your town I would have
gone there when you were sick. Go, my son, and may God and the Lord
Jesus go with you. Lucia, my granddaughter, will go with you to the
nearest town."

"What! You're going away?" the little boy asked him. "Down there are
soldiers and many robbers. Don't you want to see my firecrackers? Boom,
boom, boom!"

"Don't you want to play hide-and-seek?" asked the little girl. "Have
you ever played it? Surely there's nothing any more fun than to be
chased and hide yourself?"

Basilio smiled, but with tears in his eyes, and caught up his
staff. "I'll come back soon," he answered. "I'll bring my little
brother, you'll see him and play with him. He's just about as big as
you are."

"Does he walk lame, too?" asked the little girl. "Then we'll make him
'it' when we play hide-and-seek."

"Don't forget us," the old man said to him. "Take this dried meat as
a present to your mother."

The children accompanied him to the bamboo bridge swung over the
noisy course of the stream. Lucia made him support himself on her arm,
and thus they disappeared from the children's sight, Basilio walking
along nimbly in spite of his bandaged leg.

The north wind whistled by, making the inhabitants of San Diego
shiver with cold. It was Christmas Eve and yet the town was wrapped
in gloom. Not a paper lantern hung from the windows nor did a single
sound in the houses indicate the rejoicing of other years.

In the house of Capitan Basilio, he and Don Filipo--for the misfortunes
of the latter had made them friendly--were standing by a window-grating
and talking, while at another were Sinang, her cousin Victoria,
and the beautiful Iday, looking toward the street.

The waning moon began to shine over the horizon, illumining the clouds
and making the trees and houses east long, fantastic shadows.

"Yours is not a little good fortune, to get off free in these
times!" said Capitan Basilio to Don Filipo. "They've burned your books,
yes, but others have lost more."

A woman approached the grating and gazed into the interior. Her
eyes glittered, her features were emaciated, her hair loose and
dishevelled. The moonlight gave her a weird aspect.

"Sisal" exclaimed Don Filipo in surprise. Then turning to Capitan
Basilio, as the madwoman ran away, he asked, "Wasn't she in the house
of a physician? Has she been cured?"

Capitan Basilio smiled bitterly. "The physician was afraid they
would accuse him of being a friend of Don Crisosto