“Ah, Manuel,” he cried as an older man came out of a little side street, “have you heard the latest bit of news?”
“Não, Gabriel, what is it?”
“A man from the Sandwich Islands has come here, offering to give us free passage to Honolulu provided we work for three years on the sugar plantations. He promises us twenty-two dollars a month together with a house and free water. I, for one, intend to go. Twenty-two dollars a month! Why, fourteen is all I can make here, working from early morning ’til late at night. What say you; will you be one of the company?”
“That I will. I have a brother there and my wife has a sister. We shall tell the man that we will go to his plantations, and then when we get to the capital, I march up to my brother’s, while the rest of you can go and till the soil. I am a carpenter, and none of that dirty work for me. A free trip! ha, ha, ha; I’ll beat the American at his own game.”
“I do not consider that fair,” was Gabriel’s response. “The American expects us to keep our word. Furthermore, he is offering a reduced passage rate to those who want to pay their way.”
“That won’t do for me. Why, even at the smallest possible rate, it would be an utter impossibility for me to take one child, let alone fourteen!”
Gabriel laughed. “Well, I am going to those islands, but it is to work on a plantation. Three years is but a short while, when you stop to consider it, and by the end of that time, I will have saved enough to get married on.”
“Do as you want to, boy, but I tell you frankly that you are a fool. You are an excellent mason; why throw away the gift which the blessed virgin gave you, to kill yourself on an old plantation for the sake of sentiment. It is expected that there will be some that will take advantage of this free trip idea, and you may as well be one of those as not. But we’ll not quarrel over the matter.”
They walked on in silence for some moments until they came to a neatly white-washed cottage. There were vines over the front and in the little garden in the back, neat garlic patches shared the space with cabbages.
“Will you come in?” Manuel asked.