"He said wood rotted very fast in this country."
"Which is not true," rejoined Mr. Page.
"Then Cecilio said, in the most scornful way: 'You can read in the reports of the lawsuit that one of the white commanders wrote more than fifty years ago that the Indians at Warner's Ranch were made to work by flogging them. Now you flog us no longer, but you do as bad, or worse. That was before I was born, yet you say we were not here twenty-five years back. You would better study the case first before you say such things.'"
"Then Cecilio went away," said Nellie, "and the man said he would like to flog him—Cecilio."
"It was funny about Francisco, then, papa," said Walter. "He was coming with a big bucket of water, and he stumbled over that man's foot and spilled a lot."
"Was the man angry?" asked his father, with a smile.
"Oh, very!"
"And Francisco?"
"He said, 'Oh, excuse me,' and went on. When I told him he was not always so awkward as that, he laughed and said: 'Sometimes I am awkward, Walter. Sometimes I have been, and perhaps I will be again,' And he never smiled, papa—just walked along with his eyes on the ground. I am sure he did it purposely."