The Squatter and the Don. María Amparo Ruiz de Burton

that. You sing very well, only the song is very plaintive, and the better it is sung, the sadder is its melody,” Clarence said.

      “It must have seemed like a lugubrious welcome to Miss Alice. I shall never sing that song again,” said Victoriano, emphatically. “See if I do.”

      “I am glad to hear you say that, for you are constantly singing it,” Mercedes said.

      “I hope it will not be a prophetic coincidence that you should sing it as I came,” said Alice, and as she spoke the supper bell rang.

      “That is the prophecy I meant,” said Victoriano, and all laughed, glad of the timely turn thus given to the conversation.

      “With this assurance we must go home comforted,” said Clarence, and all bade each other good night.

      The lamps were lighted, and the windows and doors opened. The Darrell house looked as if there was an illumination for a national celebration.

      “Let us go and see how the house looks from the front outside, all lighted up,” said Clarence.

      They went out to look at it from the garden.

      “How could you build such a nice house, Clary, and how could papa allow it?” Alice said.

      “Hush! You must never speak about the cost of this house or its furniture. I have made lots of money in stocks, and can afford it, but father thinks stock gambling is next to robbery.”

      Mercedes and Victoriano remained for a few moments standing by the gate, watching the phæton.

      “By Jove! but isn't she sweet! She has just left me deaf and dumb!” said Victoriano, as the phæton disappeared down the hill.

      “Perhaps you are deaf, since you don't hear the supper bell ringing again, but as for being dumb I am sure the greatest beauty on earth couldn't produce that effect.”

      “But I tell you I am, and I will go to see her and tell her so to-morrow,” said he, following his sister to the supper room.

      “You will do nothing of the kind. The idea!”

      “Why not, pray? Clarence told me to call soon.”

      “Yes, but he supposed you would have the good taste to wait at least two or three days.”

      “Three days! Three days! Not if I am alive!”

      “What is that about being alive?” asked Rosario.

      “Let him tell you,” Mercedes replied.

      “That I am going to see that sweet little Alice Darrell to-morrow, dead or alive,” explained Victoriano.

      “Who will be dead or alive?” asked Carlota.

      “I, of course! What a question?” Victoriano exclaimed.

      “As you could not go there if you were dead, I thought you meant that you were to go and see her in that insensible state,” said Carlota.

      Victoriano looked at his sister reproachfully, saying:

      “How mean to talk so about that sweet girl.”

      “It was to correct you from expressing yourself in that style of yours, mixing up things and ideas so incongruously. You ought to take care not to confuse things so absurdly,” Doña Josefa said.

      “Why don't you talk like Gabriel? He always uses good language—in Spanish or in English,” Carlota added.

      “Bother Gabriel, and Gabriel, and Gabriel! Everybody throws him at my teeth,” said Victoriano, beginning to eat with very good appetite.

      “The operation don't hurt your teeth, though,” said Rosario, “to judge by the very effective manner in which you use them.”

      “Of course, I do, because I am an amiable good fellow, who bears nobody ill-will, even towards his harassing sisters, and much praised elder brother, who is hoisted up to the skies a million times a day for my special edification and good example. It is a good thing, I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, a very fortunate thing, that I am so amiable, and Gabriel so good a fellow, or else I would have punched his head into calf's head-jelly, twice a day, many times.”

      “There is your confusion of ideas again. You are thinking that yours might have been the calf's head made into jelly,” said Rosario.

      “No, miss. I meant what I said.”

      “Gabriel is very strong and a good boxer,” Don Mariano said.

      “There it is again! Sweet Alice says he is the handsomest man she ever saw; Lote says he uses beautiful language, and now father implies that the fellow could whip me! Give me some more of that chicken pipian to console myself with. Say, mother, why is this delicious chicken stew called ‘pipian?’ Because it makes a fellow ‘pio’ ‘pio’ for more? or because the chicken themselves would cry ‘pio,’ ‘pio’, if they were to see their persons cooked in this way?” Without waiting for an answer to his question, he added: “I say, mother, arn't you and the girls going to call on the Darrells?”

      “No,” laconically answered Doña Josefa.

      “Why should we?” queried Carlota.

      “Because they are neighbors like the Mechlins,” Victoriano replied.

      “Old Mathews is our neighbor, too,” said Rosario.

      “But he is a thief,” replied Victoriano.

      “Isn't to steal land robbery?” asked Carlota.

      “The Darrells occupy the land they selected, with my consent, so I hope no one in my family will do them the injustice to say that they have stolen our land, or that they are squatters,” said Don Mariano firmly. Then added: “But I do not desire any one of you to speak of this matter with anybody. Only remember, the Darrells are not squatters.”

      “What shall we say, for instance, if the Holmans should notice that we are very friendly to the Darrells, but not so towards the squatters?” Rosario asked.

      “I think the Holmans will be too well-bred to ask questions,” said Doña Josefa.

      “They are well-bred, but they are very intimate friends,” Rosario said

      “And very inquisitive ones, too,” added Victoriano.

      “Refer them to me,” Don Mariano said; “I'll give them quite a satisfactory answer.”

      “Meantime, are we not to visit them?” Victoriano asked.

      “Visit whom?” Carlota asked.

      “The Darrells, of course,” Victoriano answered.

      “I thought you meant the Holmans, as we spoke of them last.”

      “Bother, with your grammar, you had better keep school,” Victoriano said.

      “You had better go to one,” Carlota retorted.

      “I have enough of it here. The question now is the visit to the Darrells. Is this family to visit them or not?”

      “Why, you are to do so to-morrow, dead or alive,” Rosario said.

      “Bother! You will call, Mercita, won't you?”

      “With pleasure, if mamma will permit me,” Mercedes replied.

      “You are a sweet pussy always, and the best of sisters. Can't she go, mother?”

      “Certainly, if her father does not object.”

      “I not only do not object, but I shall be pleased to have Mercedes and her mamma and sisters all call, for I think Clarence's mother must be a lady.”

      “Hurrah for father, he is a man after my own heart,” said Victoriano, clapping his hands.

      “Papa feels proud of your approval,” Carlota said.

      “I