“My opinion is that you should open your eyes and see, that you should open your ears and hear. Consult your own heart—I will grant that you have a great heart. Consult that judge, that wise counsellor, and do as it bids you.”
Caballuco reflected; he meditated as much as a sword can meditate.
“We counted ourselves yesterday in Naharilla Alta,” said Vejarruco, “and we were thirteen—ready for any little undertaking. But as we were afraid the mistress might be vexed, we did nothing. It is time now for the shearing.”
“Don’t mind about the shearing,” said Doña Perfecta. “There will be time enough for it. It won’t be left undone for that.”
“My two boys quarrelled with each other yesterday,” said Licurgo, “because one of them wanted to join Francisco Acero and the other didn’t. ‘Easy, boys, easy,’ I said to them; ‘all in good time. Wait; we know how to fight here as well as they do anywhere else.’”
“Last night,” said Uncle Paso Largo, “Roque Pelosmalos told me that the moment Señor Ramos said half a word they would all be ready, with their arms in their hands. What a pity that the two Burguillos brothers went to work in the fields in Lugarnoble!”
“Go for them you,” said the mistress quickly. “Señor Lucas, do you provide Uncle Paso Largo with a horse.”
“And if the mistress tells me to do so, and Señor Ramos agrees,” said Frasquito Gonzalez, “I will go to Villahorrenda to see if Robustiano, the forester, and his brother Pedro will also—”
“I think that is a good idea. Robustiano will not venture to come to Orbajosa, because he owes me a trifle. You can tell him that I forgive him the six dollars and a half. These poor people who sacrifice themselves with so little. Is it not so, Señor Don Inocencio?”
“Our good Ramos here tells me,” answered the canon, “that his friends are displeased with him for his lukewarmness; but that, as soon as they see that he has decided, they will all put the cartridge-box in their belts.”