d the gate so fast
that poor Dona Teresa was all out of breath keeping up with her.

"Bless my soul, but that goat goes gayly!" she panted, as she joined
the Twins at the gate. "If I led her about much I should have no chance
to get fat."

[Illustration]

Already there were crowds of people and animals going by. It was a
wonderful procession. There were horses and cows all gayly decorated
with garlands and colored streamers. There were donkeys and pigs and
guinea-fowls and cats and dogs and birds in cages, and so many other
creatures that it looked very much like the procession of animals going
into Noah's ark.

Dona Josefa,[10] who lived in a hut near the river, was driving two
ducks and two white geese,--only she had dyed the geese a bright
purple,--and Jose's wife had painted stripes of red clear around her
pig. She was having a dreadful time keeping the pig in the road, for all
the little boys, and all the little dogs--and there were a great many of
both--frisked and gamboled around the procession and got in the way, and
made such a noise that it is no wonder the creatures were distracted and
tried to run away.

V

It was not a very great distance to the large corrals back of the big
house where the people were to meet, and as they drew near the grounds
Tonio and Tita could see Pancho dashing about on Pinto after stray
cows, and other cowboys rounding up the calves and putting them in a
corral by themselves.

[Illustration]

The bulls were already safely shut away in another inclosure, and all
the open space around the corrals was filled with horses, and donkeys,
and sheep, and goats, and dogs, and cats, and fowls of all kinds, all
dressed in such gay colors and making such a medley of sounds that the
Fourth of July, fire-crackers and all, would have seemed like Sunday
afternoon beside the celebration of San Ramon's Day in Mexico.

Senor Fernandez, looking very grand in his black velvet suit and big
sombrero, sat on his fine horse and watched the scene. Beside him, on
their own horses, were Dona Paula, his wife, and pretty Carmen, their
daughter.

The servants of the big house were grouped around them, and all the rest
of the people passed back and forth among the animals, trying to make
them keep still and behave themselves until the priest should appear.

It was not long before the priest came out of his house, with a small
boy beside him carrying a basin of holy water.

Dona Teresa and all the