force, as his brown mustache was more and more marked above his fresh
lips.

When he had supped, eaten with his young mountaineer's appetite several
slices of bread and drunk two glasses of cider, he rose, saying:

"I am going to sleep, for we have to work tonight."

"Ah!" exclaimed the mother, "and when are you to get up?"

"At one o'clock, as soon as the moon sets. They will whistle under the
window."

"What is it?"

"Bundles of silk and bundles of velvet."

"With whom are you going?"

"The same as usual: Arrochkoa, Florentino and the Iragola brothers. It
is, as it was the other night, for Itchoua, with whom I have just made an
engagement. Good-night, mother--Oh, we shall not be out late and, sure, I
will be back before mass."

Then, Franchita leaned her head on the solid shoulder of her son, in a
coaxing humor almost infantile, different suddenly from her habitual
manner, and, her cheek against his, she remained tenderly leaning, as if
to say in a confident abandonment of her will: "I am still troubled a
little by those night undertakings; but, when I reflect, what you wish is
always well; I am dependent on you, and you are everything--"