"Would you like to go to school this winter, Jose?"
"Oh, how I should like it,—more than anything else in all the world! But there is no school, and if there was one, I could not leave the farm-work to go to it."
"There is to be a free primary school opened this winter, with a good teacher, in our village where we go on market-days. I want you to attend the school, Jose."
"But who will do the work at home, Antonio? You will soon go back to America, I think." Jose never forgot, even in the joy of having Antonio at home, that this big brother might soon go away again.
Antonio was silent a long time. Then he said slowly, looking off to the far Penha Mountain: "Jose, how would you feel if I told you I will stay at home?"
"I should be very happy, oh, so happy, brother."
"Well, Jose, I have decided to stay."
Jose raised himself upon his elbow and looked eagerly into Antonio's face: "Do you really mean it?" he asked.
"Yes, Jose."
"Then I can go to school, and learn as much as you know?"