A great day for Las Vides is the day appointed by the town
council for the inauguration of the vintage. The whole year is passed
in looking forward to and preparing for the beautiful harvest time.
The vine is still clothed in purple and gold, but it has already
begun to drop a part of its rich garniture as a bride drops her veil,
the wasps settle in clusters on the grapes, announcing to man that
they are now ripe. The last days of September, serene and peaceful,
are at hand. To the vintage without delay!
Neither Primo Genday nor Mendez takes a moment's rest. The bands
of vintagers who come from distant parishes to hire themselves out
must be attended to, must have their tasks assigned them; the work of
gathering in the grapes must be organized so that it may be
advantageously and harmoniously conducted. For the labors of the
vintage resemble, somewhat, a great battle in which an extraordinary
expenditure of energy is required from the soldier, a waste of muscle
and of blood, but in which he must be supplied, in return, with
everything necessary to recruit his strength during his moments of
repose. In order that the vintagers might engage in their arduous
labors with cheerfulness and alacrity, it was necessary to have at
hand in the cellar the cask of must from which the carters might
drink at discretion when they returned exhausted from the task of
carrying the heavy _coleiro_, or basket, filled with grapes up the
steep ascents; it was necessary that they should have an abundant
supply of the thick wine flavored with mutton suet, the sardines and
the barley-bread, when the voracious appetite of the bands demanded
them; to which end the fire was always kept burning on the hearth at
Las Vides and the enormous kettles in which the mess was cooked were
always kept filled.
When in addition to this the presence of numerous and
distinguished guests be considered, some idea may be formed of the
bustle of the manor-house during these incomparable days. Its walls
sheltered, besides the Comba family, Saturnino and Carmen Agonde, the
young and amiable curate of Naya, the portly arch-priest of Loiro,
Tropiezo, Clodio Genday, Señorita de Limioso and the two Señoritas de
Molende. Every class was here represented, so that Las Vides was a
sort of microcosm or brief compendium of the world of the
province--the priests attracted by Primo Genday, the radicals by the
head of the house of Mendez. And all these people of conditions so
diverse, finding themselves associated together, gave themselves up
to the enjoyment of the occasion in the greatest possible harmony and
concord.
To the merriment of the vintagers the merriment of the guests
responded like an echo. It was impossible to resist the influence of
the Bacchic joyousness, the delirious gayety which seemed to float in
the atmosphere. Among all the delightful spectacles which Nature has
to offer, there is none more delightful than that of her fruitfulness
in the vintage time, the baskets heaped full of clusters of ruddy or
dark red grapes, which robust men, almost naked, like fauns, carry
and empty into the vat or wine-press; the laughter of the vintagers
hidden among the foliage, disputing, challenging each other from vine
to vine to sing, a gayety which is followed by a reaction at
nightfall--as is usually the case with all violent expressions of
feeling in which there is a great expenditure of muscular strength;
the merry challenges ending in some prolonged Celtic wail, some
plaintive _a-laá-laá_. The pagan sensation of well-being, the
exhilaration produced by the pure air of the country, the mere joy of
existence, communicated themselves to the spectators of these
delightful scenes, and at night, while the chorus of fauns and
Bacchantes danced to the sound of the flute and the timbrel, the
gentry diverted themselves with childish frolics in the great house.
The young ladies slept all together in a large, bare apartment,
the Rosary-room, the male guests being lodged by Mendez in another
spacious room called the screen-room, because in it was a screen, as
ugly as it was antique; the arch-priest only being excluded from this
community of lodging, his obesity and his habit of snoring making it
impossible for any person of even average sensibility to tolerate him
as a roommate; and the gay and mischievous party being thus divided
into two sections, there came to be established between them a sort
of merry warfare, so that the occupants of the Rosary-room thought of
nothing but playing tricks on the occupants of the screen-room, from
which resulted innumerable witty inventions and amusing skirmishes.
Between the two camps there was a neutral one--that of the Comba
family, whose slumbers were respected and who were exempt in the
matter of practical jokes, although the feminine band often took
Nieves as their confidante and counselor.
"Nieves, come here, Nieves; see, how foolish Carmen Agonde is;
she says she likes the arch-priest, that barrel, better than Don
Eugeniño, the parish priest of Naya, because it makes her laugh, she
says, to see him perspiring and to look at the rolls of fat in the
back of his neck. And say, Nieves, what trick shall we play to-night
on Don Eugeniño? And on Ramon Limioso, who has been daring us all
day?"
It was Teresa Molende, a masculine-looking black-eyed brunette, a
good specimen of the mountaineer, who spoke thus.
"They must pay for the trick they played on us yesterday," added
her sister Elvira, the sentimental poetess.
"What was that?"
"You must know that they locked Carmen up. They are the very
mischief! They shut her up in Mendez's room. What is there that they
won't think of! They tied her hands behind her back with a silk
handkerchief, tied another handkerchief over her mouth, so that she
couldn't scream, and left her there like a mouse in a mouse-trap. And
we, hunting and hunting for Carmen, and no Carmen to be seen. And
there we were thinking all sorts of things until Mendez went up to
his room to go to bed and found her there. Of course they had that
silly creature to deal with, for if it had been I----"
"They would shut you up too," declared Carmen.
"Me!" exclaimed the Amazon, drawing up her portly figure. "They
would be the ones to get shut up!"
"But they entrapped me into it," affirmed Carmen, looking as if
she were just ready to cry. "See, Nieves, they said to me: 'Put your
hands behind you, Carmiña, and we'll put a five-dollar piece in
them,' and I put them behind me, and they were so treacherous as to
tie them together."
Nieves joined in the laughter of the two sisters. It could not be
denied that this simplicity was very amusing. Nieves seemed to be in
a new world in which routine, the worn-out conventionalities of
Madrid society, did not exist. True, such noisy and ingenuous
diversions might at times verge on impropriety or coarseness, but
sometimes they were really entertaining. From the moment the guests
rose from table in the afternoon nothing was thought of but frolic
and fun. Teresa had proposed to herself not to allow Tropiezo to eat
a meal in peace, and with the utmost dexterity she would catch flies
on the wing, which she would throw slyly into his soup, or she would
pour vinegar into his glass instead of wine, or rub pitch on his
napkin so that it might stick to his mouth. For the arch-priest they
had another trick--they would draw him on to talk of ceremonies, a
subject on which he loved to expatiate, and when his attention was
engaged, take away his plate slyly, which was like tearing a piece of
his heart out of his breast.
At night, in the parlor of the turbid mirrors, in which were the
piano and the rocking-chairs, a gay company assembled; they sang
fragments of _El Juramento_, and _El Grumete_; they played at
hide-and-seek, and, without hiding, played _brisea_ with _malilla_
counters; when they grew tired of cards, they had recourse to
forfeits, to mind-reading, and other amusements. And the frolicsome
rustic nature once aroused, they passed on to romping games--fool in
the middle, hoodman-blind, and others which have the zest imparted by
physical exercise--shouts, pushes and slaps.
Then they would retire to their rooms, still excited by their
sports, and this was the hour when their merriment was at its height,
when they played the wildest pranks; when they fastened lighted
tapers to the bodies of crickets and sent them under the bedroom
doors; when they took the slats out of Tropiezo's bedstead so that
when he lay down he might fall to the ground and bruise his ribs. In
the halls could be heard smothered bursts of laughter and stealthy
footsteps, white forms would be seen scurrying away, and doors would
be hastily locked and barricaded with articles of furniture, while
from behind them a mellow voice could be heard crying:
"They are coming!"
"Fasten the door well, girls! Don't open, not if the king himself
were to knock!"