[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."