and sat down on the ridge-pole.

Just then Tita looked down the river path, and there was Tonio coming
with the goat! At least he was trying to, but the goat didn't seem to
care any more about being blessed than the turkey did. She was standing
with her four feet braced, pulling back with all her might, while Tonio
pulled forward on the lasso which was looped over her horns.

Tonio looked very angry. He called to Tita, "Come here and help me with
this fool of a goat! I believe the devil himself has got into her! She
has acted just like this all the way from the pasture!"

Tita ran down the path and got behind the goat. She pushed and Tonio
pulled, and by and by they got her as far as the fig tree. Then they
tied her to a branch, and while Dona Teresa milked her, the Twins went
after the turkey again.

Tonio had practiced lassoing bushes and stumps and pigs and chickens and
even Tita herself, ever since he could remember, and you may be sure no
turkey could get the best of him. He stood down in the yard and whirled
his lasso in great circles round his head, and then all of a sudden the
loop flew into the air and dropped right over the turkey on the
ridge-pole, and tightened around his legs!

If he hadn't had wings the turkey certainly would have tumbled off the
roof. As it was, he spread his wings and flopped down, and Tita took him
into the cabin and tied him to the third leg of the table. There he made
himself very disagreeable to the little white hen, and gobbled angrily
at the red rooster, and even pecked at Tita herself when she came near.

"There!" sighed Dona Teresa, when the turkey was safely tied; "at last
we have them all together. Now we will make them all gay."

She went to the chest which held all their precious things, took out
three rolls of tissue paper, and held them up for the Twins to see. One
was green, one was white, and one was red.

"Look," said she. "These are all Mexican animals, so I thought it would
be nice for them to wear the Mexican colors. Come, my angels, and I will
show you how to make wreaths and streamers and fringes and flowers for
them to wear. Our creatures must not shame us by looking shabby and dull
in the procession. They shall be as gay as the best of them."

For a long time they all three worked, and when they had made enough
decorations for all the animals, Dona Teresa brought out another
surprise. It was some gilt paint and a brush! She let Tonio gild the
goat's horns