"I wish you would not be so fond of choosing this nasty old ruined
house for our playground, Lolita!"
"Oh, don't you like it, Ana? I do so love to come here and listen
to the tales the Wind tells me, as it moans through these crumbling
walls!"
"The tales the Wind tells you, hermana [54] dear! what can you mean?"
"Oh, I forgot! you don't know the Wind's language; but I do, and I
love to listen to it."
"Oh, Lolita dear, do tell me what the Wind tells you! What does it
say about this ruined cottage?"
"Why, it told me such a strange story, Ana! It said to me, 'A long,
long while ago, when I was one day dancing happily this way on
a sunbeam, this old ruined cottage was then just built; all was
then bright and new within and without; the cock strutted about
the yard, keeping his fowls in order, and shouting, "Qui quirri
qui!" the hens gathered their chickens under their wings, crying,
"Cá, cá, cá, cá!" the cat sunned himself on the projecting roof,
and frightened the birds from the cherry-tree that shaded it; and
the dog ran about wagging his tail, and keeping them all in order,
with one eye at least ever open for the rabbit that would poach in the
lettuce-bed. On the sunny side of the house was a magnificent parral
[55], where every evening might be seen Pepito and Dolores sitting
together in newly-wedded bliss. Pepito would be sawing or nailing wood,
which was to make a cradle, and Dolores, stitching away at little fine
bits of clothes that looked as if they were meant for a fairy. They
were so happy, that whenever I was sent that way I used to step aside
and ask my sister the Breeze to sweep round that corner for me, because
I am rough and she is gentle; and I used to love to watch how pleased
they were with her refreshing visit, after the burning heat of the day.
"'But it happened one day that I had to go a long, long journey: some
pirates were ravaging the sea, and I was to kick up a storm which would
frighten them away from some poor and hardy sailors who were not strong
enough to encounter them; and then I had to sweep round the north of
Africa, to disperse an army of locusts that were preparing to ravage
the land and destroy the work of the husbandman. So I passed through
the parral as gently as I could, and kissed the young couple under it,
and went lightly on my way.
"'It was some months before I was sent to Spain again, but the first
chance I had I went as near as I could to this cottage; and as I came
along, my attention was attracted by another cottage, which seemed to
me something like it, so I looked in: there was only one cheery old
man inside it, and he was making preparations for a journey. "Won't
they be pleased to see me? How little they think I could come so
soon!" he muttered, as he put his bundle together. I made the air
clear and fresh for his journey, and passed along.
"'As I went over the mountains, I came upon a couple of muleteers
directing a file of laden mules; they looked hot and wayworn, so
I blew the dust off them, and cooled their feet, and the hoofs of
their beasts. As I came near I recognized my friend Pepito, but he no
longer looked so happy as of old; his expression was dark and anxious,
and it grew gloomier as he listened to some sombre tale his companion
was telling.
"'"Are you sure--certain sure?" he exclaimed.
"'"Mas cierto que el reloj, hombre [56]," replied the sinister
companion, whom I now also recognized for a fellow of very bad
reputation in Pepito's village, and who was said to have vowed
vengeance on Dolores because she had married Pepito instead of him.
"'"And if I turn back to-night, I shall find him of whom you speak
in my cottage?" continued Pepito, in an agonized tone.
"'"No doubt of it," returned the other.
"'Now I would not believe any ill of Dolores, so I tried what I could
to divert their attention. I threw myself so violently against the
face of the leading mule as to make her miss her way, and nearly step
over the brink of the precipice which the path they were travelling
bordered; but Pepito was a practised muleteer, and caught her head
in time to prevent an accident. Then I blew his hat over the edge,
but he was as good a mountaineer as muleteer, and readily climbed
down the steep side after it. I could do no more.
"'Damp mists were gathering along the banks of the Guadalquivir:
my mission was to disperse them before they became injurious to
health. I might not tarry, so I passed on my way, sighing through
the tall trees. But before the sun rose next morning, I contrived to
reach Pepito's cottage. No one was stirring, but I easily made my
way in through the open windows. There lay in the bed in calm and
peaceful slumber, the old man whom I had seen making up his bundle
in glad expectation of his visit proving a joyful surprise. The doors
and casements rattled for fear, as they always will do when they see
me coming, and I was vexed to find my curiosity had thus disturbed
the old man's sleep. But there was something worse than my coming to
rouse him. First there was a noise of footsteps under the window,
then the barking of the watchful dog, then the sound of some one
climbing up the wall, then groping his way through the window. The
old man started in his bed, nerved with the consciousness that he was
the guardian for the time of his son-in-law's property; he hastily
disengaged his navaja [57] from his belt by the bedside, and stood up
to grapple with the intruder, who, similarly armed, advanced straight
into the room with an assurance which showed he was no stranger.
"'Then I perceived that Pepito, misled by his perfidious friend, had
returned in the night-time, so as to prove the truth of the report
given him. When he found himself confronted by a man's arm, he felt no
longer any doubt, but closed upon him in rage and fury. I had no heart
to stay and see the result of a fight between two armed and desperate
men, but I set up my loudest and most desolate howl, and swept madly
through the pueblo [58]. I made the branches of the trees crack, and
the fittings of the houses clatter; wherever I saw a door or gate open,
I set it banging to and fro, and by a supreme effort, I even moved the
great church-bell so that it gave one or two deep tolls. Thus wakened,
the people soon heard the cries and recriminations of the combatants,
and ran out of their houses in numbers to track the sound.
"'It is part of my fate that I must ever be moving onward; I can
never stand still and never go back, though I can make a grand sweep
over a large tract of country, and so come round again to a place
after a time. It was a long time, however, before I was able to
work my way round after this, but one day I happened to overtake my
sister the Breeze, and knowing the interest I had taken in the young
couple under the parral, she immediately began telling me about them;
I desired nothing more than to learn what had befallen them.
"'"Oh," she said, "I hope you will never have to go by there again,
you couldn't bear it!"
"'I began to suspect what had happened that fatal night. "Then the
neighbours were not in time to part the men after all?" I exclaimed.
"'"They were parted, but both died of their wounds next day."
"'"And Dolores?"
"'"Dolores was so horror-stricken at the dreadful sight, that she
entirely lost her reason. Some good people have taken her quite away,
far, far off, thinking she may get better in an entirely different
scene. But all the time she was here, I used to stir gently through
the room to fan her burning forehead when the air was sultry; and I
often looked deep into her eyes when they stared so wildly, seeking
for Pepito and her father, who she always thought were coming to see
her, and I always saw there a look which told me she was not long
for this world."
"'"God take her in His mercy!" I exclaimed. "And the parral and the
cottage, what of them?"
"'"All left desolate. The hares and the foxes have the grapes to
themselves. No one will go to live in the house. No one will even
pass by it if they can any how avoid going that way; and I hope you
will keep away from it too, brother, for the sight would make you
sad indeed."
"'Our ways parted here; and I was not sorry, for my heart was too full
for more talk. I need hardly say that on the first opportunity I went
to see how the old place looked. And sad enough it seemed; sadder even
than now, because the memory of Pepito and Dolores was fresher upon it.
"'I feel so sad whenever I am there, that I moan and sigh, and
the simple people say it is Pepito and his father-in-law crying out
against each other. Sometimes, wild with anger, I feel ready to crumble
the whole place to atoms--and then I dash down beams and stones and
branches of trees; and then, again, I fear to lose all the traces I
have loved so well, and I blow sand and mould and seeds of creeping
plants to bind the scattered portions together, and root them again
to the spot.'
"That's a dreadfully sad story, Lolita; it has made me feel shyer
than ever of this dreary place."
"The Wind's stories are always melancholy, Ana dear; though you don't
know his language, you hear that his tone is always plaintive."
"Then I don't want any more of the Wind's stories. I'll tell you what
I like. I like the sights I see in the Sunbeam."
"Oh, tell me what you see in the Sunbeam!"
"Then you must come out of this dreary place, and sit down with me
on the sunny bank yonder, and I'll tell you what I have seen."