CHAPTER V
GREAT SURPRISES
ON the Colonel's desk the little revolving calendar was set at "December25th," and the letters were in red ink, showing by this that it was afeast day. The Colonel was writing, and evidently did not notice alittle figure clad in a long linen coat standing behind his chairwaiting a chance to speak. He wrote on and on, until Francisco'spatience was exhausted and he coughed warningly.
"Not much of a soldier, Nino! A soldier must have patience if it is towait all day."
But Francisco was used by now to his uncle's chaffing; indeed, they wereclose friends and Francisco went right to the heart of his errand.
"Uncle, it's _El dia de Navidad_."
"Why, so it is," looking at the calendar. "I had forgotten it wasChristmas. We've so many feast days one cannot keep the run of all, andI can scarcely remember my own patron saint's day. If it wasn't such awell known and widely observed one, it would often pass before I knewit."
Francisco laughed. "Why, Uncle Juan, you couldn't miss St. John's dayunless you were deaf and blind. They make such a noise and have suchhuge bonfires always. For weeks before it comes the children save everypiece of wood and paper, and last St. John's night I stood on our roofand looked over the city. My! how pretty it looked; the whole cityseemed on fire; for nearly every street had half a dozen bonfires. Iwish _my_ saint was as popular. But to-day, I want to ask if I may gohome just for a little while."
"Indeed you may, lad, whenever you choose."
"Well, you see, to-day, I've a special errand, Uncle; I've been making a_pesebre_ for Elena and it's finished now just in time. I would like togo and set it up."
"Let me see it," said the Colonel.
"Oh, it's fine, Uncle. I've got twenty-eight figures and the paint isdry on every one of them. I worked all day yesterday in the back_patio_, and Jose, the _portero_, helped me cut out the camels. He saidmine looked like giraffes." And the boy began to lay them out on thedesk, tenderly lifting each one as though they were alive and breathing.
As each little representation took its place in the long row theColonel's face grew tender. He dared not smile at their crudity forbehind the rough, unskilful carving, he saw the ideal that had been inthe carver's mind. He was seeing some new thing each day in the littlefellow's character that made him love him more; and when they were allplaced formally together, he drew the little linen coated figure intothe circle of his arm and together they discussed the merits of each weewooden figure.
"Nino, we will go together! That's what we'll do," he exclaimed almostboyishly. "I am tired of these long army statistics, so let us go_inmediatamente_."
A span of Argentine thoroughbreds took them this time, for the Colonelwas a genuine lover of horse flesh, and he owned several of the finestin the country. It is said that an Argentine will lavish as much care onhis favourite horse as a mother will upon her child; and these two,Saturnino and Val-d'Or, were the pride of his heart.
"This pair, Francisco," he began, as they took their seats in the openvictoria, and the silver studded harness tinkled as the splendid horsesstarted off; "this pair are to be taken abroad next month with my twotrotters, Benita and Malacaro. Our horses are attracting more and moreattention in Europe as they see the fine specimens our stables aresending there.
"I shall enter them on the English turf, and I am ready to hazard theirprice that they will come back, at least one of them, with a blueriband. At any rate, I am sure there are no finer appearing horsesanywhere than these; but all of our horses are good to look at. Ofcourse, I except those miserable cab horses; they are a disgrace totheir name, and should be called sheep."
Thus he chatted on, full of his subject, until they reached Francisco'shome. They found Guillerma and her mother away. They had gone tocelebrate mass and Elena, with the one _servienta_, was alone in thehouse.
"You entertain her, Uncle Juan, while I erect the _pesebre_," whisperedFrancisco.
So the gray haired soldier took Elena on his knee and told her the storyof a little girl who was lost in a forest and of the convention ofanimals that met to discuss her fate. He put most eloquent speeches intothe jaws and beaks of the different birds and animals, such as the deer,the puma, the ostrich, the jaguar, and many others. Elena's eyes werewide as the big bear growled out his belief that she should be cut upinto half _kilo_ bits, and divided among them; but just then Franciscoentered the room and asked them to come into the dining-room whereEstrella, the servant, was preparing _mate_.
As they entered the _comedor_[10] Elena spied the manger with itssurrounding images in the corner, on the floor.
"_Que hermosa! Que linda!_"[11] she cried, clasping her hands inecstasy. "Only yesterday did I tell Encarnacion, when she came to bringme Christmas cakes full of almonds and raisins, that we should have no_pesebre_. She is to have one of ivory that cost a small fortune, but Ihad rather have this. Oh! it is so beautiful! Who could have brought it?Who could have put it here?" and she looked up inquiringly, first at heruncle and then at her brother. Uncle Juan's face pleaded "not guilty"but Francisco's was so beamingly tell-tale that she flew to him andembraced him and kissed him over and over again.
"'DID YOU EVER SEE SUCH GLORIOUS BLUE EYES!'"]
When each figure had been carefully inspected and discussed Uncle Juanproposed a ride, this time behind his favourite horses. As they enteredthe house on their return he was pleased to see a faint colour onElena's face and a brighter look in her eyes.
Thus the days passed, swiftly enough; New Year's with its fireworks andnoisy crowds of celebrating _peons_, and at last came twelfth night.
Elena awoke on the sixth of January feverishly expectant. Surely, afterhaving set up such a lovely _pesebre_, the Three Kings would not forgether. An excursion into the dining-room proved their faithfulness, forthere they stood--three smartly covered camels, and three wee kings,bowing before the tiny babe in the manger.
Around the room were the gifts they had brought to her. A toy piano, awonderful French doll with a trunk full of clothes, a few picture-booksand a china tea set. She was still admiring them when Francisco arrived;he was dressed for travelling and was quite excited, but Elena could notnotice that, so absorbed was she in her toys and doll.
"See this _muneca_,[12] Francisco, mio! Did you _ever_ see such gloriousblue eyes, just like the English Senora's on the corner. Why, you actas though you had seen them before, Francisco, are you not surprised tosee so many?" exclaimed Elena, impatient that he would not kneel withher among her gifts.
"They are beautiful, Elena, every one of them. But I am in a great hastefor Uncle Juan and I are leaving from the Retiro Station in half anhour. The servant, Jose, has taken our trunks and large bags ahead, andI stopped here to bid you all goodbye, as Uncle Juan had another errandto do on his way down. We go a day earlier than we had planned in orderthat we may stop over for a day and night in Rosario. I am glad, Elena,that your gifts are so lovely, and if I were not in such a hurry, wewould have a long play together. But I shall write to you, all of you;"and he embraced them, each one, mother and two sisters, hastily, nottrusting himself to prolong the goodbye.
The Estacion Retiro was full of a holiday crowd, for it was earlymorning. Jose was awaiting him, and they stood watching the long trainsof cars coming and going, discharging their loads into the long sheds,and swallowing up another one and puffing out again. Francisco'sknowledge of railroads was limited. He had never taken a long journey onone; his mother and Guillerma had taken him with them on one of theiryearly pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, some forty milesdistant, for being devout Catholics, this was never omitted. He began togrow nervous, fearing his uncle would be too late, as the train forRosario was puffing and blowing just outside the iron gate and the guardwas preparing to ring a huge bell, which announced the departure of alltrains. Just before its first peal broke from its brass throat his unclestrode in, and, motioning the servant to follow with the bags, hehurried Francisco through the gate.
Jose, the _portero_
accompanying them, was an Araucanian Indian bybirth, but he spoke Spanish fluently. When a mere boy, the Colonel'sfather had brought him from Chile, when returning from a militaryexpedition into that country; and he had been a faithful servant of thefamily ever since. As slavery is prohibited in Argentina he had beenpaid wages since he became of age, over forty years ago, but no power onearth could have induced Jose to leave the service of Colonel Lacevera.
He was but slightly bent and possessed the broad face and high cheekbones of the South American Indian. His skin was like parchment, and hiseyes slanted peculiarly like the eyes of the Chinese. When Francisco hadspoken of that last characteristic to his uncle he had been told thatmany people believed these Indians to be a tangent of the Orientalraces, and upheld their theory mainly because of the peculiar similarityof the eyes.
Jose and Francisco were great friends and Francisco was much pleasedthat Jose was to be with them at the _estancia_, since his knowledge ofanimals, birds, herbs, in fact all out door life, was unlimited.
The car they occupied was a compartment car of the English type,although the ponderous engine was North American. As the railroads ofArgentina are mainly under English control the English railway customsand equipments are largely in evidence.
The pretty stations at each suburb are surrounded by grass plots withbeds of flowers, and the English system of overhead bridges across thetracks at all stations reduces the number of accidents.
Francisco found out all of this by a series of continuous questions astheir train sped through the pretty suburbs with their numbers of summerhomes, surrounded by well kept gardens. The villages began to grow fewerand fewer and Colonel Lacevera said:
"Now it's my turn, Nino! Can you bound the Argentine Republic?"
Francisco began in the sing-song manner of the Spanish schools:--"On thenorth by Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, on the west and south by Chile;on the east by Brazil, Uruguay and the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is onemillion, one hundred and eighteen thousand square miles and itspopulation is over six million. It is--"
"There! There!" exclaimed his uncle, laughingly. "You may stop. Notelling how long you could sing the praises of your native land. I wantto tell you a few things that you may not have learned. Do you know whatalluvial soil is?"
"It sounds like some metal," ventured the boy.
"But it isn't. You see, Argentina was once part of the ocean bed; forunder the soil, way back in the interior of the country, I, myself,have found shells and gravel. This long level stretch of land betweenthe Atlantic Ocean and the foothills of the Andes, that was once coveredwith water, is now called the Pampas; and you are now in that region.
"See that long, coarse grass stretching as far as the eye can reach; itis the finest pasture land in the world and explains why we produce suchquantities of cattle, sheep and horses. You see, having this excellentpasture-land, so well watered, and a climate that insures grazing thewhole year through, our expenses for raising and rearing cattle are verylow. We are a larger country than we appear on the map, my boy. Why! weare twelve times as large as Great Britain."
"Uncle, as we have so many things that are the largest and best in theworld, tell me, is this the longest railroad on the earth?"
"No, Nino, not quite that. Our railroads are developing our country at arapid rate and we have some of the finest road beds in the world, butthat is because our country is so level. Now that I think of it, we havegot something connected with railroads that is interesting. We have thelongest straight stretch of railway in the world, it is said. On theArgentine Pacific Railway from Buenos Aires to the Andes it runs like asurveyor's line two hundred and eleven miles without deviating a foot.But come, let us go into the dining car for breakfast; it is alreadyhalf-past eleven."
This was Francisco's greatest surprise of all in a long list of theday's surprises. To eat in a railway car, speeding fifty miles an hour,with delicate china and napery, shining silver and food like he had beenhaving daily at his uncle's table, seemed too wonderful to be true.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: Dining-room.]
[Footnote 11: How beautiful! How lovely!]
[Footnote 12: Doll.]