Page:Stories by Foreign Authors (Spanish).djvu/198

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194
BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS.

and he has all he needs. Why, the joy of that regiment as they went on board was plain to be seen! And to think that I could n't have gone with them!"

"John Joseph, in the Virgin's name, don't indulge in those boyish explosions; remember, you are sixty-five years old."

"To-day I am twenty, wife, I am twenty; do you hear?"

"Your fiery spirit deceives you; and I won't hear you talk about going to the war, when you have two sons in it already."

"And if I had more sons they should be in it, too. Do you think that I should be behind the father of the first soldier killed at the taking of the Serrallo, who when he heard of his son's death called another son, took him to the alcalde of his village, and said: 'My son has been killed in the war in Africa; here is another to take his place'?"

"From what you say, I should n't wonder if you had urged Michael to go to the war?"

"Michael did n't need any urging, Michael has done well, and so I told him. 'Go without fear,' I cried to him, as I came away, 'the weather-vane in your village points for Spain; and don't lose heart, if there should be some reverse, for reverses there must be in war, unless it be by a miracle of God; but many there won't be; and the devil will have little chance to get at the