Tonio seemed so sure of this that Tita was a little comforted. They walked for a very long time—hours it seemed to her—before Tita spoke again.
Then she said, “There’s a big black cloud, and the sun is lost in it, and it’s going to rain, and we aren’t anywhere at all yet!”
They had got down to level ground by this time and were walking through a great [p 116] field of maguey[18] plants. The maguey is a strange great century-plant that grows higher than a man’s head. When it gets ready to blossom the center is cut out and the hollow place fills with a sweet juice which Mexicans like to drink. Tonio knew this and thought perhaps he could get a drink in that way.
So he cut down a hollow-stemmed weed with his machete and made a pipe out of it. Then he climbed up on the plant that had been cut and stuck one end of his pipe into the juice, and the other into his mouth. When he had had enough, he boosted Tita up and she got a drink too. This made them feel better, and they walked on until they had passed the maguey plantation and were out in the open fields once more.
III
The sky grew darker and darker, and there were queer shapes all around them. Giant cacti with their arms reaching out like [p 117] the arms of a cross loomed up before them. There were other great cacti in groups of tall straight spines, and every now and then a palm tree would spread its spiky leaves like giant fingers against the sky.
Suddenly there was a great clap of thunder, “It’s the beginning of the rains,” said Tonio.