Marianela 20

Marianela 20

When they reached the house the table was ready laid with the chocolate

pots full of the thick and nutritious beverage, and a small hillock of

slices of bread. There too were the _mantequilla_ (a sort of cake),

duly decked with fern leaves, and no lack of other household dainties.

The bright glasses of crystal water reflected and magnified all these

gastronomical objects.

 

"Here we have something to support life," said Don Francisco, seating

himself.

 

"And you will have some chocolate too, Nela," said Pablo. He had

hardly spoken when Florentina had offered her the chocolate pot, and

everything that was on the table was pressed on her acceptance. She

refused at first, but the Señorita insisted with so much kindness

and gentle grace, that she had at last no choice. Don Manuel cast

side glances at his daughter, not feeling perfectly satisfied with

her advance in the arts and manners of the best society, since one of

the most important points, in his estimation, consisted in a delicate

appreciation of the shades of civility due to different people

according to their rank and position, "showing to each neither more nor

less than was appropriate by the rules of social distinction; since, by

this means, each would keep his place, while true dignity would hold

its own and observe that happy medium of courtesy, which was not too

haughty or reserved to the rich, nor too humble and condescending to

the poor--not too humble to the poor."

 

When they had done breakfast, Don Francisco said:

 

"Now, you children, go out for a walk. Pablo, this is the last day that

Don Teodoro will allow you to walk out. You three go and have a run,

while my brother and I go over the farm.--Fly away birds!"

 

There was no need to speak twice; the beauty of the day was invitation

enough, and the three young people set out for the fields.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XV.

 

THE THREE CHILDREN.

 

 

The town-bred damsel thoroughly enjoyed the open and smiling meadows

without the trammels of her father's social dogmas, and as soon as they

were at some little distance from the house she took to running and

leaping, swinging now and then from the branches of the trees as she

passed them. She pinched the blackberries with the tips of her fingers,

and when she thought them ripe she would pick three, one for each mouth.

 

"This is for you, cousin," she said, putting it to his lips, "and this

is for you, Nela, and this little one is for me."

 

Then as the birds flew across she could not resist the temptation to

wave her arms as if she too could fly. "Where are the little rascals

off to I wonder?" she said. She must need gather a branch from every

oak-tree and split open the acorns to see what was in them, then she

bit into one, and finding it bitter, tossed it away. No botanist, mad

on Latin names and classification, could have been so eager to collect

all the flowers that grew under her feet, as if to bid her welcome to

their native soil, and she gathered enough in half an hour to adorn

every button-hole in her cousin's cloak, to make a garland for Nela's

hair, and then one for her own.

 

"My cousin would like to see the mines," said Pablo. "Do not you think

we might go down?"

 

"Yes, let us go down--this way, Señorita."

 

"Oh! but I do not like to go through tunnels, they frighten me

dreadfully. I really cannot go through a tunnel ..." said Florentina,

following them. "Cousin, do you and Nela walk about here often? Oh! but

this is beautiful--I could live here all my life. Blessings on the man

who is going to give you the power of enjoying this lovely world!"

 

"God grant it! And it will all look much more lovely to me who have

never seen it, than to you who are tired of it all. But do not suppose,

Florentina, that I do not understand what beauty is; I can feel it in

my own fashion, and my fancy almost, almost makes up for my want of

sight."

 

"That is strange.--But say what you will," replied Florentina, "we will

have some good fun when you can see."

 

"Maybe," said the blind boy, "that I may not find much to say that day."

 

Nela meanwhile was absolutely speechless.

 

When they had reached the crater of La Terrible, Florentina was greatly

struck by the grand spectacle of the limestone rocks, left on the

ground after the ore had been extracted. She compared them to huge

masses of sugar loaves piled one on another; then, after looking a

second time, she said they were like gigantic dogs and cats turned to

stone at the critical moment of a furious fight.

 

"Let us sit down on this slope," she said, "and we shall see the trains

go by with the mineral, and besides we can see these stones which are

very curious. That large rock in the middle has a wide mouth--do you

see, Nela?--and out of the mouth sticks a toothpick; it is a tree

that has grown all alone there. It looks as if it were laughing at

us, for it has eyes too; and there, farther on, is one with a hump,

another smoking a pipe, and two pulling each other's hair; there is

one yawning, another asleep and drunk, and another head downwards

supporting a cathedral on his feet; then there is one playing the

guitar, with a dog's head and coffee-pot on it like a cap."

 

"What you are saying," observed the blind man, "proves to me how

differently things are seen by different eyes, and that the precious

gift of sight sometimes travesties them strangely, changing their

natural form into something whimsical and unreal; for, after all, what

you see before you are neither cats nor men, toothpicks, cathedrals,

nor coffee-pots, but merely limestone rocks and masses of calcareous

stone stained with oxide of iron. And it is your eye that burlesques so

simple a fact."

 

"You are right, cousin; and for that very reason I say it is our

imagination that sees, and not our eyes. Nevertheless our sight is

useful--to inform us, for instance, of certain things which poor people

have not got and which we who are rich can give them." And as she spoke

she touched Nela's dress.

 

"Why does not this dear little Nela wear better clothes?" she went on.

"I have a number of frocks and I will give her one--and a new one too,

into the bargain." Marianela, covered with blushes and confusion, did

not raise her eyes.

 

"That is a thing I can never understand: why some have so much and

others so little. I get quite angry with Papa when I hear him abusing

those who wish that everything should be divided so that all should

have an equal share. What do they call those people, Pablo?"

 

"Socialists--communists ..." said the lad smiling.

 

"Well, those are the people for me. I vote for a redistribution, so

that the rich should give the poor all they have too much of. Why

should this orphan go barefoot when I wear shoes? Even wicked people

ought not to be destitute, much less good ones. Now, I know that Nela

is very good, you told me so last evening, and your father said so too.

And she has no parents, no one to care for her. How is it that there

are so many, many, miserable creatures in the world? My bread burns my

mouth when I remember how many there are who have none at all. Poor

little Nela! such a good child, and so forlorn! It seems impossible

that to this day you should have lived without being loved, without

any one to give you a kiss nor to cuddle and pet you as we pet little

children--my heart aches to think of it."

 

Marianela was as completely petrified with astonishment as at the first

sight of the apparition. Then she had seen the Virgin Mary, now she

heard her very words.

 

"Listen, little one," the Holy Maiden went on, "and you, Pablo, listen

too. I must help and comfort Nela--not as we help the beggars by the

road, but as we try to help a brother whom we find unexpectedly. Did

you not tell me that she has been your companion, your _lazarillo_,

your guide through the darkness? That you saw with her eyes and trod

in her steps? Nela is mine as much as yours then, and I shall take

charge of her. I will dress her and give her everything she can want

to live decently, and teach her a hundred things to make her useful in

the house. Papa told me that perhaps I might always have to live here;

and, if so, Nela will live with me; with me she will learn to read,

to say her prayers, to sew and to cook; she will learn so many things

that she will know as much as I do. What do you think of my plan? She

will soon be nothing short of a young lady. My father will not prevent

me I know. Indeed, last evening he said to me: 'Florentinilla perhaps,

perhaps, before long I shall not rule you any longer; you may have to

obey another master....' Well, be that as it may, Nela shall be my

friend. Will you love me? dearly? You have lived so neglected--as the

wild flowers grow in the fields--that you do not even know how to say

thank you--but never mind I will teach you; oh! I have to teach you so

many things."

 

Marianela, who had been making stupendous efforts not to cry as she

listened to these splendid promises, could at last hold in no longer

and, after screwing up her face for a minute, burst into tears. The

blind boy sat silent, lost in thought.

 

"Florentina," he said presently, "you speak and think differently from

most other people. Your goodness is as infinite and as enthusiastic as

that which has filled the world with martyrs and peopled heaven with

saints."

 

"What an extravagant way of putting it!" said the girl laughing, and

she rose to gather a flower that had attracted her attention at some

little distance.

 

"Is she gone?" asked Pablo.

 

"Yes," said Nela, gulping down her tears.

 

"Do you know?" said Pablo, "I fancy my cousin must be rather pretty.

When she arrived last evening I felt the greatest antipathy towards her; I cannot tell you what a dislike I took to her. But to-day I fancy I can see her, and that she must be rather pretty."