ay'sa.

[6] Hahss-meen'.

[Illustration]

I

SAN RAMON'S DAY IN THE MORNING

[Illustration]

I

SAN RAMON'S DAY IN THE MORNING

I

One summer morning the red rooster on his perch in the fig tree woke up
and took a look at the sky.

He was a very responsible rooster. He was always the first one up in the
morning, and I really think he believed that if it were not for him the
sun himself would forget to rise.

It was so very early that a few stars still shone, and a pale moon was
sailing away toward the west. Over the eastern hills the rooster saw a
pink cloud, and knew at once that it was time to wake the world. He
stood up and stretched his wings. Then he crowed so long and loud that
he nearly fell off his perch backward, on to the cat, who was sleeping
on the roof just below.

"Cock a doodle do-o-o!" he screamed. "I'm awake, are you-oo-oo?"

At least that is the way it must have sounded to all the other roosters
in the little village, for they began at once to answer him.

"Cock a doodle doo-oo, we're up as soon as you-oo," they cried; and soon
there was such a chorus of them calling back and forth that the five
hens woke up, one after another, and flew down from the perch, to hunt
bugs for their breakfast.

Last of all the turkey opened his eyes and flapped heavily to the
ground, gobbling all the way.

The cat stretched herself and sprang from the roof to the fig tree and
sharpened her claws on its bark.

The birds began to sing, and still there was no sound from the tiny gray
adobe house under the fig tree.

The little white hen tiptoed round to the front of the hut and peeped
in at the open door. There in one corner of their one room lay Tonio and
Tita and their father and mother, all sound asleep.

The little white hen must have told the red rooster what she saw, for he
followed her and looked into the hut too. Then he ruffled his neck
feathers, flapped his wings, and crowed so loudly that Pancho and Dona
Teresa and the Twins all woke at once and sat up with a bounce, to see
what was the matter.

It startled the little white hen to see them all sit up suddenly in a
row, so she squawked and scrambled out through the open door as fast as
she could go.

The red rooster ran too, and the two of them never stopped until they
disappeared behind the bee-hives in the garden.

II

The moment she was really awake, Dona Teresa began to talk.

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"Upon m