So the children trapped fish and gathered acorns for bread just as their grandfather told them he used to do. Docas was too old to work much, but their father and older brother, Occano, helped Don Secundini build the big adobe house near which Docas was to spend the rest of his life.
PART III
WHEN DOCAS LIVED WITH DON SECUNDINI ROBLES
PART III
WHEN DOCAS LIVED WITH DON SECUNDINI ROBLES
WASH-DAY
“WE must soap the ox-cart well to-night, Occano,” said Oshda to his oldest son.
“What does the Señor Robles want us to do to-morrow?” asked Occano.
“It is not the Señor that wants us to-morrow. It is the Señora. Now that the sun has come again, we are all going to start for the creek very early in the morning to have a wash-day,” said Oshda.
Next morning, before it was daylight, the oxen were yoked to the cart, and lunch was stowed away inside. Then Donna Maria, as they called the Señora Robles, climbed into the cart with her five children. Oshda and Occano walked by the side of the oxen.
There were five horses with soiled clothes piled up high on their backs, led by Pantu and other of the Indian menservants. Putsha, Colla, and other Indian women who were going to wash the clothes walked along by the side of the horses. Shecol and Yappa went too.
Before it was light, as they went slowly along, they heard the howling of the coyotes and other wild animals. The Spanish children crept closer to Donna Maria then, while Shecol and Yappa held on to Putsha’s skirts as they walked along.