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!"
"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 something 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
rabbits.
"This stone mountain was built by your 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.[22] 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!"
IV
The man who had gone for the wood now spoke. He took up one of the
rifles. "See!" he said, "we have guns enough 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 Pyramid of the Moon in which
they were hidden 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. "Those other men might kill us if
they knew we were here and had heard everything."
Tita hid her face on her arms, and her whole body shook with sobs, but
she did 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
dios[23]--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 of the dying coals to show that any one had been
there at all.
[Illustration]
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.
When it was quite light they let themselves down out of their nest and
warmed themselves over the coals. They had nothing to eat, of course,
and they did not know which way to go. But Tonio had an idea.
"Father and Pedro came from this direction," he said, pointing toward
the south, "and so the hacienda must be somewhere over that way."
V
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 horseback. 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 Senorita
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,[24] 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 murmured comforting things to them.
"Poor little ones--poor little souls!" she said, patting them. "We have
been looking for you, the mozo and I, since daybreak! Where have you
been, my poor pigeons? Your mother is nearly wild with grief! Tell me,
have you seen anything of your father or Pedro? They have not been home
either. We thought perhaps they might be searching for you too."
[Illustration]
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 questions about where they had been.
[Illustration]
The first one to reach them was Dona Teresa. She came running out of the
chapel, with her rebozo flying out behind her almost 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.
VI
It was not until she had them all to herself in their little adobe hut
that she made them tell her every word about their adventure. 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.
Then Dona Teresa went on: "I am not wholly surprised at your father's
disappearance. 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 Teresa. "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 herself--"to keep the poor people down, and to take away
their land. He says the Revolution 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.
[Illustration]
"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 Teresa. "It is not for nothing that
I am the best ironer and the best cook on the hacienda. 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 doesn'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 Pedro's wife all that the Twins had
told her.
[20] Roo-rahl'.
[21] Hay'fay p[=o]-lee't[=i]-co.
[22] Kwow't[=e]-m[=o]k.
[23] Ah dee-[=o]s'.
[24] M[=o]'s[=o].
[Illustration]
IX
CHRISTMAS AT THE HACIENDA
[Illustration]
IX
CHRISTMAS AT THE HACIENDA
I
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 Christmas all the people in the
village met together and marched in a procession all round the
hacienda. This procession is called the Pasada.[25]
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 Judea. 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 they went at once to Bethlehem in Judea, 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 Bethlehem they found the town so full of
people, who had come from far and near for this purpose, that there was
no room for them in the inn. For eight days they wandered 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 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, fearing 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 Teresa 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 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 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 bewitched," 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 shouldn'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 potatoes cooked in syrup that they
could possibly hold. It took Dona Teresa so long to cook it all on her
little brasero that she didn'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 Jasmin, 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
cabins, singing, she stayed on her knees before 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 vaquero 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 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.
[Illustration]
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 Joseph 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 himself 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 admittance 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 behind 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
receive them.
Then he lifted his hand and prayed, and blessed the people, and the
whole procession passed in front of the images, each one kneeling before
them long enough to leave his lighted candle stuck in a little framework
before the shrine. Senor Fernandez and his wife Carmen watched the scene
from one end of the patio.
[Illustration]
Dona Teresa and the Twins were among 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 without 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?
II
The moment she saw Pancho, Dona Teresa gave a loud scream of joy, and
then she rushed right by every one--almost 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
whatever 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 couldn't begin 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 anybody to answer them, until it sounded
almost 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 standing together, talking in
low tones and watching the crowd round the wanderers.
[Illustration]
Pancho and Pedro had reason to dread what Senor 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 Fernandez
might say something like this: "Well, my men, do you think you can play
fast and loose with your job like that? You'll 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 Fernandez and bowed humbly with their
sombreros 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 Pedro listened they couldn'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
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 hacienda, so if you like
you can take your boat again the first of the year, Pedro; and Pancho,
you can begin your rounds next week. Now, go and enjoy yourselves with
your families!"
And if you'll 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 ceiling. 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.
[Illustration]
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[26] real hard or nothing at all will
happen! I'll begin!"