VI
It was not until she had them all to herself in their little adobe hut that she made them tell her every word about their adventure. Of course they told their mother everything—about the fire and the Tall Man, and the guns, and what he said about coming back to punish any one who told.
Doña Teresa rocked back and forth on her knees and wiped her eyes on her apron as she listened to them, while at the same time she made them hot chocolate on the brasero.
As they were drinking it she said to them: “Listen, my children. I will tell you a secret. Promise me first that you will never, never tell what I am going to tell you now!”
The children promised.
[p 157]
Then Doña Teresa went on: “I am not wholly surprised at your father’s disappearance. I knew he had seen the Tall Man. I knew it after Judas Iscariot’s Day. The Tall Man talked then with him and Pedro and some others, and asked them to join the Revolution. I begged him on my knees not to go, but he said: ‘If I go it is only to make things better for us all. I’m tired of this life. Peons might just as well be slaves.’”
“What is the Revolution?” asked Tonio.
“Oh, I don’t know,” sobbed Doña Teresa. “Your father says it is rising up to fight against wrongs and oppression. He says the Government is in league with the rich and powerful and even with the Church”—here Doña Teresa crossed herself—“to keep the poor people down, and to take away their land. He says the Revolution is going to give back the land to the people and give them a better chance.
“That’s what the Tall Man told him. But to me it looks like just adding to our poverty. Here at least we have a roof over [p 158] our heads, and food, such as it is, and I could be content. What good it will do any one to go out and get shot I cannot see,—but then, of course, I am only a woman.” She finished with a sob.
“Father told the Tall Man that you were a strong woman and that he had no fear for us because you would look after us while he is gone,” said Tita.
“And so I will, my lamb,” said Doña [p 159] Teresa. “It is not for nothing that I am the best ironer and the best cook on the hacienda. You shall not suffer, my pigeons. But you must help me. You must never, never, NEVER tell any one where your father has gone. Señor Fernandez would be angry. It might injure your father very much. We must be silent, and work hard to make up for his absence. I shall tell Pedro’s wife. She knows about the Tall Man, and it was the first thing we both thought of when your father and Pedro did not come home last night. But Pablo doesn’t know a thing about it, and he must not know. I’m afraid Pablo couldn’t keep a secret!”
This made the Twins feel very grown up and important. Perhaps after all their father would come back and things would be better for them all, they thought. He probably knew best, for was he not a man? And so they lay down on their hard beds, warmed and fed and comforted, and slept, while Doña Teresa went over and told Pedro’s wife all that the Twins had told her.
[20] Roo-rahl´.
[21] Hay´fay pō-lee´tī-co.
[22] Kwow´tē-mōk.
[23] Ah dee-ōs´.
[24] Mō´sō.
[p 160a]
IX
CHRISTMAS AT THE HACIENDA
