NOBODY’S CHILDREN.
“There you see a man ready for anything and everything, my dear Sofía,”
said Teodoro. “It is the result of our education, is it not, Cárlos?
of having had no coddling in our childhood, and having been accustomed
from our tenderest infancy to the idea that no one could be our
inferior? Men who have made themselves, as we have done, who, without
any mortal help nor any safeguard but strong will and high ambition,
have been able to triumph in the struggle for existence--the devil’s
in it, but they are the only people who really know how to help the
helpless! I will not tell you half the things I have been able to do
in my life--treating my neighbor as myself--for fear of falling into
an ugly trick of singing my own praises; for fear too of making you
envious, in spite of your raffles and benevolent lotteries--enough of
that.”
“Nay, tell us, or tell us some other time.”
“No, no, such things should be kept secret for modesty’s sake. I am
bound to confess that I cannot boast of any considerable store of that
lovely grace; I am not lacking in vanity, and one of the things I am
vainest of, is of having been a beggar, of having asked charity from
door to door, of having walked barefoot with my brother Cárlos, and
slept in corners under door-ways, without a roof, without shelter,
without a home of any kind. Some wonderful spirit of energy and
determination burned within me--whence it came I know not; but I felt
that before us lay two paths, one to prison and one to glory. I took my
poor little brother on my shoulders--just as I am carrying Nela--and
I said: ‘Our Father which art in Heaven--save us!’ And he saved us. I
learnt to read, and then I taught my brother; I served many masters,
who gave me food and let me go to school. I saved my pittance. I bought
a money-box, and scraped enough together to buy some books. How I
began medicine, I do not know; but somehow I did, while my brother was
earning a living as an errand boy in a shop.”
“What are you talking about?” exclaimed Sofía much annoyed, for this
was a theme she particularly disliked. “I cannot help asking; what
is the use of recalling all these childish details? Besides, you
exaggerate them greatly.”
“I exaggerate nothing,” said Teodoro with triumphant jollity. “Just
listen, Señora, and say nothing. I speak of what I know with the
authority of experience. Hear me all ye poor, all ye helpless ones,
and ye forsaken little ones! I took to medicine, God knows how; I
learnt, God knows how. A worthy man--blessings on his memory! gave
me good counsel and helped me with money; I loved the science, but
how could I study without ceasing to work for my living? This was
a terrible dilemma. Do you remember, Cárlos, when we both went
to ask for employment in the barber’s shop, in the old _calle de
Cofreros_?[5] Never in our lives had either of us had a razor in
his hand, but we had to earn our bread by shaving. At first we only
looked on--do you remember Cárlos--and then we wielded the noble
instruments ourselves.--Bleeding was the making of us. Then I began
to study anatomy; a noble, a glorious science! but my school-work
became a serious matter, and I had to give up working for the worthy
barber.--He cried, positively cried, the day I left him; he gave me
two _duros_, and his wife made me a present of a pair of her husband’s
old trousers.--Then I went as a valet. God was always merciful in
giving me good masters. My love of study interested these dear, kind
people, and they allowed me as much spare time as possible. I sat up
to study; nay, I studied in my sleep. I was like a monomaniac, for
while I did the washing, I repeated the names of the different parts of
the human frame. I remember, that as I brushed my master’s clothes, I
studied muscular anatomy--as I folded a sleeve I would say to myself:
‘_deltoid_, _biceps_, _supinator_, _flexor_, _cubitalis_;’ and over his
trousers I would repeat, ‘_glutaeus_, _psoas_, _gemellus_, _tibialis_.’
In that house they used to give me broken food, which I carried to
my brother, who was living with a worthy man who bought and sold old
clothes. Do you remember, Cárlos?”
“I remember well,” said Cárlos with feeling. “And I am grateful to the
good soul who gave me a roof over my head in return for some trifling
service in keeping his accounts. And it was there that I was so lucky
as to come across the retired Colonel, who taught me the elements of
mathematics.”
“Well! you have not a rag that you blush to display to all the world!”
snorted Sofía.
“My brother asked me for bread,” Teodoro went coolly on, “and my answer
was: ‘Bread? work at mathematics.’ One day my master gave me tickets of
admission to the Theatre de la Cruz; I took my brother, and we enjoyed
it enormously, but Cárlos caught a cold and inflammation of the lungs.
That was a dreadful, a terrible business; it was a blow at the very
root of our existence, a shot in our backbone. But who is cast down?
On we had to go.--He must be cured. A physician who had taken a great
fancy to me, undertook to doctor him.”
“It was nothing less than a miracle that he saved my life in that
squalid hole--a perfect museum of old clothes, old iron, and old
leather.”
“God was on our side--I see it plainly. Oh! I knew very well in whom
I trusted,” Teodoro went on, with the fervid rapid eloquence, which
was as characteristic of the man, as his black elf-locks and leonine
countenance. “But, for my brother to have medicine, I had to do without
clothes. The Pharmacopeia did not admit of tailors’ bills--nay,
prescription after prescription--first my cloak went, then my overcoat,
then my shoes were turned into pills. However, my master stood by me.
I got some clothes once more, and my brother was outside the house
again. The doctor said: ‘He will get quite well in the country.’--‘The
country,’ said I, and I thought it over; then he may go to the School
of Mines. My brother was a good mathematician, I taught him some
chemistry, he soon took a fancy to rocks and stones, and before he
went into the school he had begun going out into the fields to pick
up pebbles. Well, I meanwhile went on my way, beaten by winds and
waves; every day I knew something more of medicine. A famous operator
took me as his assistant; then I was no longer a mere menial--I was a
servant to science. My master fell ill, I nursed him like a Brother of
Charity--but he died, leaving me a legacy. God bless me! but it was a
fortune! It consisted of a walking-stick, a machine for making cigars,
a hunting-horn, and four thousand _reales_ in money. My brother bought
books and I bought some clothes, and as soon as I was decently dressed,
I began to get patients. It really seemed as if folks fell ill on
purpose to give me employment. On--straight on! Years and years went
by; at last, after many miseries I saw, far off, the way to a refuge.
Still, my brother and I sailed on without any too severe toil, and we
were never melancholy; God smiled upon our souls. Well, indeed, for us!
God held out his hand to us, as it were. I began to study the eye and
soon could operate for cataract, but I wanted something more than this.
I was earning money, no doubt, but my brother cost me all I earned. At
last, however, Cárlos passed out of the schools. Three cheers for the
brave--none but the brave win the day. I saw him settled at Riotinto
with a good salary, and then off I went to America. I was a sort of
Columbus, the Columbus of labor; a sort of Cortés; I discovered a New
World for myself, and having discovered it, I conquered it.”
“You are your own trumpeter,” said Sofía laughing.
“If there are still heroes to be found you are one of them,” said
Cárlos with eager admiration for his brother.
“Well, set to work now, noble Demi-god,” said Sofía, “crown your
achievement by working a miracle, and restore to sight a man blind from
his birth.--Look, there is Don Francisco coming out to meet us.”
And, in fact, mounting the ridge which shuts in the mines to the west,
they had come to Aldeacorba, and past the house of Penáguilas, who,
pulling on his coat in the utmost haste now came hurrying towards them.
Darkness was falling fast.