I
Meanwhile what do you suppose had been happening at home? When she had finished her washing and had dried the clothes on the bushes, Doña Teresa folded them and carried them back to the house, and began her ironing.
She didn’t think much about the time because she was so busy with her work, but at last she felt hungry and glanced out at the shadow of the fig tree to see what time it was.
She was surprised to see the shadow already quite long and pointing toward the east.
“Well,” thought she to herself, “I’ll get myself something to eat, and by that time the children will be home and as hungry as [p 124] two bears. I think I’ll get something especially good for their supper.”
She hummed a little tune as she worked, and every little while she glanced out the open door to see if they were not coming. By and by she noticed that the sky was overcast and then she heard a clap of thunder. It was the very same clap of thunder that had frightened the Twins in the cactus grove.
“The holy saints above us!” cried Doña Teresa aloud. “The children should have been home long ago. Where can they be!” She ran to the door just in time to see Tonto come ambling slowly into the yard alone and go to his own place in the shed.
Doña Teresa’s eyes almost popped out of her head with surprise and fright. She threw on her rebozo and ran over to Pedro’s hut. Pedro’s wife was just examining Pablo’s ears to see if he had really washed himself in the river, when Doña Teresa arrived, quite breathless, at the door.
“Whatever can be the reason that my [p 125] children are not home?” she gasped. “You remember it was morning when I sent them after wood. They have not been seen since, and Tonto walked into the yard just now all alone, and of course there’s nothing to be got out of him! What can have happened to them?”
“Now, never you mind, like a sensible woman,” said Pablo’s mother soothingly. “They’re playing along the way as likely as not and will be at your door before you are. Who should know better than myself the way children will forget the thing they’re set to do.”
She looked severely at Pablo as she said this, so I judge the examination of his ears had not been satisfactory.
Doña Teresa didn’t wait to hear any more, but ran back home, and when the children still did not appear she walked down the road hoping to meet them.
The clouds grew blacker and blacker, and the rain began to fall. Doña Teresa called Jasmin, who had reappeared by this [p 126] time, and gave him Tonio’s shoes to smell of.
“Go find him, go find him,” she cried.
Jasmin whined and looked anxious, but just then came a flash of lightning. Jasmin was afraid of lightning, so he crept into Tonto’s stall with his tail between his legs and hid there until the storm was over.