at he did not
notice the entrance of Ibarra until the young man, loath to disturb
him, was leaving as quietly as he had come.

"What! you were there?" he cried, looking at Crisostomo with a certain
astonishment.

"Don't disturb yourself; I see you are busy----"

"I was writing a little, but it is not at all pressing. Can I be of
service to you?"

"Of great service," said Ibarra, approaching; "but--you are deciphering
hieroglyphics!" he exclaimed in surprise, catching sight of the old
man's work.

"No, I'm writing in hieroglyphics."

"Writing in hieroglyphics? And why?" demanded the young man, doubting
his senses.

"So that no one can read me."

Ibarra looked at him attentively, wondering if he were not a little
mad after all.

"And why do you write if you do not wish to be read?"

"I write not for this generation, but for future ages. If the men
of to-day could read my books, they would burn them; the generation
that deciphers these characters will understand, and will say: 'Our
ancestors did not all sleep.' But you have something to ask of me,
and we are talking of other things."

Ibarra drew out some papers.

"I know," he said, "that my father greatly valued your advice, and
I have come to ask it for myself."

And he briefly explained his project for the school, unrolling before
the stupefied philosopher plans sent from Manila. "Whom shall I consult
first, in the pueblo, whose support will avail me most? You know them
all, I am almost a stranger."

Old Tasio examined with tearful eyes the drawings before him.

"You are going to realize my dream," he said, greatly moved; "the
dream of a poor fool. And now the first advice I give you is never
to ask advice of me."

Ibarra looked at him in surprise.

"Because, if you do," he continued with bitter irony, "all sensible
people will take you for a fool, too. For all sensible people think
those who differ with them fools; they think me one, and I am grateful
for it, because the day they see in me a reasonable being woe is
me! That day I shall lose the little liberty I now enjoy at the
expense of my reputation. The gobernadorcillo passes with them for
a wise man because having learned nothing but to serve chocolate and
to suffer the caprices of Brother Damaso, he is now rich and has the
right to trouble the life of his fellow-citizens. 'There is a man of
talent!' says the crowd. 'He has sprung from nothing to greatness.' But
perhaps I am really the foo