aces and sticky black-painted hair, and they
were dressed in tissue paper. The hands of the Judases were stuck
straight out on each side and from one hand to the other there was a
string stretched. Fire-crackers were hung along on this string. When
these fire-crackers go off, one after another, they set fire to the
Judas and burn him up.

You remember that long years ago, when Jesus was on earth, He was
betrayed by a man named Judas Iscariot, who sold Him to his enemies for
thirty pieces of silver. In Mexico, Judas Iscariot Day is kept in
remembrance of this, and all the Judases which the people buy and burn
up are to show how very wicked they believe the real Judas to have been.

But the Judas dolls didn't look the least bit as the real Judas must
have looked. Some of them were made to look like Mexican donkey-boys and
some like water-carriers, while others represented priests, or
policemen, or cowboys.

Tita couldn't make up her mind whether to buy a donkey-boy or a
policeman. But Tonio found what he wanted right away. It was a "Judas"
made like a thin young school-teacher! Tonio thought it looked like the
Senor Maestro, and he thought it would be very pleasant to see him burn
up, and so, though he cost twelve cents, he bought him at once.

II

When Pancho and Dona Teresa and the Twins were ready they went in a
little procession to the lake-shore. They found Pedro with his wife and
baby and Pablo already there.

This was the very same Pablo on whose feet Tonio had put the lizard. He
was Pedro's son.

Pedro was loading the boat with bundles of reeds. They were the reeds
used for weaving the petates[15] or sleeping-mats. The reeds grew all
about the lake, but the people in the town could not easily get them, so
Pedro had gathered a supply to sell to them.

The boat was quite large. It had one sail and there was a thatched roof
of reeds over the back part of it. It was too large to bring into the
shallow water near the shore, so Pedro had rolled up his white trousers
and was wading back and forth from the boat to the beach, carrying a
bundle of reeds each time and stowing it away under the thatch.

[Illustration]

Pancho at once took off his sandals, rolled up his trousers, and began
to help carry the bundles, while Dona Teresa and the Twins sat on the
sand with Pablo and the baby and their mother.

There was a large sack of sweet potatoes lying on the sand beside
Pedro's wife. You could tell they were sw