José María de Pereda

“ A West Indian of this stamp will pass the best years of his youth meeting with one disappointment after another, and still will not despair. No work is so difficult as to frighten him, no opposition can lessen his faith. Fortune is there, smiling behind his bad luck, as real to his vision and his touch as in his boyhood, when, dreaming of her rich gifts, he swung to and fro in the high branches of the walnut tree which shaded the hut where he was born. ”

“ As the ship is lost to view the poor peasant woman did not fall fainting on the paving-stones of the Mole, for God has given these poor souls a force and a faith as great as are their misfortunes.
That same afternoon, when the sun was setting, Uncle Nardo and his wife crossed the wide plain on the way to their village. Sadly they walked, and crestfallen, one behind the other. They were both thinking of Andrew, but Aunt Nisca, with the livelier imagination, thought over the whole extent of her sorrows, and found ample reason for the full bitterness of grief she was enduring. ”

“ One and all, like Andrew, were going to America to seek their fortunes, and all were going practically at the mercy of chance, like himself. And to tell the exact truth, many of them had not even a letter, such as Don Damian had written for Andrew. Of all those who are setting forth with our hero, perhaps not one will find what he goes in search of; all perhaps are gazing for the last time on the land of their birth.
Now Aunt Nisca has found the berth her son is to occupy during the voyage. ”

“ The unhappy mother feels that even her voice fails her for the last "adios!" Andrew realizes for the first time what it is to lose sight of his home and his native land, to go forth, little and alone, through the desert places of the earth, and weeps for the first time, perhaps regretting his undertaking. Uncle Nardo looks toward the Mole, and avoids speaking, that they may not see the tears that at last have come to his eyes, and lest his voice betray the pain in his heart. ”

“ The dangers of the sea, the ravages of a hot climate, the disappointments of an illusory fortune, the forlornness, the loneliness of life in a land so far from home, nothing frightens them; on the contrary, all these obstacles seem to excite in them more and more the desire of conquering them. For is it not a fact that in America the smallest coin in general use is of silver? ”

“ Our Andrew needn't be ashamed of his people."
"And then God aided him to make his way."
"And why should He not aid our Andrew?"
"Don Damian was a gentleman from the beginning, and when he went from here he had a good education and was used to good society, and then he inherited his broadcloth, which is a great help in getting beyond the mud walls of our village!"
"Bah! Nisca, you shouldn't believe all you hear! Aren't we all of us sons of Adam, with five fingers on each hand?" ”

“ And from this we may safely infer that the honor, the constancy, the industry, of the mountaineers are as great as their ambition, and no one can in justice deny this noble race a quality which does it so much honor.
So our little Andrew, a true mountain boy, as soon as he could speak told his mother that some day he would go to Cuba. As he grew older this thought was the subject of all his dreams, and he so insisted on this plan that finally his family began to consider it seriously. ”

“ At the same time it is evident that the poor women had never seen anything better in their way, and that the disdainful little fellow had never before rejoiced in such fine feathers as those which now embarrassed him. ”

“ The second door stands partly open, as the good Uncle Nardo, the head of the family, husband and father respectively of the characters in our dialogue, has just gone in to settle up his accounts. As for the window, although this is an unnecessary detail, I will state on the word of a veracious historian, that it was closed; for its real use, more than to let light into the kitchen, is to let out the smoke when there is a fire in the fireplace, which just now is as cold as the mush that has been cooking there in the morning,—their food for the day. ”

“ The bearer of this letter will be, by God's grace, the youthful Andrés de la Peña, leaving Santander shortly by the good ship Panchita, bound for Havana, in which city he is planning to try his luck. I take the liberty of begging you to aid him in every possible way, endeavoring to get for him, to begin with, some position suited to his capabilities. Andrew is a bright boy, well-behaved, and writes a good hand; he knows his arithmetic as far as Partnerships inclusive. ”

“ But our mountain boys of Santander, by an especial dispensation of nature, have the one longing to be independent, with the title of Don, and a lot of money, and to their way of thinking the only way to acquire this is to go to "The Indies." ”

“ After the reading of this letter it seems to us only proper that we should explain to our readers the true significance of Andrew's suit, and the unusual excitement concerning his outfit.
II. Boys, as a general rule, after they have dropped their playthings, are seized with a desire, stronger than all other ambitions, to outdo all others in manly strength and to be taller than any one else. ”