en the silent houses. And then they took the
side streets and by-ways, missing none. No place where the foot of
man, woman or child might fall was slighted. Many trips they made to
and from the prickly hoard. And then, nearly at the dawn, they laid
themselves down to rest calmly, as great generals do after planning
a victory according to the revised tactics, and slept, knowing that
they had sowed with the accuracy of Satan sowing tares and the
perseverance of Paul planting.

With the rising sun came the purveyors of fruits and meats, and
arranged their wares in and around the little market-house. At one
end of the town near the seashore the market-house stood; and the
sowing of the burrs had not been carried that far. The dealers waited
long past the hour when their sales usually began. None came to buy.
"_Que hay?_" they began to exclaim, one to another.

At their accustomed time, from every 'dobe and palm hut and
grass-thatched shack and dim _patio_ glided women--black women, brown
women, lemon-colored women, women dun and yellow and tawny. They
were the marketers starting to purchase the family supply of cassava,
plantains, meat, fowls, and tortillas. Decollete they were and
bare-armed and bare-footed, with a single skirt reaching below the
knee. Stolid and ox-eyed, they stepped from their doorways into the
narrow paths or upon the soft grass of the streets.

The first to emerge uttered ambiguous squeals, and raised one foot
quickly. Another step and they sat down, with shrill cries of alarm,
to pick at the new and painful insects that had stung them upon the
feet. "_Que picadores diablos!_" they screeched to one another across
the narrow ways. Some tried the grass instead of the paths, but there
they were also stung and bitten by the strange little prickly balls.
They plumped down in the grass, and added their lamentations to those
of their sisters in the sandy paths. All through the town was heard
the plaint of the feminine jabber. The venders in the market still
wondered why no customers came.

Then men, lords of the earth, came forth. They, too, began to hop,
to dance, to limp, and to curse. They stood stranded and foolish, or
stooped to pluck at the scourge that attacked their feet and ankles.
Some loudly proclaimed the pest to be poisonous spiders of an unknown
species.

And then the children ran out for their morning romp. And now to
the uproar was added the howls of limping infants and cockleburred
chi