sly prepared food,
quivering with delight and with the eagerness of a child to be
eating it, a cat sprang to the plate and before she could
prevent it ate the brains and licked the plate clean. She wept
as a child might have done, and was as unhappy and brokenhearted
over this fate of the brains food for which she had waited with
such keen anticipation of satisfaction as a little child might
have been. Shortly after that the little baby was born, and upon
one of its shoulder-blades was a representation of the mess of
brains, designed in brownish outlines, and which did not fade as
the child grew up."

The fourth case: "There lived in a little house in the midst of
a flower garden, that in its turn gave into a wide-spreading
orchard, a loving and loyal husband and wife with their
firstborn child. The wife was now in the first months of
pregnancy with her second child. Their nearest neighbor was a
Mexican family, among the members of which was a dashing young
man of about twenty-two. He and his sister and mother were
frequent visitors to this little household of three. But the
young Mexican was the most frequent, and the husband's being
home or not did not disconcert him. Men of affairs must need
spend morning hours, and sometimes afternoon hours, too, inside
of offices, but wealthy and aristocratic young Mexicans ride
horses all day, decked out with silver, leather, and velvet
trappings, both horse and rider. It was this lady's custom to
walk among her flowers and fruit trees. And it became the custom
of this young caballero to suddenly appear before her during
these promenades. Her startled eyes would no sooner perceive the
vision of his blazing, dark eyes fastened upon her, than by one
pretext and another she made him understand that he was
dismissed, and would herself retire into the house. When she
would be about to open a gate, suddenly and unexpectedly the
young Mexican would appear on the other side and with gracious
suavity open the gate, always his passionate, dark eyes upon
her, though his words were reserved and polite. If the husband
were present, it was still the same. By every means possible he
would prolong his stay.

One summer day this lady was lying on her couch on the veranda,
sleeping, her eyes covered over. At that time she was having an
eye m