lowers, as the Twins walked along. The birds
were flying about getting material for their nests, and singing as if
they would split their little throats.

Sheep were grazing peacefully in a pasture beside the road, with their
lambs gamboling about them. In a field beyond, the goats were leaping up
in the air and butting playfully at each other, as if the lovely day
made them feel lively too. Calves were bleating in the corrals, and away
off on the distant hillside the children could see cows moving about,
and an occasional flash of red when a vaquero rode along, his bright
serape flying in the sun.

Farther away there were blue, blue mountain-peaks crowned with
glistening snow, and from one of them a faint streak of white smoke rose
against the blue of the sky. It was a beautiful morning in a beautiful
world where it seemed as if every one was meant to be happy and good.

[Illustration]

The school was not far from the gate where Jose, the gate-keeper, sat
all day, waiting to open and close the gate for cowboys as they drove
the cattle through.

The Twins stopped to speak to Jose, and just then on a stone right
beside the gate Tonio saw a little green lizard taking a sun bath. He
was about six inches long and he looked like a tiny alligator.

Tonio crept up behind him very quietly and as quick as a flash caught
him by the tail. Just then the teacher rang the bell, and the Twins ran
along to join the other children at the schoolhouse door, but not one of
them, not even Tita herself, knew that Tonio had that green lizard in
his pocket!

Tonio didn't wear any clothes except a thin white cotton suit, and he
could feel the lizard squirming round in his pocket. Tonio didn't like
tickling, and the lizard tickled like everything.

As they came into the schoolroom, the boys took off their hats and said,
"God give you good day," to the Senor Maestro[11]--that is what they
called the teacher.

Then they hung their hats on nails in the wall, while the girls curtsied
to the teacher and went to their seats.

When they were all in their places and quiet, the Senor Maestro stood up
in front of the school, and raised his hand. At once all the children
knelt down beside their seats. The Maestro knelt too, put his hands
together, bowed his head, and said a prayer. He was right in the middle
of the prayer when the lizard tickled so awfully in Tonio's pocket that
Tonio,--I really hate to have to tell it, but facts are facts,--To