hens and the turkey were flying up to
their roost in the fig tree.

[Illustration]

[15] Pay-tah'tays.

[16] Pool'kay.

[Illustration]

VI

THE ADVENTURE

[Illustration]

VI

THE ADVENTURE

I

One hot morning in early June, Dona Teresa took her washing down to the
river, and Tonio and Tita went with her. They found Dona Josefa and
Pedro's wife already there with their soiled clothes, and the three
women had a good time gossiping together while they soaped the garments
and scrubbed them well on stones at the water's edge.

Pablo and the Twins played in the water meanwhile, hunting mud turtles
and building dams and trying to catch minnows with their hands.

At last Pablo's mother said to him, "Pablo, take this piece of soap and
go behind those bushes and take a bath."

Then she went on telling Dona Teresa about a new pattern of drawn work
she was beginning and forgot all about Pablo. Pablo disappeared behind
the bush, and no one saw him again that day. He wasn't drowned, but it's
my belief that he wasn't bathed either.

However, this story is not about Pablo. It's about Tonio and Tita, and
what happened to them.

Dona Teresa said to them, "I wish you would get Tonto and go up the
mountain beyond the pasture and bring down a load of wood. Take some
lunch with you. You won't get lost, because Tonto knows the way home if
you don't. Get all the ocote[17] branches you can to burn in the
brasero."

The Twins were delighted with this errand. It meant a picnic for them,
so they ran back to the house and got Tonto and the luncheon and started
away down the road as gay as two larks in the springtime.

They both rode on the donkey's back and they had Tonio's lasso with
them. The luncheon was in Tonio's hat as usual. Tonio whistled for
Jasmin, but he was nowhere to be found, so they started without him.

They crossed the goat-pasture, and this time Tonio did not forget to put
up the bars. They passed the goat too, but Tonio rode right by and hoped
the goat wouldn't notice him.

From the goat-pasture they turned into a sort of trail that led up the
mountain-side, and rode on for two miles until they came to a thick
wood. Here they dismounted and, leaving Tonto to graze comfortably by
himself, began to search for ocote wood. Tonio had a machete stuck in
his belt.

A machete is a long strong knife, and he used it to cut up the wood into
small pieces. Then he tied it up in a bundl