GREAT SURPRISES
ON the Colonel's desk the little revolving calendar was set at "December
25th," and the letters were in red ink, showing by this that it was a
feast day. The Colonel was writing, and evidently did not notice a
little figure clad in a long linen coat standing behind his chair
waiting a chance to speak. He wrote on and on, until Francisco's
patience was exhausted and he coughed warningly.
"Not much of a soldier, Niño! A soldier must have patience if it is to
wait all day."
But Francisco was used by now to his uncle's chaffing; indeed, they were
close friends and Francisco went right to the heart of his errand.
"Uncle, it's _El dia de Navidad_."
"Why, so it is," looking at the calendar. "I had forgotten it was
Christmas. We've so many feast days one cannot keep the run of all, and
I can scarcely remember my own patron saint's day. If it wasn't such a
well known and widely observed one, it would often pass before I knew
it."
Francisco laughed. "Why, Uncle Juan, you couldn't miss St. John's day
unless you were deaf and blind. They make such a noise and have such
huge bonfires always. For weeks before it comes the children save every
piece of wood and paper, and last St. John's night I stood on our roof
and looked over the city. My! how pretty it looked; the whole city
seemed on fire; for nearly every street had half a dozen bonfires. I
wish _my_ saint was as popular. But to-day, I want to ask if I may go
home just for a little while."
"Indeed you may, lad, whenever you choose."
"Well, you see, to-day, I've a special errand, Uncle; I've been making a
_pesebre_ for Elena and it's finished now just in time. I would like to
go and set it up."
"Let me see it," said the Colonel.
"Oh, it's fine, Uncle. I've got twenty-eight figures and the paint is
dry on every one of them. I worked all day yesterday in the back
_patio_, and José, the _portero_, helped me cut out the camels. He said
mine looked like giraffes." And the boy began to lay them out on the
desk, tenderly lifting each one as though they were alive and breathing.
As each little representation took its place in the long row the
Colonel's face grew tender. He dared not smile at their crudity for
behind the rough, unskilful carving, he saw the ideal that had been in
the carver's mind. He was seeing some new thing each day in the little
fellow's character that made him love him more; and when they were all
placed formally together, he drew the little linen coated figure into
the circle of his arm and together they discussed the merits of each wee
wooden figure.
"Niño, we will go together! That's what we'll do," he exclaimed almost
boyishly. "I am tired of these long army statistics, so let us go
_inmediatamente_."
A span of Argentine thoroughbreds took them this time, for the Colonel
was a genuine lover of horse flesh, and he owned several of the finest
in the country. It is said that an Argentine will lavish as much care on
his favourite horse as a mother will upon her child; and these two,
Saturnino and Val-d'Or, were the pride of his heart.
"This pair, Francisco," he began, as they took their seats in the open
victoria, and the silver studded harness tinkled as the splendid horses
started off; "this pair are to be taken abroad next month with my two
trotters, Benita and Malacaro. Our horses are attracting more and more
attention in Europe as they see the fine specimens our stables are
sending there.
"I shall enter them on the English turf, and I am ready to hazard their
price that they will come back, at least one of them, with a blue
riband. At any rate, I am sure there are no finer appearing horses
anywhere than these; but all of our horses are good to look at. Of
course, I except those miserable cab horses; they are a disgrace to
their name, and should be called sheep."
Thus he chatted on, full of his subject, until they reached Francisco's
home. They found Guillerma and her mother away. They had gone to
celebrate mass and Elena, with the one _servienta_, was alone in the
house.
"You entertain her, Uncle Juan, while I erect the _pesebre_," whispered
Francisco.
So the gray haired soldier took Elena on his knee and told her the story
of a little girl who was lost in a forest and of the convention of
animals that met to discuss her fate. He put most eloquent speeches into
the jaws and beaks of the different birds and animals, such as the deer,
the puma, the ostrich, the jaguar, and many others. Elena's eyes were
wide as the big bear growled out his belief that she should be cut up
into half _kilo_ bits, and divided among them; but just then Francisco
entered the room and asked them to come into the dining-room where
Estrella, the servant, was preparing _máte_.
As they entered the _comedor_[10] Elena spied the manger with its
surrounding images in the corner, on the floor.
"_Que hermosa! Que linda!_"[11] she cried, clasping her hands in
ecstasy. "Only yesterday did I tell Encarnación, when she came to bring
me Christmas cakes full of almonds and raisins, that we should have no
_pesebre_. She is to have one of ivory that cost a small fortune, but I
had rather have this. Oh! it is so beautiful! Who could have brought it?
Who could have put it here?" and she looked up inquiringly, first at her
uncle and then at her brother. Uncle Juan's face pleaded "not guilty"
but Francisco's was so beamingly tell-tale that she flew to him and
embraced him and kissed him over and over again.
[Illustration: "'DID YOU EVER SEE SUCH GLORIOUS BLUE EYES!'"]
When each figure had been carefully inspected and discussed Uncle Juan
proposed a ride, this time behind his favourite horses. As they entered
the house on their return he was pleased to see a faint colour on
Elena's face and a brighter look in her eyes.
Thus the days passed, swiftly enough; New Year's with its fireworks and
noisy crowds of celebrating _peons_, and at last came twelfth night.
Elena awoke on the sixth of January feverishly expectant. Surely, after
having set up such a lovely _pesebre_, the Three Kings would not forget
her. An excursion into the dining-room proved their faithfulness, for
there they stood--three smartly covered camels, and three wee kings,
bowing before the tiny babe in the manger.
Around the room were the gifts they had brought to her. A toy piano, a
wonderful French doll with a trunk full of clothes, a few picture-books
and a china tea set. She was still admiring them when Francisco arrived;
he was dressed for travelling and was quite excited, but Elena could not
notice that, so absorbed was she in her toys and doll.
"See this _muñeca_,[12] Francisco, mio! Did you _ever_ see such glorious
blue eyes, just like the English Señora's on the corner. Why, you act
as though you had seen them before, Francisco, are you not surprised to
see so many?" exclaimed Elena, impatient that he would not kneel with
her among her gifts.
"They are beautiful, Elena, every one of them. But I am in a great haste
for Uncle Juan and I are leaving from the Retiro Station in half an
hour. The servant, José, has taken our trunks and large bags ahead, and
I stopped here to bid you all goodbye, as Uncle Juan had another errand
to do on his way down. We go a day earlier than we had planned in order
that we may stop over for a day and night in Rosario. I am glad, Elena,
that your gifts are so lovely, and if I were not in such a hurry, we
would have a long play together. But I shall write to you, all of you;"
and he embraced them, each one, mother and two sisters, hastily, not
trusting himself to prolong the goodbye.
The Estación Retiro was full of a holiday crowd, for it was early
morning. José was awaiting him, and they stood watching the long trains
of cars coming and going, discharging their loads into the long sheds,
and swallowing up another one and puffing out again. Francisco's
knowledge of railroads was limited. He had never taken a long journey on
one; his mother and Guillerma had taken him with them on one of their
yearly pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, some forty miles
distant, for being devout Catholics, this was never omitted. He began to
grow nervous, fearing his uncle would be too late, as the train for
Rosario was puffing and blowing just outside the iron gate and the guard
was preparing to ring a huge bell, which announced the departure of all
trains. Just before its first peal broke from its brass throat his uncle
strode in, and, motioning the servant to follow with the bags, he
hurried Francisco through the gate.
José, the _portero_ accompanying them, was an Araucanian Indian by
birth, but he spoke Spanish fluently. When a mere boy, the Colonel's
father had brought him from Chile, when returning from a military
expedition into that country; and he had been a faithful servant of the
family ever since. As slavery is prohibited in Argentina he had been
paid wages since he became of age, over forty years ago, but no power on
earth could have induced José to leave the service of Colonel Lacevera.
He was but slightly bent and possessed the broad face and high cheek
bones of the South American Indian. His skin was like parchment, and his
eyes slanted peculiarly like the eyes of the Chinese. When Francisco had
spoken of that last characteristic to his uncle he had been told that
many people believed these Indians to be a tangent of the Oriental
races, and upheld their theory mainly because of the peculiar similarity
of the eyes.
José and Francisco were great friends and Francisco was much pleased
that José was to be with them at the _estancia_, since his knowledge of
animals, birds, herbs, in fact all out door life, was unlimited.
The car they occupied was a compartment car of the English type,
although the ponderous engine was North American. As the railroads of
Argentina are mainly under English control the English railway customs
and equipments are largely in evidence.
The pretty stations at each suburb are surrounded by grass plots with
beds of flowers, and the English system of overhead bridges across the
tracks at all stations reduces the number of accidents.
Francisco found out all of this by a series of continuous questions as
their train sped through the pretty suburbs with their numbers of summer
homes, surrounded by well kept gardens. The villages began to grow fewer
and fewer and Colonel Lacevera said:
"Now it's my turn, Niño! Can you bound the Argentine Republic?"
Francisco began in the sing-song manner of the Spanish schools:--"On the
north by Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, on the west and south by Chile;
on the east by Brazil, Uruguay and the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is one
million, one hundred and eighteen thousand square miles and its
population is over six million. It is--"
"There! There!" exclaimed his uncle, laughingly. "You may stop. No
telling how long you could sing the praises of your native land. I want
to tell you a few things that you may not have learned. Do you know what
alluvial soil is?"
"It sounds like some metal," ventured the boy.
"But it isn't. You see, Argentina was once part of the ocean bed; for
under the soil, way back in the interior of the country, I, myself,
have found shells and gravel. This long level stretch of land between
the Atlantic Ocean and the foothills of the Andes, that was once covered
with water, is now called the Pampas; and you are now in that region.
"See that long, coarse grass stretching as far as the eye can reach; it
is the finest pasture land in the world and explains why we produce such
quantities of cattle, sheep and horses. You see, having this excellent
pasture-land, so well watered, and a climate that insures grazing the
whole year through, our expenses for raising and rearing cattle are very
low. We are a larger country than we appear on the map, my boy. Why! we
are twelve times as large as Great Britain."
"Uncle, as we have so many things that are the largest and best in the
world, tell me, is this the longest railroad on the earth?"
"No, Niño, not quite that. Our railroads are developing our country at a
rapid rate and we have some of the finest road beds in the world, but
that is because our country is so level. Now that I think of it, we have
got something connected with railroads that is interesting. We have the
longest straight stretch of railway in the world, it is said. On the
Argentine Pacific Railway from Buenos Aires to the Andes it runs like a
surveyor's line two hundred and eleven miles without deviating a foot.
But come, let us go into the dining car for breakfast; it is already
half-past eleven."
This was Francisco's greatest surprise of all in a long list of the
day's surprises. To eat in a railway car, speeding fifty miles an hour,
with delicate china and napery, shining silver and food like he had been
having daily at his uncle's table, seemed too wonderful to be true.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: Dining-room.]
[Footnote 11: How beautiful! How lovely!]
[Footnote 12: Doll.]