“See the children safe first, do not mind me,” said the old colored woman, and this was done, and Mark took one while Sam took the other. Then Frank and Professor Strong brought in the old colored dame, who was so excited and exhausted that she could scarcely stand. Once on the bank of the stream the whole party made for the shelter of the warehouse.
It was a long while before the colored woman recovered sufficiently to speak. Then she said that she was a nurse, and that she worked for a certain Señor Alcamba, of Ponce. The two children were the señor’s, his only beloved ones, since his wife had died. The nurse had been traveling from one village to another with them, when the storm had overtaken her and she had resolved to remain for some hours at the home of a friend. But she had lost her way in the rain and sought shelter in the hut near the bank of the stream. Without warning the rain had washed the hut into the water and she had had a desperate struggle to save the boy and the girl from drowning. She had been almost ready to give up in despair when the good Americanos had appeared. She was very, very grateful and kissed their hands, while tears of gratitude streamed down her fat cheeks.
As it promised to keep on raining for at least several hours it was decided that they should move on to Aguas Buenas. The colored woman said she could ride a horse and she was given Sam’s steed. She carried the little girl, while the professor took the boy. Sam hopped up behind Frank, and thus the entire party reached the town mentioned a little over an hour later. Accommodations were found at a hotel which had just been established by a Porto Rican and an American, and Professor Strong saw to it that the colored woman and her charges were looked after with care. The colored woman sent out a messenger to look up some of her friends and by nightfall a man came with a carriage and made arrangements for taking her and the children away early in the morning.
“I shall not forget you,” said the woman to Professor Strong. “Señor Alcamba shall know of your bravery and kindness, and he will surely reward you.”
“We want no reward,” was the professor’s answer. “We are glad to know that we were able to assist you.”
CHAPTER XXI
ACROSS PORTO RICO ON HORSEBACK
By the time the boys were stirring the next morning the colored woman and the boy and girl were gone. The storm had cleared away and the sun was shining brightly. But out in the roadway and in the garden attached to the hotel the traces of the heavy downfall of rain were still in evidence.
“I see some beautiful flowers around here,” said Mark, taking a walk with the professor before sitting down to breakfast. “But a great number are strange to me, and so are many of the vegetables and fruits they use.”
“The vegetables mostly in use throughout the island are white and sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, radishes, cabbage, yams, yautias, cassava, or tapioca, and okra root,” answered Professor Strong. “There are many kinds of beans and peas and also a great variety of squashes and pumpkins. Of fruits the banana is, of course, the leader, but Porto Rico pineapples are delicious and so are the oranges and the cantelopes. Limes are much in use for lime water. Lemons are raised for export. There are also a vast number of shrubs and trees which furnish medical extracts, and numerous dyewoods are found here, including fustic, which gives a yellow dye, divi-divi, which gives a reddish-brown dye, mora, which gives bluing, and annotto, which grows in great profusion and furnishes the peculiar golden yellow often used in coloring butter and cheese.”
“Gracious, I didn’t know they used coloring here,” cried Mark.