When José saw him, he called out to him, “Is school out?”
“No,” said Tonio. “I am,” and he never said another word to José.
[p 70]
He had the willow switch in his hand. The Maestro had given it to him, “to remember him by,” he said. Tonio felt pretty sure he could remember him without it, but he switched the weeds beside the road with it as he walked along, and there was some comfort in that.
At last he remembered that he had a luncheon in the crown of his hat. He sat down beside the road and ate all four tortillas and every single bean. Then he went home. His mother was not in the house when he got there.
Jasmin came frisking up to Tonio and jumped about him and licked his hand. It seemed strange to Tonio that even a dog could be cheerful in such a miserable world. He took his lasso down from the wall and went out again with Jasmin.
The cat was lying back of the house in the sunshine asleep. Tonio pointed her out to Jasmin and he sent her up the fig tree in a hurry. Then Jasmin chased the hens. He drove the red rooster right in among the [p 71] beehives, and when the bees came out to see what was the matter they chased Jasmin instead of the rooster, and stung him on the nose. Jasmin ran away yelping to dig his nose in the dirt, and Tonio went on by himself through the woods.
Soon he came to the stepping-stones that led across the river to the goat-pasture, and there he met José’s son and another boy.
“Hello, there! Where are you going?” Tonio called to them.
“We aren’t going; we’ve been,” said José’s son, whose name was Juan.[12] The other boy’s name was Ignacio.[13]
“Well, where have you been then?” said Tonio.