ree ran
as fast as they could go to the other side of the square and lost
themselves in the crowd.

They stayed away for quite a long time. They were in the crowd by a
baker's shop when a great big Judas which hung high overhead exploded
and showered cakes over them. They each picked up a cake and then ran
back to show their goodies to their mothers. They could hardly get near
the booth at first, because there was quite a little crowd around it,
but they squirmed under the elbows of the grown people, and right beside
the brasero eating a piece of candied sweet potato, and talking to Dona
Teresa, whom should they see but the Senor Maestro?

Tonio wished he hadn't come. He turned round and tried to dive back into
the crowd again, but the Senor Maestro reached out and caught him by the
collar and pulled him back. Tonio was very much frightened. He thought
surely the Maestro had told his mother about "Pop goes the Maestro," and
that very unpleasant things were likely to happen.

"Any way, there aren't any willow trees in the plaza," he said to
himself. "That's one good thing."

But what really happened was this. The Maestro took three pennies out of
his pocket, and said to Pedro's wife, "Please give me three pieces of
your nice sweet potatoes for my three friends here!"

Pedro's wife was so busy with her cooking that she did not look up to
see who his three friends were until she had taken the pennies and
handed out the sweet potatoes. Then she saw Pablo and Tonio and Tita all
three standing in a row looking very foolish.

She was quite overcome at the honor the Maestro had done her in buying
sweet potatoes to give to her son, and Dona Teresa thought to herself,
"They really must be very good and clean children to have the Maestro
think so much of them as that." She thanked him, and Tonio and Tita and
Pablo all thanked him.

After that there was a wonderful concert by a band all dressed in green
and white uniforms with red braid, and at the end of the concert, it
was four o'clock. Pedro's wife had sold all her sweet potatoes by that
time and Pedro had sold all his reeds. Pancho had come back, the baby
was sleepy, and every one was tired and ready to go home. So the whole
party returned to the boat, this time without any heavy bundles except
the baby to carry, and sailed away across the lake toward the hacienda.

Pancho and Dona Teresa and the Twins reached their little adobe hut just
as the red rooster and the five