XVI. All Play and No Work for Manuelo
Manuelo was a little brown Filipino boy who played nearly all day long. He did not care how many Chinese boys came to his home in The Philippine Islands to be rich merchants. It seemed very foolish to him for anyone to work so hard when it wasn't at all necessary. A cocoanut shell full of rice, and a banana that he could pick from a tree made a very good breakfast. As for clothing, he wore nothing except when he went to the American school. He was a good-tempered, polite little boy. When he went to school he wore white cotton trousers and a jacket, to please the American lady teacher.
There were many things that puzzled Manuelo. He was a Filipino boy, but his name was Spanish. His language was a mixture of Spanish and his native tongue. Now the lady teacher told him he was an American boy. In the school he was learning to read English. Let us see if we can straighten out the puzzle for him.
Four hundred years ago the Spanish people, as well as the English and Dutch, were great sailors and conquerors. About thirty years after Columbus found America, another Spanish explorer named Ma-gel-lan, found a large group of three thousand big and little islands. They were away over near China. He called these islands The Philippines, after the Spanish King Philip. The Philippine Islands belonged to Spain until a few years ago. Manuelo was a baby when there was a sea-fight in the harbor of Manila. Manila is the largest city on the islands. The fight was between Spanish and American ships. After that The Philippines belonged to the United States. The Spanish soldiers went home. There was a new flag of red, white and blue. The military bands played gay new tunes. Then the lady teacher came. For the first time, little Filipino boys and girls were expected to go to school. You see now how the little brown boy became an American. There are four colors of Americans—red, white, black and brown. You will like to know the little brown American boys and girls better.
Manuelo was small. He would never grow to be a very large man, but he was straight and slender and graceful. His short black hair was straight. His bright black eyes slanted just the least little bit. His lips were thin and red. He was very clean, for he swam
