ake a habit of
these walks, had not chance prepared a very rude conclusion to my
pleasure. By some swiftness or dexterity the lad captured a squirrel in
a tree top. He was then some way ahead of me, but I saw him drop to the
ground and crouch there, crying aloud for pleasure like a child. The
sound stirred my sympathies, it was so fresh and innocent; but as I
bettered my pace to draw near, the cry of the squirrel knocked upon my
heart. I have heard and seen much of the cruelty of lads, and above all,
of peasants; but what I now beheld struck me into a passion of anger. I
thrust the fellow aside, plucked the poor brute out of his hands, and
with swift mercy killed it. Then I turned upon the torturer, spoke to
him long out of the heat of my indignation, calling him names at which
he seemed to wither; and at length, pointing towards the residencia,
bade him begone and leave me, for I chose to walk with men, not with
vermin. He fell upon his knees, and, the words coming to him with more
clearness than usual, poured out a stream of the most touching
supplications, begging me in mercy to forgive him, to forget what he had
done, to look to the future. "Oh, I try so hard," he said. "Oh,
commandante, bear with Felipe this once; he will never be a brute
again!" Thereupon, much more affected than I cared to show, I suffered
myself to be persuaded, and at last shook hands with him and made it up.
But the squirrel, by way of penance, I made him bury; speaking of the
poor thing's beauty, telling him what pains it had suffered, and how
base a thing was the abuse of strength. "See, Felipe," said I, "you are
strong indeed; but in my hands you are as helpless as that poor thing of
the trees. Give me your hand in mine. You cannot remove it. Now suppose
that I were cruel like you, and took a pleasure in pain. I only tighten
my hold, and see how you suffer." He screamed aloud, his face stricken
ashy and dotted with needle-points of sweat; and when I set him free, he
fell to the earth and nursed his hand and moaned over it like a baby.
But he took the lesson in good part; and whether from that, or from what
I had said to him, or the higher notion he now had of my bodily
strength, his original affection was changed into a dog-like, adoring
fidelity.

Meanwhile I gained rapidly in health. The residencia stood on the crown
of a stony plateau; on every side the mountains hemmed it about; only
from the roof, where was a bartizan, there might be s