IV
At last a gong sounded from the big house.
The gong was the signal for the procession to start, and the moment they heard it, the people began pouring out of their cabins, and getting their animals together to drive toward the place where the blessing was to be.
[p 32]
Doña Teresa and Tita threw their rebozos over their heads, and Tonio put on his sombrero. Then Doña Teresa untied the turkey’s legs and took him in her arms; and though his head was still tied in the cloth, he gobbled like everything.
Tita took the little white hen on one arm, and her kitten on the other, and Tonio led the donkey, with Jasmin following behind.
They were all ready to start, when Doña Teresa cried out, “Upon my soul! We nearly forgot the goat! Surely she’s needing a blessing as much as the worst of them.”
She hurried back to the fig tree and untied the goat with one hand, because she was still carrying the turkey with the other. When the goat felt herself free, she gave a great jump and nearly jerked the rope out of Doña Teresa’s hand; then she went galloping toward the gate so fast that poor Doña Teresa was all out of breath keeping up with her.
“Bless my soul, but that goat goes [p 33] gayly!” she panted, as she joined the Twins at the gate. “If I led her about much I should have no chance to get fat.”
Already there were crowds of people and animals going by. It was a wonderful procession. There were horses and cows all gayly decorated with garlands and colored streamers. There were donkeys and pigs [p 34] and guinea-fowls and cats and dogs and birds in cages, and so many other creatures that it looked very much like the procession of animals going into Noah’s ark.
Doña Josefa,[10] who lived in a hut near the river, was driving two ducks and two white geese,—only she had dyed the geese a bright purple,—and José’s wife had painted stripes of red clear around her pig. She was having a dreadful time keeping the pig in the road, for all the little boys, and all the little dogs—and there were a great many of both—frisked and gamboled around the procession and got in the way, and made such a noise that it is no wonder the creatures were distracted and tried to run away.