His father said
that he already knew some English, and he proposed that the boy should
go about with us and practise it, and after polite demur and insistence
the child came with us, to our great pleasure. He bore himself with fit
gravity, in his cap and long linen pinafore as he went before us, and we
were personally proud of his fine, long face and his serious eyes, dark
and darkened yet more by their long lashes. He knew the way to just such
a book store as we wanted, where the lady behind the desk knew him and
willingly promised to get me some books in the Andalusian dialect, and
send them to our hotel by him at half past twelve. Naturally she did not
do so, but he came to report her failure to get them. We had offered to
pay him for his trouble, but he forbade us, and when we had overcome his
scruple he brought the money back, and we had our trouble over again to
make him keep it. To this hour I do not know how we ever brought
ourselves to part with him; perhaps it was his promise of coming to
America next year that prevailed with us; his brother was returning on a
visit and then they were going back together.
V
Our search for literature in Ronda was not wholly a failure.
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