fficulty, on the neck, on the crown of the head,
on the forehead, on the chin, on the chest, and on the abdomen,
in the assurance that thus they were sanctifying those parts and
that they would suffer neither stiff neck, headache, consumption,
nor indigestion. The young people, whether they were not so ailing or
did not believe in that holy prophylactic, hardly more than moistened
the tip of a finger--and this only in order that the devout might
have no cause to talk--and pretended to make the sign of the cross on
their foreheads, of course without touching them. "It may be blessed
and everything you may wish," some young woman doubtless thought,
"but it has such a color!"

It was difficult to breathe in the heat amid the smells of the human
animal, but the preacher was worth all these inconveniences, as the
sermon was costing the town two hundred and fifty pesos. Old Tasio
had said: "Two hundred and fifty pesos for a sermon! One man on one
occasion! Only a third of what comedians cost, who will work for
three nights! Surely you must be very rich!"

"What has that to do with the drama?" testily inquired the nervous
leader of the Tertiary Brethren. "With the drama souls go to hell but
with the sermon to heaven! If he had asked a thousand, we would have
paid him and should still owe him gratitude."

"After all, you're right," replied the Sage, "for the sermon is more
amusing to me at least than the drama."

"But I am not amused even by the drama!" yelled the other furiously.

"I believe it, since you understand one about as well as you do the
other!" And the impious old man moved away without paying any attention
to the insults and the direful prophecies that the irritated leader
offered concerning his future existence.

While they were waiting for the alcalde, the people sweated and yawned,
agitating the air with fans, hats, and handkerchiefs. Children shouted
and cried, which kept the sacristans busy putting them out of the
sacred edifice. Such action brought to the dull and conscientious
leader of the Brotherhood of the Holy Rosary this thought: "'Suffer
little children to come unto me,' said Our Savior, it is true, but
here must be understood, children who do not cry."

An old woman in a _guingon_ habit, Sister Pute, chid her granddaughter,
a child of six years, who was kneeling at her side, "O lost one, give
heed, for you're going to hear a sermon like that of Good Friday!" Here
the old lady gave her a pinch