felt of them.

4 'What are you going to do Udth your
sweet potatoes?" asked Dona Teresa.

" I 'm going to cook them in* molasses
and sell them," said Pedro's wife. "I shall
sit under an awning and watch the fun and
turn a penny at the same time. The baby
is too heavy to carry round all day, any-
way."

" I '11 help you," said Dona Teresa.
" Very likely I shall be glad enough to sit
down somewhere myself before the day is
over."

" Pedro made me a little brasero out of
a tin box," said his wife, "and I have a
bundle of wood right here, and the syrup
and the dishes, all ready."

When the reeds had all been put on
board, Pancho took Tonio in his arms and
Pedro took Pablo, and they tossed them
into the boat as if they had been sacks of
meal. The boys scrambled under the cov-
ered part and out to the bow at once, and

9 1

Pablo got astride the very nose of the boat
and let his feet hang over.

Then Pedro lifted Tita in.

It was more of a job to get the mothers
aboard, for Pedro's wife was fat, and he
was a. small man. Pedro shook his head
when he looked at his wife, then he took
off his sombrero, and scratched his head.
At last he said, "I think I'll begin with
the baby."

He took the baby and waded out to the
boat and handed her to Tita, then he went
back to shore and took another look at his
wife. "It'll take two of us," he said to
Pancho.

" I 'm your man," said Pancho bravely.
"I can lift half of her."

So Pedro and Pancho made a chair with
their arms, and Pedro's wife sat on it, and
put her arms around their necks, and they
waded out with her into the water.

They got along beautifully until they
reached the side of the boat and undertook
to lift her over the edge. Then there came

near being an awful accident, for Pedro's
foot slipped on a slimy stone and he let her
down on one side so that one of her feet
went into the water.

" Holy mother ! " screamed Pedro's wife.
" They are going to drown me ! "

She waved her arms about and jounced
so that Pancho almost dropped the other
foot in too, but just in time Pedro shouted,
"One, two, three, and over she goes," and

v as he said over, he and Pancho gave a
great heave both together, and in she went
all in a heap beside Tita and the baby.

While she crawled under the awning and
settled herself with the baby and stuck her
foot out in the sunshine to dry, Pancho and
Pedro went back for Dona Teresa. She
was n't very stout so they got her in with-
out any trouble.

They put in the brasero and all the other
things, and last of all Pancho and Pedro
climbed on board themselves, hoisted the
sail, and pushed off. Luckily the breeze was
just right, and they floated away over the
blue water at about the time of day that you
first begin to think of waking up.

Even with a good breeze it took nearly
an hour to sail across the lake. If they
had n't been in such a hurry to see the fun
in town, the Twins and Pablo would have
wished to have it take longer still.

Far away across the lake they could see
94

the town with its little bright-colored adobe
houses and the spire of the church standing
up above thre tree-tops.

As they drew nearer and nearer, they
could see a bridge, and people passing over
it, and flags flying, and then they turned
into a river which ran through the town,
where there were many other boats.

It took some time to find a good place to
tie the boat, but at last it was done, and the
whole party went ashore and started up the
street toward the open square in the middle
of the town.

Pedro and Pancho went ahead, each carry-
ing three bundles of reeds on his back. Then
came Pedro's wife with the bag of sweet
potatoes, while Dona Teresa carried the
baby. Pablo had the brasero and the wood,
and Tonio and Tita brought up the rear
with the molasses jug, the cooking-dishes,
and their Judases all carefully packed to-
gether.

" Now, mind you, Tonio," said Dona
Teresa as the procession started, "don't

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you get to watching everything in the street
and forget that jug of molasses."

It was pretty hard to keep your mind on
96

a jug wheri chere were so many wonderful
things to see. In the first place there was
the street itself. No one had ever seen it so
gay! Strings had been stretched back and
forth across the street from the flat tops of
the houses on either side, and from these
strings hung thousands of tissue-paper
streamers and pennants in all sorts of
gorgeous colors.

The houses in Mexican towns are close
to the street-line and stand very near to-
gether. They are built around a tiny open
space in the center called a patio. The liv-
ing-rooms open on the patio, so all that
can be seen of a house from the street is
a blank wall with a doorway, and per-
haps a window or two with little balconies.
Sometimes, if the door is open, there are
glimpses of plants, flowers, and bird-cages
in the little patio.

Pablo and Tonio and Tita had their
hands full, but they kept their eyes open,
and their mouths too. They seemed to feel
they could see more that way.

It was not very long before they came to
the public square or plaza of the town, and
there on one side was the church whose
spire they had seen from the boat.

On the other side was the market-place,
and in the center of the square there was a
fountain. In another place there was a gayly
painted band-stand with the red, white, and
green flag of Mexico flying over it.

There were beds of gay geraniums at
each corner of the square, and large trees
made a pleasant shade where people could
sit and watch the crowds, or listen to music,
if the band were playing.

Pedro and Pancho went straight across
the street to the market side. There were
rows of small booths there, and already
many of them were occupied by people who
had things to sell. There were peanut-ven-
ders, and pottery-sellers ; there were women
with lace and drawn work ; there were foods
of all kinds, and flowers, and birds in cages,

and chickens in coops or tied up by the legs,
and geese and ducks, --in fact, I can't be-
gin to tell you all the things there were for
sale in that market

Pedro found a stall with an awning over
it and took possession at once. He and
Pancho put down the bundles of reeds in
a pile, and his wife sat on them. Pedro
placed the brasero on the ground in front
of her, and the sweet potatoes by her side.
Pablo put down the wood, and Dona Te-
resa put the baby into her arms. Tita gave
her the cooking-dishes, and Tonio was just
going to hand her the jug, when bang-
bang-bang! -- three fire-crackers went off
one right after the other almost in his ear !
Tonio jumped at least a foot high, and oh
- the jug! It accidentally tipped over side-
ways, and poured a puddle of molasses
right on top of the baby's head !

It ran down his cheek, but the baby had
the presence of mind to stick his tongue
out sideways and lick up some of it, so it
was n't all wasted.

s I

Dona Teresa said several things to Tonio
while the baby was being mopped up. Tonio
could n't see why they should mind it if the
baby did n't.

At last Dona Teresa finished by saying
to the Twins and Pablo, "Now you run
round the square and have a good time by
yourselves, only see that you don't get

100

into any more mischief; and come back
when you 're hungry."

Pedro and Pancho had already gone off
by themselves, and as they did n't say
where they were going I can't tell you
anything about it. I only know they were
seen not long after in front of a pulque
shop (pulque l is a kind of wine) talking in
low tones with a Tall Man on horseback,
and that after that nobody saw them for a
long time. It may be they went to a cock-
fight, for there was a cock-fight behind the
pulque shop, and most of the other men
went if they did not.

The Twins and Pablo with their pre-
cious Judases went to a bench near the
fountain, and sat down to watch the fun.
There were water-carriers filling their long
earthen jars at the fountain; there were
young girls in bright dresses who laughed
a great deal; and there were young men in

1 Pool'kay.
101

big hats and gay scrapes who stood about
and watched them.

There were more small boys than you
could count. Twelve o'clock was the time
that every one was supposed to set off his
fire-crackers, and the children waited pa-
tiently until the shadows were very short
indeed under the trees in the square and
there had been one or two explosions to
start the noise, then they tied their Judases
up in a row to the back of the bench. They

IO2

hung Tonic's Maestro in the middle, with
Tita's donkey-boy on one side and the
policeman on the other. Pablo's Judas was
a policeman too, and they put him on the
other side of the donkey-boy.

Then Pablo borrowed a match from a
boy and set fire to the first cracker on his
policeman. Fizz-fizz-bang! off went the
first fire-cracker. Fizz-fizz-bang! off went
the second one. When the third one ex-
ploded, the policeman whirled around on
his string, one of his hands caught fire,
and up he went in a puff of smoke.

They lighted the fuses on the donkey-
boy and the other policeman, both at once,
and last of all Tonio set fire to the Maestro
Judas. He was the biggest one of all. While
the fire-crackers went off in a series of
bangs, Tonio jumped up and down and
sang, " Pop goes the Maestro ! Pop goes
the Maestro! " and Tita and Pablo thought
that was so very funny that they hopped
about and sang it too.

Just as the last fire-cracker went off and
103

Tonic's Judas caught fire, and all three of
them were dancing and singing at the top of
their lungs, Tonio saw the Senor Maestro
himself standing in front of the bench with his
hands in his pockets, looking right at them!
Tonio shut his mouth so quickly that he
bit his tongue, and then Pablo and Tita saw
the Maestro and stopped singing too, and
they all three ran as fast as they could go
to the other side of the square and lost
themselves in the crowd

104

They stayed away for quite a long time.
They were in the crowd by a baker's shop
when a great big Judas which hung high
overhead exploded and showered cakes
over them. They each picked up a cake and
then ran back to show their goodies to their
mothers. They could hardly get near the
booth at first, because there was quite a
little crowd around it, but they squirmed
under the elbows of the grown people, and
right beside the brasero eating a piece of
candied sweet potato, and talking to Dona
Teresa, whom should they see but the
Senor Maestro?

Tonio wished he had n't come. He turned
round and tried to dive back into the crowd
again, but the Sefior Maestro reached out
and caught him by the collar and pulled
him back. Tonio was very much frightened.
He thought surely the Maestro had told
his mother about " Pop goes the Maestro,"
and that very unpleasant things were likely
to happen.

"Anyway, there aren't any willow trees
105

in the plaza," he said to himself. "That's
one good thing."

But what really happened was this. The
Maestro took three pennies out of his
pocket, and said to Pedro's wife, " Please
give me three pieces of your nice sweet
potatoes for my three friends here ! "

Pedro's wife was so busy with her cook-
ing that she did not look up to see who his
three friends were until she had taken the
pennies and handed out the sweet potatoes.
Then she saw Pablo and Tonio and Tita
all three standing in a row looking very
foolish.

She was quite overcome at the honor the
Maestro had done her in buying sweet po-
tatoes to give to her son, and Dona Teresa
thought to herself, "They really must be
very good and clean children to have the
Maestro think so much of them as that."
She thanked him, and Tonio and Tita and
Pablo all thanked him.

After that there was a wonderful concert
by a band all dressed in green and white

1 06

uniforms with red braid, and at the end of
the concert, it was four o'clock. Pedro's. wife
had sold all her sweet potatoes by that time
and Pedro had sold all his reeds. Pancho
had come back, the baby was sleepy, and
every one was tired and ready to go home.
So the whole party returned to the boat, this
time without any heavy bundles except the
baby to carry, and sailed away across the
lake toward the hacienda.

Pancho and Dona Teresa and the Twins
reached their little adobe hut just as the red
rooster and the five hens and the turkey were
flying up to their roost in the fig tree.

VI
THE ADVENTURE

ONE hot morning in early June, Dona Teresa
took her washing down to the river, and
Tonio and Tita went with her. They found
Dona Josefa and Pedro's wife already there
with their soiled clothes, and the three
women had a good time gossiping together
while they soaped the garments and scrubbed
them well on stones at the water's edge.

Pablo and the Twins played in the water
meanwhile, hunting mud turtles and build-
ing dams and trying to catch minnows with
their hands.

At last Pablo's mother said to him,
" Pablo, take this piece of soap and go be-
hind those bushes and take a bath."

Then she went on telling Dona Teresa
about a new pattern of drawn work she was

109

beginning and forgot all about Pablo. Pablo
disappeared behind the bush, and no one saw
him again that day. He wasn't drowned,
but it 's my belief that he was n't bathed
either.

However, this story is not about Pablo.
It 's about Tonio and Tita, and what hap-
pened to them.

Dona Teresa said to them, " I wish you
would get Tonto and go up the mountain
beyond the pasture and bring down a load
of wood. Take some lunch with you. You
won't get lost, because Tonto knows the
way home if you don't. Get all the ocote*
branches you can to burn in the brasero."

The Twins were delighted with this er-
rand. It meant a picnic for them, so they
ran back to the house and got Tonto and
the luncheon and started away down the
road as gay as two larks in the spring-
time.

They both rode on the donkey's back
and they had Tonio's lasso with them.

' O-ko'teh.
no

The luncheon was in Tonic's hat as usual.
Tonio whistled for Jasmin, but he was no-
where to be found, so they started without
him.

They crossed the goat-pasture, and this
time Tonio did not forget to put up the
bars. They passed the goat too, but Tonio
rode right by and hoped the goat would n't
notice him.

From the goat-pasture they turned into
a sort of trail that led up the mountain-side,
and rode on for two miles until they came
to a thick wood. Here they dismounted
and, leaving Tonto to graze comfortably by
himself, began to search for ocote wood.
Tonio had a machete stuck in his belt.

A machete is a long strong knife, and
he used it to cut up the wood into small
pieces. Then he tied it up in a bundle
with his lasso to carry home on Tonto's
back.

The children had such fun wandering
about, gathering sticks, and looking for
birds' nests that they didn't think a thing

about time until they suddenly realized
that they were very hungry. They had
gone some distance into the wood, and
quite out of sight of Tonto by this time.

They sat down on a fallen log and ate
their lunch, and then they were thirsty.

" Let 's find a brook and get a drink,"
said Tonio. " I know there must be one
right near here."

They left their bundle of wood and walked
for some distance searching for water, but
no stream did they find. They grew thirstier
and thirstier.

" It seems to me I shall dry up and blow
away if we don't find it pretty soon," said
Tita.

"I 've almost found it, I think," an-
swered Tonio. " It must be right over by
those willow trees."

They went to the willow trees but there
was no stream there.

" I think we'd better go back and get

112

the wood and start home," said Tita. "We
can get a drink in the goat-pasture."

"All right," said Tonio, and he led the
way back into the woods.

They looked and looked for the bundle
of sticks, but somehow everything seemed
different.

" I 'm sure it must have been right near
here," said Tonio. " I remember that black
stump. I 'm sure I do, because it looks
like a bear sitting up on his hind legs.
Don't you remember it, Tita? "

But Tita did n't remember it, and I 'm
afraid Tonio did n't either, really, for the
bundle of sticks certainly was not there.
They hunted about for a long time, and at
last Tonio said, "I think we'd better go
back to Tonto; he may be lonesome."

But Tonto had disappeared too ! Tonio
was sure he knew just where he had left
him, but when they got to the place he
was n't there, and it wasn't the place either!
It was very discouraging.

At last Tonio said, "Well, anyway,
"3

Tonto knows the way home by himself.
We '11 just let him find his own way, and
we '11 go home by ourselves."

"All right," said Tita, and they started
down the mountain-side.

They had walked quite a long way when
Tita said, " I think we 're high enough up
so we ought to see the lake." But no lake
was in sight in any direction.

Tita began to cry. " We- we- we 're just
as lost as we can be," she sobbed. "And
you did it! You said you knew the way,
and you did n't, and now we '11 die of
hunger and nobody will find us - - 1 want
to go home"

"Hush up," said Tonio. "Crying won't
help. We '11 keep on walking and walking
and we '11 just have to come to something,
some time. And there '11 be people there and
they'll tell us how to go."

Tonio seemed so sure of this that Tita
was a little comforted. They walked for a
very long time hours it seemed to her
before Tita spoke again.

114

Then she said, "There's a big black
cloud, and the sun is lost in it, and it 's going
to rain, and we are n't anywhere at all yet! "

They had got down to level ground by
this time and were walking through a great

field of maguey 1 plants. The maguey is
a strange great century-plant that grows
higher than a man's head. When it gets ready
to blossom the center is cut out and the
hollow place fills with a sweet juice which
Mexicans like to drink. Tonio knew this
and thought perhaps he could get a drink
in that way.

So he cut down a hollow-stemmed weed
with his machete and made a pipe out of
it. Then he climbed up on the plant that had
been cut and stuck one end of his pipe into
the juice, and the other into his mouth. When
he had had enough, he boosted Tita up and
she got a drink too. This made them feel
better, and they walked on until they had
passed the maguey plantation and were out
in the open fields once more.

The sky grew darker and darker, and
there were queer shapes all around them.
Giant cacti with their arms reaching out like

1 Mah-gay'e.
116

the arms of a cross loomed up before them.
There were other great cacti in groups of
tall straight spines, and every now and then
a palm tree would spread its spiky leaves
like giant fingers against the sky.

Suddenly there was a great clap of thun-
der, "It's the beginning of the rains," said
Tonio.

117

"Shall we shall we be drowned do
you think?" weptTita. "It's almost night."

Tonio was really a brave boy, but it is no
joke to be lost in such country as that, and
he knew it.

Tonio was almost crying, too, but he said,
" I '11 climb the first tree I can get up into
and look around." He tried to make his
voice sound big and brave, but it shook a
little in spite of him.

Soon they came to a mesquite tree. There
were long bean-like pods hanging from it.
Tonio climbed the tree and threw down some
pods. They were good to eat. Tita gathered
them up in her rebozo, 1 while Tonio gazed
in every direction to see if he could see a
house or shelter of any kind.

"I don't see anything but that hill over
there," he called to Tita. "It is shaped like
a great mound and seems to be all stone and
rock. Perhaps if we could get up on top of
it and look about we could tell where we
are."

1 Ray-bS'so.
118

"Let's run, then," said Tita.

The children took hold of hands and ran
toward the hill. There were cacti of all
kinds around them, and as they ran, the
spines caught their clothes. The hill seemed
to get bigger and bigger as they came nearer
to it, and it did n't look like any hill they had
ever seen. It was shaped like a great pyra-
mid and was covered with blocks of stone.
There were bushes growing around the base
and out of cracks between the stones. Tonio
tried to climb up but it was so steep he only
slipped back into the bushes, every time he
tried.

"Oh, Tonio, maybe it is n't a hill at all,"
whispered Tita. "Maybe it's the castle of
some awful creature who will eat us up!"

" Well, whatever it is he won't eat me
up ! " said Tonio boldly. " I '11 stick a cactus
down his throat and he'll have to cough me
right up if he tries."

" I '11 kick and scream so he '11 have to
cough me up too," sobbed Tita.

Just then there came a flash of lightning.
119

It was so bright that the children saw what
they had n't noticed before. It was a hollow
place in the side of the pyramid where a
great stone had fallen out, and the dirt un-
derneath had been washed away, leaving a
hole big enough for them to crawl into, but
it was far above their heads.

At last Tonio climbed into a small tree
that grew beside it, bent a branch over, and
dropped down into the hollow, holding to
the branch by his hands.

Poor Tita never had felt so lonely in her
whole life as she did when she saw Tonio
disappear into that hole ! In a minute he
was out again and looking over the edge at
her.

"It's all right. You climb up just as I
did," he said.

Tita tied the mesquite pods in the end of her
rebozo and threw it up to Tonio. Then she
too climbed the little tree and dropped from
the branch into the mouth of the tiny cave.

A hole in the side of a queer pyramid
is n't exactly a cheerful place to be in during

120

a storm, but it was so much better than being
lost in a cactus grove that the children felt
a little comforted.

The rain began to fall in great splashing
drops, but they were protected in their rocky
house. They ate the mesquite pods for their
supper, and then Tonio said : " Of course,
no one will find us to-night, so we'd better
go to sleep. We '11 play we are foxes. The
animals and birds sleep in such places all
the time and they 're not afraid."

So they curled down in the corner of the
cave, and, being very tired, soon fell asleep.

VII
WHILE THEY WERE GONE

MEANWHILE what do you suppose had been
happening at home? When she had finished
her washing and had dried the clothes on
the bushes, Dona Teresa folded them and
carried them back to the house, and began
her ironing.

She did n't think much about the time be-
cause she was so busy with her work, but
at last she felt hungry and glanced out at
the shadow of the fig tree to see what time
it was.

She was surprised to see the shadow al-
ready quite long and pointing toward the
east.

"Well," thought she to herself, "I'll get
myself something to eat, and by that time
the children will be home and as hungry as

123

two bears. I think I '11 get something espe-
cially good for their supper."

She hummed a little tune as she worked,
and every little while she glanced out the
open door to see if they were not coming.
By and by she noticed that the sky was
overcast and then she heard a clap of thun-
der. It was the very same clap of thunder
that had frightened the Twins in the cactus
grove.

" The holy saints above us! " cried Dona
Teresa aloud. "The children should have
been home long ago. Where can they be! "
She ran to the door just in time to see Tonto
come ambling slowly into the yard alone and
go to his own place in the shed.

Dona Teresa's eyes almost popped out
of her head with surprise and fright. She
threw on her rebozo and ran over to Pedro's
hut. Pedro's wife was just examining Pab-
lo's ears to see if he had really washed him-
self in the river, when Dona Teresa arrived,
quite breathless, at the door.

"Whatever can be the reason that my
124

children are not home?" she gasped. "You
remember it was morning when I sent them
after wood. They have not been seen since,
and Tonto walked into the yard just now
all alone, and of course there's nothing to
be got out of him ! What can have happened
to them?"

"Now, never you mind, like a sensible
woman," said Pablo's mother soothingly.
"They're playing along the way as likely
as not and will be at your door before you
are. Who should know better than myself
the way children will forget the thing they're
set to do."

She looked severely at Pablo as she said
this, so I judge the examination of his ears
had not been satisfactory.

Dona Teresa did n't wait to hear any
more, but ran back home, and when the chil-
dren still did not appear she walked down
the road hoping to meet them.

The clouds grew blacker and blacker,
and the rain began to fall. Dona Teresa
called Jasmin, who had reappeared by this

time, and gave him Tonio's shoes to smell
of.

" Go find him, go find him," she cried.

Jasmin whined and looked anxious, but
just then came a flash of lightning. Jasmin
was afraid of lightning, so he crept into
Tonto's stall with his tail between his
legs and hid there until the storm was
over.

At last it was time for Pancho to come
home. Poor Dona Teresa kept her supper
hot and waited anxiously to hear the sound
of Pinto's hoofs, but no such sound came.
Pancho would go with her, and together
they would find their children, she was sure,
but six o'clock and seven came, without
either Pancho or the children.

It was quite dark when at last she put on
her rebozo and ran as fast as she could to
the priest's house. The door was opened
by the priest's fat sister, who kept house
for him.

126

" Oh, where is the padrecito?" Dona
Teresa said to her. " I must see him."

"He is eating his supper," said the fat
sister.

" Tell him I am in great trouble," sobbed
Dona Teresa.

In a moment the priest appeared at the
door, and Dona Teresa kissed the hand he
stretched out to her, and told him her anxi-
eties all in one breath.

The padrecito had just had his supper and
was feeling very comfortable himself, so he
told her he was sure that everything would
come out all right. He patted Dona Teresa
on the shoulder and said not to worry; that
probably Pancho had had to stay to mend a
fence somewhere, and the children why,
they had probably stopped to play!

" In pitch darkness and rain, holy father?
It cannot be," Dona Teresa moaned.

" Well," said the priest, " if they are not
here in an hour we will search for them, but
they will surely come soon."

Dona Teresa had such faith in the priest
127

that she went back home, intending to do
just what he said, but when she got there
she found Pedro's wife waiting for her.

The moment she saw Dona Teresa she
cried out, "Has Pancho come?"

"No," sobbed Dona Teresa.

" Neither has Pedro," answered his wife.
"I can't think what can be the matter. He
never stays out so late as this especially
in a storm. Something dreadful has surely
happened."

Dona Teresa told her what the priest had
said, but neither one was willing to wait
another minute, so they ran together in the
rain to the other huts and told the news,
and the men formed a searching-party at
once.

They put on their grass coats to protect
them from the rain, and started off in the
darkness and wet, carrying lighted pine
torches, and calling loudly, " Pancho -
Pedro - -Tonio - -Tita," every few min-
utes.

While they were gone Pedro's wife left
128

the baby and Pablo with a neighbor and
asked her to send Pablo to the chapel if
there should be any news. Then she and
Dona Teresa went there to pray.

The chapel door was open and candles
were burning on the little altar, as the two
women crept in and knelt before the image
of the Virgin and Child.

"O Holy Mother," sobbed Dona Teresa,
" help us who are mothers, too ! "

All night long they knelt on the chapel
floor before the images, sobbing and pray-
ing, listening for footsteps that did not come,
and promising many candles to be placed
upon the altar, if only their dear ones could
be restored to them.

It was long after the rain was over and the
moon shining again that the weary search
party returned to the village without any
news of the wanderers.

VIII
THE SECRET MEETING

THE children, meanwhile, were sleeping
soundly in their hard bed. They were so
tired that they did not wake up even when
a tiny stream of water broke through a
crevice in the rocks and splashed down on
Tonic's head. It ran off his hair just as the
rain ran off the thatched roof of their little
adobe hut.

About nine o'clock the rain stopped and
the moon shone out from behind the clouds.
An owl hooted ; a fox ran right over the
roof of their cave, making a soft pat-pat
with his paws that would have frightened
them if they had heard it, but they slept on.

At last, however, something did wake
Tita. She sat up in terror. A flickering
light that was n't moonlight was dancing

about the cave ! It was so bright that she
could see everything about them as plain
as day.

She clutched Tonio, shook him gently,
and whispered in his ear, " Tonio, Tonio,
wake up."

Tonio stirred and opened his mouth, but
Tita clapped her hand over it. She was so
afraid he would make a noise. When he saw
the flickering light Tonio almost shouted
for joy, for he was sure that his father had
found them at last.

The flickering light grew brighter. They
heard the crackling of flames and men's
voices, and saw sparks. Very quietly they
squirmed around on their stomachs until
they could peep out of the opening of their
cave.

This is what they sawl

There on the ground a few feet in front
of their hiding-place was a fire, and two men
were beside it. Their horses were tied to
bushes not far away. One of the men was
broiling meat on the end of a stick. The

'34

smell of it made the children very hun-
gry. The other man was drinking some-
thing hot from a cup. They both had guns,
and the guns were leaning against the rocks
just below the cave where the children were
hidden.

The man who was standing up was tall
and had a fierce black mustache. He had
on a big sombrero, and under a fold of his
scrape Tonio could see a cartridge-belt and
the handle of a revolver.

" It 's the Tall Man that Father and Pedro
were talking to in front of the pulque shop,"
whispered Tonio.

Tita was so frightened that she shook like
a leaf and her teeth chattered.

Pretty soon the Tall Man spoke. "The
others ought to be here soon," he said.
"They'll see the fire. Put on a few more
sticks and make it flame up more."

The other man gave a last turn to the
meat, handed it stick and all to the Tall Man,
and disappeared behind the bushes to search
for wood.

He had not yet come back, when there
was the sound of horses' feet, and a man
rode into sight, dismounted, hitched his
horse, and joined the Tall Man by the fire.

One by one others came, until there were
ten men standing about and talking together
in low tones. Last of all there was the thud-
thud of two more horses and who should

136

come riding into the firelight but Pancho
on Pinto, and Pedro on another horse!

When they joined the circle, Tonio almost
sprang up and shouted. He did make a little
jump, but Tita clutched him and held him
back. He loosened a pebble at the mouth
of the cave by his motion and it clattered
down over the rock. The man who had
gone for the wood was just putting his load
down by the fire when the pebble came rat-
tling down beside him.

"What's that?" he said, and sprang for
his rifle.

Tonio hastily drew in his head. The
men all listened intently for a few minutes,
and looked cautiously about them.

" It 's nothing but a pebble," said the
Tall Man at last. " No one will disturb us
here. And if they should," -he tapped the
handle of his revolver and smiled,-- " we 'd
give them such a warm welcome they would
be glad to stay with us quietly oh, very
quietly!"

The other men grinned a little, as if they

saw a joke in this, and then they all sat
down in a circle around the fire.

Pancho and Pedro sat where the children
could look right at them. The Tall Man
was the only one who did not sit down.
He stood up and began to talk.

"Well, men," he said. "I knew I could
count on you ! Brave fellows like you know
well when a blow must be struck, and where
is the true Mexican who was ever afraid to
strike a blow when he knew that it was
needed ?

"We come of a race of fighters! And
once Mexico belonged to them ! Our In-
dian forefathers did not serve a race of
foreign tyrants as we, their sons, do ! Look
about you on Mexico ! Where in the whole
world can be found such a land ? The soil
so rich that it yields crops that burden the
earth, and mountains full of gold and silver
and precious stones ! And it is for this rea-
son we are enslaved !

138

" If our land were less rich and less
beautiful, if it bore no such crops, if its
sunshine were not so bright, and its moun-
tains yielded no such treasure, we should
be free men to-day.

" But the world envied our possessions.
You know how Cortez, long ago, came
from Spain and when our forefathers met
him with friendliness he slew men, women,
and children, tore down their ancient temples,
and set the churches of Spain in their places !

" The Spaniards turned our fathers from
free and brave men into a conquered and
enslaved people, and worst of all they mixed
their hated blood with ours. From the days
of Cortez until now in one way or another
we have submitted to oppression, until the
spirit of our brave Indian ancestors is al-
most dead within us !

" And for what do we serve these aristo-
crats ? For the privilege of remaining ig-
norant! For the privilege of tilling their
fields, which were once ours ! For the
privilege of digging our gold and silver

and precious stones out of their mines to
make them rich! For the privilege of liv-
ing in huts while they live in palaces ! For
the privilege of being robbed and beaten in
the name of laws we never heard of and
which we had no part in making, though
this country is called a Republic ! A Re-
public! - - Bah ! A Republic where more
than half the people cannot read ! A Re-
public of cattle! A Republic where men
like you work for a few pence a day, barely
enough to keep body and soul together -
and even that pittance you must spend in
stores owned by the men for whom you
work !

' ' The little that you earn goes straight back
into the pockets of your masters ! Do you
not see it ? Do you not see if they own the
land and the supplies they own you too >
They call you free men but are you free?
What are you free to do ? Free to starve
if you will not work on their terms, or if
you will not strike a blow for freedom.
Are not my words true ? Speak up and

140

answer me ! Are you satisfied ? Are you
free?"

The Tall Man stopped and waited for an
answer. The fire flickered over the dark
faces of angry men, and Pedro stirred un-
easily as if he would like to say some-
thing.

"Speak out, Pedro. Tell us your story,"
said the Tall Man.

Pedro stood up and shook his fist at the
fire. " Every word you speak is true," he
said. "Who should know better than I?
I had a small farm some miles from here,
left me by my father. It was my own, and
I tilled my land and was content. My father
could not read, neither could I. No one
told me of the laws.

"At last one day a rural 1 rode to my
house, and said, ' Pedro, why have you not
obeyed the law ? The law says that if you
did not have your property recorded before

1 Roo-rahr.

141

a magistrate by the first of last month it
should be taken from you and given to the
State.'

" ' But I have never heard of such a law,'
I said to him. He answered, ' Ignorance
excuses no man. Your farm belongs to the
state.' And I and my family were turned

142

out of the house in which I and my father
before me had been born. All our neigh-
bors were treated in the same way. In
despair we went away to the hacienda of
Senor Fernandez, and there we work for a
pittance as you say. And our homes ! That
whole region was turned over by the Presi-
dent, not long after, to a rich friend of his,
who now owns it as a great estate !

" Many of my old neighbors are now his
peons - - working for him on land that was
once their own and that was taken from
them by a trick --by a trick, I say," his
voice grew thick, and he sat down heavily
in his place.

Another man, a stranger to Tonio, sprang
to his feet. " Ah, if that were all ! " he said ;
" but even in peonage we are not left un-
disturbed ! It was only a year ago that I
was riding into town on my donkey with
some chickens to sell, when an officer
stopped me and brought me before the Jefe
Politico. 1

1 Hay'fay po-lee'tl-co.
'43

" 'Why have you not obeyed the law?'
said the magistrate. ' I know of no law that
I have not obeyed,' I said. 'You may tell
me that,' said the scoundrel, 'but to make
me believe it is another matter. You must
know very well that a law was passed not
long ago that every peon must wear dark
trousers if he wishes to enter a town.'

" ' I have no dark trousers,' said I, 'and
I have no money to buy them. I have worn
such white trousers as these since I was a
boy, as have all the men in this region.'
4 That makes no difference to me,' he said ;
4 law is law.' I was put in prison and made
to work every day on a bridge that the
Government was building! I never saw
my donkey or the chickens again. My wife
did not know where I was for two weeks.

" While I was working on the bridge; five
other men whom I knew were seized and
treated in the same way. It is my belief
that there is no such law. They wanted
workmen for that bridge and that was the
cheapest way to get them ! "

144

"Where are those other five men who
were imprisoned, too ? Have they no
spirit? " It was the Tall Man who spoke.

"They have spirit," the man answered,
" but they also have large families. They
fear to leave them lest they starve. They
are helpless."

" Say rather they are fools," said the Tall
Man when the stranger sat down. "Why
had they not the spirit like you to take
things in their own hands to revenge
their wrongs ? As for myself," he went on,
" every one knows my story.

" The blood of my Indian ancestors was
too hot in my veins for such slavery --by
whatever name you call it. I broke away,
and my name is now a terror in the region
that I call mine.

"It is no worse to take by violence than
by fraud. My land was taken from me by
fraud. Very well, I take back what I can
by violence. The rich call us bandits, but
there is already an army of one thousand
men waiting for you to join them, and we

call ourselves Soldiers of the Revolution.
We have risen up to get for ourselves some
portion of what we have lost.

"Will you not join us? Our general is a
peon like yourselves. He feels our wrongs
because he has suffered them, and he fights
like a demon to avenge them. Ride away
to-night with me ! You shall see some-
thing besides driving other people's cattle
-and being driven like cattle yourselves ! "

The Tall Man stopped talking and waited
for an answer. No one spoke. The men
gazed silently into the fire as if they were
trying to think out something that was very
puzzling.

The Tall Man spoke again. "Sons of
brave ancestors, do you know where you
are?" he said. "Do you know what this
great pyramid is?" He pointed directly up
toward the cave, and Tonio and Tita, who
had listened to every word, instantly popped
their heads out of sight like frightened rab-
bits.

"This stone mountain was built by your
146

Indian ancestors hundreds of years ago. It
is the burial-place of their dead. It is called
the Pyramid of the Moon. Look at it !
Have the Spaniards built anything greater?
Mexico has many mighty monuments which
show the glory which was ours before the
Spaniards came.

" I have seen the ruins of great cities
cities full of stone buildings covered with
wonderful carvings, all speaking of the
magnificence of the days of Cuauhtemoc. 1
Here in this place the souls of those brave
ancestors listen for your answer. There are
many people who do not know who do
not feel who are content to be like the
sheep on the hillside ; but you, you know
your wrongs, come with us and avenge
them ! "

The man who had gone for the wood
now spoke. He took up one of the rifles.
"See!" he said, "we have guns enough

1 Kwow' te-mok.
H7

for you, and you have horses. It is time
to start. The morning will soon be here."

The men rose slowly from their places
around the fire. Tonio saw some of them
glance fearfully around at the great Pyra-
mid of the Moon in which they were hid-
den and furtively cross themselves. Then
he heard his father's voice. It was the first
time Pancho had spoken.

" I will go with you," said Pancho. " I
am no. sheep. I, too, have suffered many
things. My wife is a strong woman. She
will look after the children while I am gone.
I have no fear for them."

When Tita heard her father say these
dreadful words she almost screamed, but
now Tonio clapped his hand over her
mouth.

" Keep still," he whispered in her ear.
41 Those other men might kill us if they
knew we were here and had heard every-
thing."

Tita hid her face on her arms, and her
whole body shook with sobs, but she did

148

not make a sound not even when she saw
Pancho and Pedro ride away with the two
men whom they had first seen by the fire.

Four of the other men went with them
too. The ones who had made the sign of
the cross did not go.

The children could catch only a few
words of what they said when Pancho and
Pedro and the others rode away, but it
sounded like this: " Our wives --our
children we shall not forget by and by
-perhaps in the spring " And then they
heard the voice of the Tall Man speaking
very sharply.

" If you will not go with us, see that you
keep silence," he said. "If any news of
this gets about in this region we shall know
whom to blame and to punish ! We shall
come back and we shall know," and then
"A dies' a dios- a dios " and the
hoof-beats of horses as they rode away,
then silence again, and the moon sailing
away toward the west, with only the glow

1 Ah dee-os'.
149

of the dying coals to show that any one
had been there at all.

When they were gone, the children wept
together as if their hearts would break, but
soon the birds began to sing, and the sky
grew brighter and brighter in the east, and
the coming of the sunshine comforted them.

150

When it was quite light they let them-
selves down out of their nest and warmed
themselves over the coals. They had noth-
ing to eat, of course, and they did not know
which way to go. But Tonio had an idea.

"Father and Pedro came from this di-
rection," he said, pointing toward the south,
"and so the hacienda must be somewhere
over that way."

They started bravely toward the south
and had not gone far when they struck a
rough road. Tonio stooped down and found
the fresh prints of Pinto's hoofs in the mud.

"This is the way," he cried joyfully.
"I 'm sure of it."

They walked on and on, but they were
too hungry to go very fast. By and by they
sat down on a stone to rest. They had been
there only a short time when they heard
the beat of horses' hoofs, and galloping
down 'a hill they saw two people on horse-
back. One was a lady. The other was a man.

The children watched them eagerly, and
in a moment Tita sprang up and began to
run towards them, shouting joyfully, " It 's
the Sefiorita Carmen ! "

Then Tonio ran too. When Carmen saw
the two wild little figures she shouted and
waved her hand to them, and she and the
mozo, 1 or servant, who was on the other
horse, galloped as fast as they could up the
hill to meet them.

When they reached the children, Carmen
sprang down from her horse and threw her
bridle-rein to the mozo. Then she quickly
opened a little bundle which he handed her,
and gave the children each a drink of milk,
and some food, and all the while she mur-
mured comforting things to them.

11 Poor little ones poor little souls ! "
she said, patting them. "We have been
looking for you, the mozo and I, since day-
break ! Where have you been, my poor
pigeons ? Your mother is nearly wild with
grief! Tell me, have you seen anything of

1 Mo'so.

152

your father or Pedro ? They have not been
home either. We thought perhaps they
might be searching for you too."

Tonio and Tita both had their hungry

mouths so full they could not answer just
then, but when the mozo had lifted Tita up
on the horse behind Carmen, and had taken
Tonio up on his own horse, and they were
on their way home, they told Carmen and
the mozo just how they got lost, only neither
one said a single word about their father or
Pedro, or the Tall Man, or the group they
had seen around the fire.

They remembered what the Tall Man
had said about coming back to punish any
one who should tell of the secret meeting,
and they remembered how fierce his voice
sounded as he said it.

When at last they rode into the gate of
the hacienda every one was so glad to see
them that the Twins felt like heroes.

Jose waved his hat and shouted when he
saw them coming, and Jasmin came tearing
out to meet them with his tongue hanging
out and his tail stuck straight out behind
him like the smoke behind a fast locomotive.

The news spread quickly through the
village, and all the boys and girls and the

mothers came swarming out of their huts
to greet them and to ask a thousand ques-
tions about where they had been.

The first one to reach them was Dona
Teresa. She came running out of the chapel,
with her rebozo flying out behind her al-
most like Jasmin's tail, and she clasped
them in her arms and kissed them again
and again and called them her lambs, her
angels, her precious doves.

She kissed the hands of Carmen and
thanked her, and then she ran back with
the Twins to the chapel and made them say
a prayer of thankfulness with her before the
image of the Virgin.

It was not until she had them all to her-
self in their little adobe hut that she made
them tell her every word about their ad-
venture. Of course they told their mother
everything about the fire and the Tall
Man, and the guns, and what he said about
coming back to punish any one who told.

Dona Teresa rocked back and forth on
her knees and wiped her eyes on her apron as
she listened to them, while at the same time
she made them hot chocolate on the brasero.

As they were drinking it she said to
them: "Listen, my children. I will tell you
a secret. Promise me first that you will
never, never tell what I am going to tell
you now ! "

The children promised.
156

Then Dona Teresa went on: "I am not
wholly surprised at your father's disappear-
ance. I knew he had seen the Tall Man. I
knew it after Judas Iscariot's Day. The
Tall Man talked then with him and Pedro
and some others, and asked them to join
the Revolution. I begged him on my knees
not to go, but he said : ' If I go it is only to
make things better for us all. I 'm tired of this
life. Peons might just as well be slaves. '

" What is the Revolution ? " asked Tonio.

" Oh, I don't know," sobbed Dona Te-
resa. "Your father says it is rising up to
fight against wrongs and oppression. He
says the Government is in league with
the rich and powerful and even with the
Church" -here Dona Teresa crossed her-
self- - " to keep the poor people down, and
to take away their land. He says the Rev-
olution is going to give back the land to
the people and give them a better chance.

"That's what the Tall Man told him.
But to me it looks like just adding to our
poverty. Here at least we have a roof over

our heads, and food, such as it is, and I
could be content. What good it will do any
one to go out and get shot I cannot see, -
but then, of course, I am only a woman."
She finished with a sob.

" Father told the Tall Man that you were
a strong woman and that he had no fear
for us because you would look after us
while he is gone," said Tita.

"And so I will, my lamb," said Dona Te-
158

resa. "It is not for nothing that I am the
best ironer and the best cook on the haci-
enda. You shall not suffer, my pigeons.
But you must help me. You must never,
never, NEVER tell any one where your father
has gone. Senor Fernandez would be angry.
It might injure your father very much. We
must be silent, and work hard to make up
for his absence. I shall tell Pedro's wife.
She knows about the Tall Man, and it was
the first thing we both thought of when
your father and Pedro did not come home
last night. But Pablo does n't know a
thing about it, and he must not know. I 'm
afraid Pablo couldn't keep a secret!"

This made the Twins feel very grown
up and important. Perhaps after all their
father would come back and things would
be better for them all, they thought. He
probably knew best, for was he not a man ?
And so they lay down on their hard beds,
warmed and fed and comforted, and slept,
while Dona Teresa went over and told Pe-
dro's wife all that the Twins had told her.

3V>;

v l >% & .v\^^rxi >aKyy
^Vf^S M;ty .^1

IX
CHRISTMAS AT THE HACIENDA

DAYS and weeks and months went by and
still there was no news of the wanderers.
Dona Teresa worked hard at her washing
and cooking, and with the goat's milk and
the eggs managed to get enough to feed
the Twins and herself. But the time seemed
long and lonely, and she spent many hours
before the image of the Virgin in the chapel,
praying for Pancho's safe return. She even
paid the priest for special prayers, and out
of her scanty earnings bought candles to
burn upon the altar. At last the Christmas
season drew near.

The celebration of Christmas lasts for
more than a whole week in Mexico. Every
evening for eight evenings before Christ-
mas all the people in the village met to-

161

gether and marched in a procession all
round the hacienda. This procession is
called the Pasada. 1

Everybody marched in it, and when on
the first evening they came to the priest's
house, he came out and stood beside his
door and gave to each person a lighted
candle, which his fat housekeeper handed
out to him.

Then while all the people stood there
with the candles shining like little stars, he
told them this story, to remind them of the
meaning of the procession : -

"Listen, my children," he said. "Long
years ago, just before our Saviour was born,
Mary, his mother, went with Joseph, her
husband, from the little town of Nazareth,
where they lived, into Judaea. They had
to make this journey because a decree
had been passed that every one must be
taxed.

" Joseph and the Blessed Mother of our
Lord were always obedient to the law, so

1 Pah-sah'dah.
162

they went at once to Bethlehem in Judaea,
which was the place where their names had
to be enrolled. My children, you also should
obey in all things, as they did. Discontent
and rebellion should have no place in your
lives, --as it had no place in theirs.

" When Joseph and Mary reached Beth-
lehem they found the town so full of peo-
ple, who. had come from far and near for
this purpose, that there was no room for
them in the inn. For eight days they wan-
dered about seeking a place to rest and
finding none.

" At last, on the ninth day, they were so
weary that they took shelter in a stable with
the cattle, and there on that night our Blessed
Saviour was born. They were poorer than
you, my children, for they had no place to
lay their heads, and the Queen of Heaven
had only a manger in which to cradle her
newborn son. It is to commemorate their
wanderings that you make your Pasada."

When the priest had finished the story
the people all marched away carrying their

163

candles and singing. Each night they
marched and sang in this way until at last
it was Christmas Eve.

Dona Teresa and the twins went to bed
early that night because there was to be
high mass in the little chapel at midnight.
Dona Teresa slept with one eye open, fear-
ing she might be late, and a few minutes
before twelve she was up again. .

She washed the Twins' faces to wake
them, and then they all three walked in the
starlight to the little chapel near the Big
House. The altar was blazing with lights,
and the floor was covered with the dark
figures of kneeling men and women, as the
mother and children went in out of the
darkness and found a place for themselves
in a corner near the door.

When the service was over, Dona Te-
resa hurried home to set the house in order
and to prepare the Christmas dinner for the
Twins. She had made up her mind that the
red rooster must surely be caught and
cooked, because she wanted to keep the

164

turkey until Pancho should be at home to
share in the feast.

She had planned it all carefully. " It will
be quite easy to creep up under the fig tree
while the red rooster is asleep and seize him
by the legs," she said to the Twins as they
walked home from the chapel. "Only you
must be very quiet indeed or he will wake up
and crow. You know he is a light sleeper! "

They slipped through the gate and into
the yard as quietly as they could. They
reached the fig tree without making a single
sound and Dona Teresa peered cautiously
into the dark branches.

She saw a large shadow at the end of the
limb where the red rooster always slept
and, stretching her hand very stealthily up
through the branches, she suddenly grabbed
him by the legs or she thought she did.

But the owner of the legs gobbled loud
enough to wake every one in the village, if
they hadn't been awake already!

"It's the turkey, after all," gasped Dona
Teresa. Just then there was a loud crow

165

from the roof, and they saw the silhouette
of the red rooster making all haste to reach
the ridge-pole and fly down on the other side.

Dona Teresa was in despair, but she held
on to the turkey. "That rooster is be-
witched," she said.

Just then the turkey stopped gobbling
long enough to peck vigorously at Tonio,
who came to help his mother, and Dona
Teresa said, "Well, then, we'll eat the
turkey, anyway, though I had hoped to wait
until your father gets home. But we must
have something for our Christmas dinner,
and there 's no telling when we shall see the
red rooster again."

" I should n't want to eat the red rooster,
anyway," said Tita. " He seems just like a
member of the family."

And so the Christmas dinner was settled
that way.

The turkey wasn't the only thing they
had. There was rice soup first, then turkey,
and they had frijoles, and tortillas, of course,
and bananas beside, and all the sweet pota-

166

toes cooked in syrup that they could pos-
sibly hold. It took Dona Teresa so long to
cook it all on her little brasero that she did n't
go back to bed at all, though the Twins had
another nap before morning.

They had their dinner early, and when they
had finished eating, Tita said, "We must
give a Christmas dinner to the animals too."

So Tonio brought alfalfa in from the field
on purpose for Tonto, and the red rooster
appeared in time to share with the hens
twice as much corn as was usually given
them. The cat had a saucer of goat's milk,
and Tonio even found some bones for Jas-
min, so every single one of them had a happy
Christmas Day.

At dusk when candles began to glimmer
about the village and all the people were
getting ready for the Christmas Pasada,
Dona Teresa said to the Twins, "You take
your candles and run along with Pablo. I
am going to the chapel." And while all the
other people marched round among the cab-
ins, singing, she stayed on her knees before

167

the image of the Virgin, praying once more
for Pancho's safe return.

When they reached the priest's house,
the priest himself joined the procession and
marched at the head of it, bearing in his
hands large wax images of the Holy Family.
Behind him came Lupito, the young vaque-
ro who had taken Pancho's place on the
hacienda, with his new wife, and following
them, if you had been there, you might have
seen Pedro's wife and baby, and Rafael and
Jose and Dona Josefa, and Pablo and the
Twins with Juan and Ignacio and a crowd
of other children and grown people whose
names I cannot tell you because I do not
know them all.

As they passed the chapel, Dona Teresa
came out and slipped into line behind the
Twins. If she had been looking in the right
direction just at that minute she might have
seen two dark figures come out from behind
some bushes near the priest's house, and
though they had no candles, fall in at the
end of the procession and march with them

1 68

& /

iiMU "t
fc\v.\n'

e.' '. ' v

fc^,^

to the entrance of the Big House. But she
kept her eyes on her candle, which she was
afraid might be blown out by the wind.

When they reached the doorway every
one stopped while Lupito and his new wife
sang a song saying that the night was cold
and dark and the wind was blowing, and
asking for shelter, just as if they were Jo-

169

seph and Mary, and the Big House were
the inn in Bethlehem.

Then a voice came from the inside of the
Big House as if it were the innkeeper him-
self answering Joseph and Mary. It was
really the mozo's voice, and it said, No,
they could not come in, that there was no
more room in the inn.

Then Lupito and his wife sang again and
told the innkeeper that she who begged ad-
mittance and had not where to lay her
head, was indeed the Queen of Heaven.

At this name the door was flung wide
open, and the priest, bearing the images of
the Virgin and Child and Joseph, entered
with Lupito and all the others singing be-
hind him.

The priest led the procession through the
entrance arch to the patio, and there he
placed the images in a shrine, all banked
with palms and flowering plants, which had
been placed in the patio on purpose to re-
ceive them.

Then he lifted his hand and prayed, and
170

blessed the people, and the whole proces-
sion passed in front of the images, each one
kneeling before them long enough to leave
his lighted candle stuck in a little frame-
work before the shrine. Senpr Fernandez
and his wife Carmen watched the scene
from one end of the patio.

Dona Teresa and the Twins were among
171

the first ones to leave their candles, and
afterward they stood under the gallery
which ran around the patio, to watch the
rest of the procession.

Everything was quiet until this was done,
because this part of Christmas was just like
a church service. One by one the people
knelt before the images, crossed themselves,
and joined the group under the gallery.
Last of all came the two dark figures with-
out any candles.

Up to that moment they had lingered
behind the others in the background, and
had kept as -much as possible in the shadow,
but now they stood right in front of the Holy
Family with all the candles shining directly
into their brown faces and who should
they be but Pancho and Pedro come back
from the war ?

The moment she saw Pancho, Dona Te-
resa gave a loud scream of joy, and then
she rushed right by every one almost

172

stepping on the toes of the priest himself
and threw her arms around his neck, while
the Twins, who got there almost as soon
as she did, clasped an arm or a leg, or what-
ever part of their father they could get hold of.

At the same time Pedro's wife, with her
baby on her arm and Pablo beside her,
made a dash for Pedro, but Pablo got there
first because, you remember, his mother
was fat. And Pedro was so glad to see
them he tried to hug her and the baby both
at once, while Pablo hung round his neck,
only as he was a small man he could n't be-
gin to reach round, and had to take them
one at a time after all.

Everybody was so glad to see Pancho
and Pedro, and so glad for the happiness
that had come to their wives and children
on Christmas Day that everybody shook
hands with everybody else, and talked and
asked questions without waiting for any-
body to answer them, until it sounded al-
most like the animals on San Ramon's Day.

After Pancho and Pedro had greeted

their families, and had said how Pablo and
the Twins had grown, and Pedro's wife had
told him that the baby had six teeth, and
the baby had bitten Pedro's finger to prove
it, he and Pancho broke away from them
and went to pay their respects to Senor
Fernandez and the priest, who were stand-
ing together, talking in low tones and
watching the crowd round the wanderers.

Pancho and Pedro had reason to dread
what Sefior Fernandez and the priest might
say to them. They thought the priest might
say, "Is this obedience, my sons?" and
they thought very possibly Senor Fernan-
dez might say something like this: "Well,
my men, do you think you can play fast
and loose with your job like that ? You '11
have to learn a hacienda can't be run that
way. There 's plenty of other help, so you
may see if you can find work elsewhere."

But as they came before Senor Fernan-
dez and bowed humbly with their sombre-
ros in their hands, the priest glanced at
their ragged clothes and their thin faces
and said something in a low tone to Senor
Fernandez, and although Pancho and Pe-
dro listened they could n't hear a word of
it except "Christmas Day."

Senor Fernandez gazed at them rather
sternly for a moment without speaking and
then he said: "Well, Pancho and Pedro,
I suppose you 've been out seeing the world,
and would like to have your old jobs back

'75

again, eh ? You don't deserve it, you rascals,
but I think I can use the men who have
taken your places elsewhere on the haci-
enda, so if you like you can take your boat
again the first of the year, Pedro ; and Pan-
cho, you can begin your rounds next week.
Now, go and enjoy yourselves with your
families! "

And if you '11 believe me, he never even
asked them where they had been ! Pancho
and Pedro went back to their wives, who
were watching the interview anxiously from
the other side of the patio, and the wives
knew the moment they saw the men's faces
that everything was all right and they could
be happy once more.

The rest of the people had already gone
into the dining-room of the Big House and
were eagerly watching a great earthenware
boat that hung from the middle of the ceil-
ing. They knew that the boat was full of
good things to eat. Beside the boat stood
pretty Carmen with a long stick in one
hand and a white cloth in the other.

176

As Pancho and Pedro with their wives
and Pedro's baby came into the room, she
was saying: "Now, I'll blindfold each of
you, one at a time, and you must whack
the pinata 1 real hard or nothing at all will
happen ! I '11 begin ! "

1 Pin-yah'tah.
177

She tied the cloth about her own eyes,
turned round three times, and then struck
out with the stick. But she did n't come
anywhere near the pinata. Instead she
nearly cracked Jose's head!

Everybody laughed, and then it was Lu-
pito's turn. Lupito was a great man at
roping bulls, or breaking wild horses, but
he could n't hit the boat with his eyes cov-
ered any better than Carmen had.

Then Jose tried. He struck the pinata -
but it was only a love-pat. The boat swung
back and forth a little, but not a thing
dropped overboard.

At last Carmen cried out," Come, Tonio,
see if you have not a better aim than the
rest of us."

Tonio stepped boldly into the middle of
the room and Carmen bandaged his eyes,
turned him round and gave him the stick.
Tonio knew what was in that boat, and he
was bound to get it out if he could, so he
struck out with a kind of sideways sweep
and struck the ship whack on the prow !

178

It was made of earthenware on purpose
SO it would break easily, and the moment
Tonio struck it there was a crashing sound,
and then a perfect rain of cakes and candies,
and bananas, and oranges, and peanuts, and
other goodies which fell all over the floor,
and it wasn't two minutes before every
one in the room had his mouth full and
both hands sticky.

Dona Teresa and Pancho watched the
fun for a while, and then Dona Teresa
whispered to Pancho: "My angel, when
did you eat last? You look hungry."

Pancho at that very moment had his
mouth full of banana, but he managed to
say: "Last night I had some tortillas. I
have had nothing since until now."

"Bless my soul!" cried Dona Teresa.
"Come home with me at once. Thanks be
to the Holy Virgin, you'll share the turkey
with us after all ! I had to cook him because
we couldn't catch the rooster! Tell the
Twins and come right along."

179

III

So while the guitars were tinkling and
the rest of the people were still singing and
dancing and having the merriest kind of a
merry Christmas, Pancho and his family
said good-night politely to Senor Fernandez
and his wife and slipped quietly away to
the little adobe hut under the fig tree.

When they were inside their little home
once more, Dona Teresa made a fire in the

1 80

brasero and heated some of the turkey for
Pancho, and while he ate, Tonio and Tita
stood on each side of their one chair, in
which he sat, and listened with their eyes
and mouths both while their father told about
his adventures as a Soldier of the Revolu-
tion. And then they told him all about the
night they were lost, and the secret meeting,
and he was so astonished that he could
hardly believe they had not dreamed it until
Tita told him just what the Tall Man had
said, and what Pedro had said, and about
the pebble that rolled down.

Then he said, "Have you told any one
about this?"

And Dona Teresa answered proudly,
"Not a soul. Not even the priest."

"You've done well, then," Pancho said.
"The Tall Man punishes those who spoil
his plans by talking of them. He has raised
an army of two thousand men in such ways.
We enlisted for only four months, and in
that time we turned the region to the south
of us altogether into the hands of the Revo-

181

lutionists. I intended to return home at the
end of the four months, but finally stayed
a month more to finish the campaign."

" I knew you would come some time, my
angel," cried Dona Teresa. " I have prayed
every day before the Virgin for your safe
return."

"As God wills it," Pancho answered so-
berly. "I meant at any rate to strike my
blow for freedom, and to try to make things
better for us all."

"Well, have you?" asked Dona Teresa.

Pancho scratched his head with the old
puzzled expression on his face. "I don't
know," he said at last. "Things are not
right as they are, I know that, and they
never will be right if no one ever complains
or protests or makes any fuss about it. And
I know, too, that these uprisings never will
stop until Mexico is better governed, and
poor people have the chance they long for
and do not know how to get for themselves.
It is something just to keep things stirred
up. Perhaps some time Tonio here ran

182

think out what ought to be done. He may
even be a great general some day."

"Heaven forbid!" cried Dona Teresa.
She almost upset Pancho's dish, she was
so emphatic. "There has been enough of
going to war in this family!"

"Well," said Pancho, "war isn't very
pleasant. I Ve seen enough of it to know
that: but peace isn't very pleasant either,
when your life is without hope and you
must live like the animals if you live at
all."

" Now that I have you at home again, I,
for one, am quite content, ' ' said Dona Teresa;
and then she went to unroll the mats and
put the children to bed.

They were so tired that they went to
sleep in their corner in no time at all, and
when she had snuffed the candles before
the Virgin, Dona Teresa came back to Pan-
cho and sat with him beside the embers still
glowing in the brasero.

She told him everything that had hap-
pened on the hacienda while he was away,

183

and Pancho told her all the strange sights
he had seen, and the new things he had
learned, and at last he said:

"Anyway, I've made up my mind that
Tonio shall have more learning than he can
get on this hacienda, though I don't know
yet how it can be brought about. Some-
how children must know more than their
parents if things are ever to be better for
the poor people of Mexico."

And Dona Teresa answered, "Well, any-
way, we have each other and the Twins, so
let's take comfort in that, right now, even
if there are many things in the world that
can't be set right yet awhile."

Just then the first streak of dawn showed
red over the eastern hills. Out in the fig
tree the red rooster shook himself and
crowed, and to Pancho, as he stretched him-
self on his own hard bed in his own poor
little home once more, it sounded exactly as if
he said,

" Cock-a-doodle-do-oo.
We 're glad to see you-oo-oo."

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS

THIS is the fifth volume in the " Twins Series " of sup-
plementary readers. The preceding books are devoted,
respectively, to the Eskimo, the Dutch, the Japanese, and
the Irish. "The Mexican Twins" aims to establish a
better understanding of a neighboring country, and to
foster a kindly feeling for its people.

To arouse the children's interest and thus to make the
reading of this story most valuable as a school exercise,
it is suggested that at the outset the children be allowed
to look at the pictures in the book in order to get ac-
quainted' with "Antonio" and "Margarita" and with the
scenes illustrating their home life and surroundings.

During the reading, point out Mexico on a map of the
world or on a globe, and tell the children something
about the unique character of the country, thus connecting
this supplementary reading material with the work in
geography.

The text is so simply written that any fifth or sixth
grade child can read it without much preparation. In
the fifth grade it may be well to have the children read
it first in a study period in order to work out the pro-
nunciation of the more difficult words. In the sixth grade
the children can usually read it at sight, without the prep-
aratory study. The possibilities in the story for drama-
tization and for language and constructive work will be
immediately apparent.

In connection with the reading of the book, teachers
should read or tell to the children stories of Mexican life

and history. Material which may readily be adapted to
this use will be found in Baylor's Juan and Juanita, and
in Green's Boy Fugitives in Mexico. Terry's Mexico, a
guide-book, will be of invaluable assistance to the teacher
through the facts which it presents and their correlation.
Prescott's Conquest of Mexico also presents a wealth of
suggestion. Let the children bring to class postcards and
other pictures of scenes in Mexico.

The unique illustrations should be much used, both in
the reading of the story and in other ways. Children
will enjoy sketching some of them ; their simple treatment
makes them especially useful for this purpose.

The book is printed on paper which will take water
color well, and where books are individually owned some
of the sketches could be used for coloring in flat washes.
They also afford suggestions for action sketching by the
children.

An excellent oral language exercise would be for the
children, after they have read the story, to take turns
telling the story from the illustrations ; and a good com-
position exercise would be for each child to select the
illustration that he would like to write upon, make a
sketch of it, and write the story in his own words.

These are only a few of the many ways that will occur
to resourceful teachers for making the book a valuable as
well as an enjoyable exercise in reading.

"A Step Forward In Heading'

THE RIVERSIDE READERS

EDITED BY

JAMES H. VAN SICKLE

Suftrintindtnt of Schttli, Sfringfitld^ Man.
AND

WILHELMINA SEEGMILLER

Lot* Dirtcto' f Art^Indianafolii. Formerly Princifal of tht W*altty Avtnni Pub-
lic Schttl, Grand Rafidi, Mich.

ASSISTED BV

FRANCES JENKINS

Inilructtr in Elimtntarj Education, Ctlltgt for Ttachirt, Univtrtitr tf Cincinnati.
Formtrlj Suftrviitr tf Elimtntarj Grades, Dtiatur, III.

ILLUSTRATED BY

RUTH MARY HALLOCK CLARA E. ATWOOD

MAGINEL WRIGHT ENRIGHT . BOYD SMITH
HOWARD PYLE, and other notable artists

Fresh Material

These Readers contain an unusually large amount of frith <tf) right id mattrial
taken from the world's best literature for children.

Latest Teaching Methods

They represent the latest developments in the methods of teaching reading, the
kind of teaching that will be found in the best schools of to-day.

Artistic Make-up

Artistically the books will set a new standard in textbook making. The colored
illustrations of the primary books are particularly attractive.

Mechanical Features

The paper used in the books, the type for each grade, and the dimensions and
arrangement of the type page were all determined by careful experimenting, in ordei
to safeguard the eyesight of children.

StnJftr omflttt illustrated circular.

PRIMER FOURTH READER

FIRST READER FIFTH READER

SECOND READER SIXTH READER

THIRD READER SEVENTH READER

EIGHTH READER

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

The Boys' and Girls' Readers

By EMMA MILLER BOLENIUS
" Train your Pupils in Silent Reading "

Fourth Reader Sixth Reader

Fifth Reader Teachers' Manual

C. A series of basal readers for the Fourth, Fifth, and
Sixth Grades the crucial years in gaining skill in silent
reading, and fluency in oral reading.

C. Miss Bolenius, widely recognized as an expert, has been
guided by her study of the most authoritative and up-to-date
reports, investigations, courses of study, and surveys.

C. In the three Readers there is full study equipment
with each article, story, or poem. Into this equipment,
the editor has succeeded in bringing her own personal touch.
She makes reading a delight for both pupil and teacher.

C. Four major objects of the Bolenius Readers are:

(i) To direct silent reading, (2) To motivate oral reading,
(3) To develop the reading habit in children, and (4) To
broaden the child's outlook on life.

C. Practical everyday reading of various kinds is stressed.
The illustrations are full of teaching value and appeal.
Typographical aids make reading easier for the child. How
to study is given special attention, and supervised study
has been developed in an entirely new way.

C. In the Teachers 1 Manual there is help so concrete that
even inexperienced teachers will secure results. It preser 5
& practical methodology for silent reading.

HOUGHTOX MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

SUPPLEMENTARY READERS

GRADE I

The Hiawatha Primer. By FLORENCE HOLBROOK.
The Dutch Twins Primer. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.

GRADE II

The Book of Nature Myths. By FLORENCE HOLBROOK.
The Doers. By WILLIAM JOHN HOPKINS.
The Eskimo Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS. '
Kittens and Cats. By EULALIE OSGOOD GROVER.
Opera Stories from Wagner. By FLORENCE AKIN.
Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. By AUGUSTA
STEVENSON. Book One.

GRADE III

Book of Fables and Folk Stories. By H. E. SCUDDER.
The Dutch Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.
Famous Old Tales. Edited by HENRY CABOT LODGE.
Little-Folk Lyrics. By F. D. SHERMAN.
Three Years with the Poets. Edited by BERTHA HAZARD.
Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. By AUGUSTA
STEVENSON. Book Two.

GRADE IV

"I Am An American." By SARA CONE BRYANT.

The Cave Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.

The Japanese Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.

Home Life Around the World. By G. A. MIRICK and BURTON

HOLMES.

Stories from the Arabian Nights. Edited by S. ELIOT.
Northland Heroes. By FLORENCE HOLBROOK.
Old Ballads in Prose. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.
A Book of Fairy-Tale Bears. Edited by CLIFTON JOHNSON.
Little Bird Blue. By W. L. and IRENE FINI.EY.
Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. By AUGUSTA

STEVENSON. Book Three.

GRADE V

The Spartan Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.
The Belgian Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.
The Irish Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.
The Mexican Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.
The Little Book of the Flag. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.
Stories of Patriotism. By NORMA H. DEMING.
In the Days of Giants. By ABBIE FARWELL BROWN.
Sinopah, the Indian Boy. By JAMES W. SCHULTZ.
Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. By AUGUSTA
STEVENSON. Book Four.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

1717

GRADE VI

The Scotch Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.

The Mexican Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.

The French Twins. By LUCY FITCH PERKINS.

Wild Animal Ways. By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series (Sixth Grade).

Letters from Colonial Children. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

Little Book of the Flag. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

Our European Ancestors. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

Golden Numbers. Edited by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN and

NORA A. SMITH.

Story of the Roman People. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.
Story of the Greek People. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.
Dramatized Scenes from American History. By AUGUSTA

STEVENSON.
Industrial Readers. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

The Farmer and His 'Friends Diggers in the Earth Makers of

Many Things Travelers and Traveling.

GRADE VII

The Patriotic Reader. By K. I. BEMIS, M. E. HOLTZ, and H. L.
SMITH.

Bird Stories from Burroughs. By JOHN BURROUGHS.

Squirrels and Other Fur- Bearers. By JOHN BURROUGHS.

Representative Cities. By CAROLINE W. HOTCHKISS.

Bird- Ways. By OLIVE THORNE MILLER.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series (-jth Grade).

Children's Classics in Dramatic Form. By AUGUSTA STEVEN-
SON. Book Five.

American Classics.

Heroes Every Child Should Know. By HAMILTON WRIGXJT
MABIE.

Fall of the Year. By DALLAS LORE SHARP.

Winter. By DALLAS LORE SHARP.

Spring of the Year. By DALLAS LORE SHARP.

Summer. By DALLAS LORE SHARP.

Old World Hero Stories. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

The Little Book of the War. By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

Up from Slavery. By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON.
GRADE via

Coal and the Coal Mines. By HOMER GREENE.

Brave Little Holland. By WILLIAM E. GRIFFIS.

The Odyssey of Homer. (Bryant's Translation.)

New England Girlhood. By LUCY LARCOM.

Masterpieces of American Literature.

Masterpieces of British Literature.

Melodies of English Verse. By LEWIS KENNEDY MORSE.

Book of Famous Verse. By AGNES REPPLIER.

Riverside Art Series. 12 volumes.

Riverside Biographical Series. 14 volumes.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series (8tA Grade).

The British Isles. By EVERETT T. TOMLINSON.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

'945

CHILDREN'S CLASSICS IN
DRAMATIC FORM

BOOK ONE For First and Second Grade*
BOOK TWO For Second and Third Grades.
BOOK THREE For Third and Fourth Grades.
BOOK FOUR For Fifth and Sixth Grades.
BOOK FIVE For Seventh and Eighth Grades.

DRAMATIZED SCENES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY
For Sixth to Eighth Grades.

By AUGUSTA STEVENSON

Formerly a Teacher in the Indianapolis Public Schools

These books accomplish three important functions : first.
they arouse a greater interest in oral reading; second, they
develop an expressive voice; and third, they give freedom
and grace in the bodily attitudes and movements involved
in reading and speaking.

The use of these books will greatly improve the oral
reading; in your schools. In these days, when so many books
are hastily read in school, there is a tendency to sacrifice ex-
pression to the mechanics and interpretation of reading.
Those acquainted with school work know too well the resulting
monotonous, indistinct speech and the self-conscious, listless
attitude which characterize so much of the reading of pupils
in grades above the third. The dramatic appeal of the stories
in this book will cause the child to lose himself in the char-
acter he is impersonating, and to read with a naturalness and
expressiveness unknown to him before; and this improvement
will be evident in all his oral reading and even in his speech.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

THE TWINS SERIES

By LUCY FITCH PERKINS

THIS series of supplementary reading books aims
to picture vividly the life and conditions in countries
whose children have come to form a numerous portion
of our own population, or in whose history America
has a keen interest, and to foster a kindly feeling and
a deserved respect for the various nations.

Geographical Series

The Dutch Twins Primer, Grade I.

The Dutch Twins
The Eskimo Twins
The Japanese Twins
The Irish Twins
The Mexican Twins
The Belgian Twins
The French Twins

III.

II.
IV.

VI.

VII.

Historical Series

The Cave Twins Grade IV.

The Spartan Twins " III, IV.

Each Volume is illustrated by the author

OPERA STORIES FROM WAGNER
By FLORENCE AKIN

Primary Teacher in the Irvington School, Portland, Oregon
Illustrated by E. PoLLAK-OfTENDORFP.

Miss Akin here interprets for the child one of the world's literary
masterpieces. In simple, conversational style so much enjoyed by
children, she tells the four stories of Wagner's The Nibelung Ring,
which weaves into one the strange and beautiful myths and legends
of Northern Europe. From the heart of the race they bear their
lesson of good and evil. The text is especially adapted to the devel-
opment of expression and to dramatization. Careful consideration
has been given to the selection of words, that they may not require
too much explanation by the teacher, and yet may afford reasonable
growth for the child's vocabulary. The book is planned for use in
the second and third grades.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

1720

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN

The Farmer and his Friends
Diggers in the Earth
Makers of Many Things
Travelers and Traveling

These books meet the general school demand for reading
which gives the child an elementary knowledge of the origin
of common things.

The Industrial Readers show the basic value of farming
and mining, the ways in which the products of the earth are
made usable, and the importance of means of transportation.
Through this discussion of "everyday" labor the pupil
comes to see the interdependence and value of all forms of
the world's work, and gains valuable knowledge that no other
sf.t of readers on the market can supply an understanding
of the economic and industrial background of his life.

HOW TO MAKE THE
GARDEN PAY

A Manual for the Intensive Cultivation of Small
Vegetable Gardens

By EDWARD MORRISON AND
CHARLES THOMAS BRUES

TUs book is written in simple, clear English that children
Jn the grammar grades may read easily. The authors have had
long experience with intensive home gardening and here pre-
sent the essential information that will enable those unfamiliar
with gardening to plan for a garden that will utilize the avail-
able space to the greatest possible advantage, to raise vegeta-
bles that will prove most serviceable for home use, and to
lake the garden increasingly valuable, year after year.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

1939

GEOGRAPHICAL READERS

Home Life Around the World.

By GEORGE A. MIRICK. With illustrations from photographs by
BURTON HOLMES.

The Twins Series of Geographical Readers.

By LUCY FITCH PERKINS. Illustrated by the author.

The Dutch Twins Primer. The Eskimo Twins. The
Dutch Twins. The Japanese Twins. The Irish Twins.
The Mexican Twins. The Belgian Twins. The French
Twins.

Representative Cities of the United States.

By CAROLINE W. HOTCHKISS. Grades VII and VIII. Illus
trated.

The British Isles.

By EVERETT T. TOMLINSON. Grades VII and VIII. Illustrated

INDUSTRIAL READERS

America at Work.

By JOSEPH HUSBAND.

The Industrial Readers.

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN. Illustrated.

The Farmer and His Friends. Diggers in the Earth.
Makers of Many Things. Travelers and Traveling.

HISTORICAL READERS

The Twins Series of Historical Readers.

By LUCY FITCH PERKINS. Illustrated by the author.
The Cave Twins. The Spartan Twins.

History Readers.

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN. Illustrated.

The Story of the Greek People. The Story of the Roman
People. Old World Hero Stories. Our European Ances-
tors. Letters from Colonial Children. American Hero
Stories. The Little Book of the War.

Heroes Every Child Should Know.

Edited by HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE. Illustrated.

Dramatized Scenes from American History.

By AUGUSTA 'STEVENSON. Grades VI-VIII. Illustrated.

FABLE, MYTH, AND FOLK-LORE

OPERA STORIES FROM WAGNER

By FLORENCE AKIN. Illustrated.

IN THE DAYS OF GIANTS

By ABBIE FARWELL BROWN. Illustrated.

THE BOOK OF SAINTS AND FRIENDLY BEASTS

By ABBIE FARWELL BROWN. Illustrated.

SELECTED STORIES FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS

Edited by SAMUEL ELIOT. Illustrated.

FOUR STORIES FROM THE WONDER-BOOK AND
TANGLEWOOD TALES

By NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

The Three Golden Apples
The Paradise of Children
The Golden Touch
The Gorgon's Head

NORTHLAND HEROES

By FLORENCE HOLBROOK. Illustrated.

THE BOOK OF NATURE MYTHS

By FLORENCE HOLBROOK.

FAIRY TALE BEARS

Edited by CLIFTON JOHNSON.

FAMOUS OLD TALES

Selected and Arranged by HENRY CABOT LODGE. Illustrated

THE BOOK OF FABLES AND FOLK STORIES
Chosen and rewritten by HORACE E. SCUDDER. Illustrated.

OLD BALLADS IN PROSE

By EVA MARCH TAPPAX. Illustrated.

BALLADS AND LYRICS
Edited by HENRY CABOT LODGE.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

1937

MEMORIZING

THREE YEARS WITH THE POETS

Poems, selected and edited by BERTHA HAZARD.

MELODIES OF ENGLISH VERSE
By LEWIS KENNEDY MORSE.

POEMS FOR MEMORIZING

Riverside Literature Series.

SELECTIONS FOR STUDY AND MEMORIZING

Riverside Literature Series.
POEMS FOR READING AND MEMORIZING.

Grades I-VIII in seven volumes. Riverside Literature Series

GOLDEN NUMBERS
Compiled by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN and NORA A. SMITH.

THE POSY RING

Compiled by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN and NORA A. SMITH.

READING BOOKS

THE BASKET WOMAN

By MARY AUSTIN.

POETRY FOR CHILDREN

Edited by SAMUEL ELIOT. Illustrated.

KITTENS AND CATS. A First Reader
By EULALIE OSGOOD GROVER. Illustrated.

THE HIAWATHA PRIMER

By FLORENCE HOLBROOK. Illustrated. Riverside Literature Series

THE DOERS

By W. J. HOPKINS. Illustrated.

SINOPAH, THE INDIAN BOY
By JAMES W. SCHULTZ. Illustrated.

LITTLE-FOLK LYRICS

By FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN. Illustrated.

SELECTIONS FROM THE RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SE-
RIES FOR FIFTH GRADE READING

SELECTIONS FROM THE RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SE-
RIES FOR SIXTH GRADE READING

SELECTIONS FROM THE RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SE-
RIES FOR SEVENTH GRADE READING

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

1938

LITERATURE SELECTIONS

Modern Prose and Poetry for Secondary Schools. Edited

by MARGARET ASHMUN.

Prose Literature for Secondary Schools. With some sug-
gestions for correlation with composition. Edited by
MARGARET ASHMUN. With an Introduction by WILLARD G.
BI.EYER.

The High School Prize Speaker. Edited by WILLIAM L
SNOW.

American and English Classics for Grammar Grades.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series for Fifth
Grade Reading.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series for Sixth
Grade Reading.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series for Seventh
Grade Reading.

Selections from the Riverside Literature Series for Eighth
Grade Reading.

American Classics. (Poems and Prose.)
American Poems. Edited by HORACE E. SCUDDER.
American Prose. Edited by HORACE E. SCUDDER.
Literary Masterpieces.

Masterpieces of American Literature. Edited by HORAC*
E. SCUDDER.

Masterpieces of British Literature. Edited by HORACE f
SCUDDER.

Masterpieces of Greek Literature. (Translations.) Super
vising editor, JOHN HENRY WRIGHT.

Masterpieces of Latin Literature. (Translations.) Edited
by G. J. LAING.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO

1004

THE TAPPAN-KENDALL HISTORIES

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN, Ph.D., and CALVIN N. KENDALL, LL.D.
Book I. American Hero Stories. (For Grades IV-V.)

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

A logical introduction to Miss Tappan's An Elementary History of Our Country
The stories are chronologically arranged and appealingly toid.

Book II. An Elementary History of Our Country. (For Grade*
V-VI.)

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

A short, connected, and interesting story of the course of events in our history since
ibe discovery of America. The narrative is simple, and makes a special appeal through its
anecdotes of great men. There are numerous stimulating suggestions for written work.

Book III. Our European Ancestors. (For Grade VI.)

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

The historical bond of union between Europe and America is adequately developed i
this book. In every detail the book follows the course in history laid down for the sixth
grade by the Committee of Eight of the American Historical Association.

Book IV. History of the United States for Grammar Schools.

(For Grades VI/-VIII.)

By REUBEN GOLD THWAITES, LL.D., and CALVIN N. KENDALL, LL.D.

There is an adequate and up-to-date account of our social and industrial development
and authoritative chapters on the Great War. This history combines accurate scholarship,
unusual interest, and a most complete and helpful teaching equipment.

TIMELY BOOKS OF PATRIOTIC INTEREST

I Am An American. (For Grades V-VI.)

By SARA CONE BRYANT (Mrs. Theodore Y. Borst)

Stories of Patriotism. (For Grades V-VI)

Compiled by NORM A H. DEMING and KATHARINE I. BBMIS

The Patriotic Reader. (For Grades VII- VI II and Junior High Schools.)
Compiled by K. I. BBMIS, M. E. HOLTZ, and H. L. SMITH, Ph.D.

The Little Book of the Flag. (For Grades VI, VII, VIII.)

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN

The Little Book of the War. (For Grades V II- VIII and Junior Higk
Schools.) By EVA MARCH TAPPAN

American Ideals. (For High Schools.)

Edited by NORMAN FOERSTBR and W. W. PIERSON, JR.

Liberty, Peace, and Justice. (For High Schools.)

Speeches and Addresses on Democracy and Patriotism, 1776-1918. Rivet",
side Literature Series, No. 261

A Treasury of War Poetry. (For High Schools.)

British and American Poems of the World War. Edited by GEORGE HER-
BERT CLARKE. Riverside Literature Series, No. 262

Americanization and Citizenship.

Lessons in Community and National Ideals for New Americans. By
HANSON HART WEBSTER

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

Books on Patriotic Subjects

I AM AN AMERICAN

By SARA CONE BRYANT (Mrs. Theodore P. Borst).

" Americanism," says Mrs. Borst, " needs to be taught as definrlely
as do geography and arithmetic. The grade teachers are doing
splendid work for patriotism, with songs and recitations, story-
telling, and talks on civic virtues. I have tried to give them some-
thing more definite and coordinated, something that will serve as a
real textbook on ' Being an American.' "

STORIES otf PATRIOTISM.

Edited by NORM A H. DEMING, and KATHARINE I. BEMIS.

A series of stirring tales of patriotic deeds by Americans from tht
time of the colonists to the present. There are also stories about
famous heroes of our Allies in tfce Great War.

THE PATRIOTIC READER.

Edited by KATHARINE I. BEMIS, MATHILDE E. HOLTZ, and HENRV
L. SMITH.

The selections cover the history of our country from Colonial
times. A distinguishing feature is the freshness of material and thf
admirable arrangement. The book gives one a familiarity with
literature that presents the highest ideals of freedom, justice, and
liberty.

THE LITTLE BOOK OF THE FLAG.

By EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

In her own entertaining style, Miss Tappan has written the story
of Our Flag. She tells children how to behave toward the flag, in a
fashion that makes such behavior a sacred duty. There are selec-
tions for Reading and Memorizing.

A COURSE IN CITIZENSHIP AND PATRIOTISM,
Edited by E, L. CABOT, F. F. ANDREWS, F. E. COB, M. HILL, and M.

MCSKIMMON.

Good citizenship grows out of love of country and in turn pro-
motes the spirit of internationalism. This book teaches how to de-
velop these qualities most effectually.

AMERICANIZATION AND CITIZENSHIP.

By HANSON HART WEBSTER.

" Well calculated to inculcate love for America, especially among
the foreign born. This is to be desired at this time more than evei
before." His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

University of California

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