fore I knew you! It was my delight to wander through
the thickets, to sleep in the shade of the trees, to seat myself upon
a cliff to take in with my gaze the Pacific which rolled its blue
waves before me, bringing to me echoes of songs learned on the shores
of free America. Before knowing you, that sea was for me my world,
my delight, my love, my dream! When it slept in calm with the sun
shining overhead, it was my delight to gaze into the abyss hundreds
of feet below me, seeking monsters in the forests of madrepores and
coral that were revealed through the limpid blue, enormous serpents
that the country folk say leave the forests to dwell in the sea, and
there take on frightful forms. Evening, they say, is the time when
the sirens appear, and I saw them between the waves--so great was
my eagerness that once I thought I could discern them amid the foam,
busy in their divine sports, I distinctly heard their songs, songs of
liberty, and I made out the sounds of their silvery harps. Formerly
I spent hours and hours watching the transformations in the clouds,
or gazing at a solitary tree in the plain or a high rock, without
knowing why, without being able to explain the vague feelings they
awoke in me. My uncle used to preach long sermons to me, and fearing
that I would become a hypochondriac, talked of placing me under
a doctor's care. But I met you, I loved you, and during the last
vacation it seemed that something was lacking there, the forest was
gloomy, sad the river that glides through the shadows, dreary the sea,
deserted the sky. Ah, if you should go there once, if your feet should
press those paths, if you should stir the waters of the rivulet with
your fingers, if you should gaze upon the sea, sit upon the cliff,
or make the air ring with your melodious songs, my forest would be
transformed into an Eden, the ripples of the brook would sing, light
would burst from the dark leaves, into diamonds would be converted
the dewdrops and into pearls the foam of the sea."

But Paulita had heard that to reach Isagani's home it was necessary
to cross mountains where little leeches abounded, and at the mere
thought of them the little coward shivered convulsively. Humored and
petted, she declared that she would travel only in a carriage or a
railway train.

Having now forgotten all his pessimism and seeing only thornless
roses about him, Isagani answered, "Within a short time all the
islands are going to be crossed with netw