Then came the worst. Some geese with Roman helmets on their heads, riding upon sardine tins, were pretending to maintain order with their sabres, and playing a number of foolish tricks upon the authorities. They soon knocked down poor little Manolo, who was obliged to seek refuge in a doorway, when a camel stopped him by laying a hand on him, saying:
"Thank goodness, I have a little dog."
The wretched camel put on a lady's veil, took Manolo in its arms as if he were a wee baby, and taking up its place in a corner, began to sing in a falsetto voice:
"I was born in a wood of cocoanut trees
One morning in the month of April."
"Gentlemen," it added, "alms for this poor mother who has a child to support." But Manolo, who did not wish to play the part of an infant in arms, gave the camel a bite in the arm and ran away to the outskirts of the town. In a cottage he found two doves, which, on seeing him so thin and hollow-cheeked, offered him their assistance and gave him something to eat. A sympathetic swallow gently looked after him, and the lullaby of its song made the poor boy sleep soundly. A feeling of sweet well-being pervaded his little body, he saw in his dreams a cloud of rose and gold, and in it the white figure of an angel which, gently moving its wings, arrived at his side and in a melodious voice said to him:
"Manuel, your sufferings have ended; let what you have seen be a warning to you, and try to be good to everybody, including animals."
The boy woke up, looked around him and found himself in his own bed, and soon the servant came in to tell him that it was now time to go to school. Manolo, who had not got over his astonishment, dressed himself quickly, noticing, full of surprise, that he went on two legs—as if he had gone all his life on four.
He never ill-treated an animal again, for this was what he said:
"Besides it being cowardly to ill-treat defenceless beings, is it not dangerous to expose oneself to the risk of the tables being turned and finding oneself in the same disagreeable position?"
