better for him to go to Madrid and learn a trade.

This letter had set Petra thinking. After wiping the dishes, she
washed herself in the kneeding-trough; she could not shake the fixed
idea that if her brother-in-law was sending Manuel to her it was
because the boy had been up to some mischief. She would soon find out,
for he was due to arrive that night.

Petra had four children, two boys and two girls; the girls were well
placed; the elder as a maid, with some very wealthy religious ladies,
the younger in a government official's home.

The boys gave her more bother; the younger not so much, since, as they
said, he continued to reveal a steady nature. The elder, however, was
rebellious and intractable.

"He doesn't take after me," thought Petra. "In fact, he's quite like
my husband."

And this disquieted her. Her husband, Manuel Alcazar, had been an
energetic, powerful man, and, towards his last days, harsh-tempered
and brutal.

He was a locomotive machinist and earned good pay. Petra and he could
not get along together and the couple were always at blows.

Folks and friends alike blamed Alcazar the machinist for everything,
as if the systematic contrariness of Petra, who seemed to enjoy
nagging the man, were not enough to exasperate any one. Petra had
always been that way,--wilful, behind the mask of humility, and as