第17章 SEVERAL MONTHS LATER.(1)
ANTONIO AND THORNDIKE"Thorndike,isn't that Plug you're riding an assert of the scrap you and Buffalo Bill had with the late Blake Haskins and his pal a few months back?""Yes,this is Mongrel -and not a half-bad horse,either.""I've noticed he keeps up his lick first-rate.Say -isn't it a gaudy morning?""Right you are!"
"Thorndike,it's Andalusian!and when that's said,all's said.""Andalusian AND Oregonian,Antonio!Put it that way,and you have my vote.Being a native up there,I know.You being Andalusian-born -"
"Can speak with authority for that patch of paradise?Well,I can.
Like the Don!like Sancho!This is the correct Andalusian dawn now -crisp,fresh,dewy,fragrant,pungent -""'What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle -'
-GIT up,you old cow!stumbling like that when we've just been praising you!out on a scout and can't live up to the honor any better than that?Antonio,how long have you been out here in the Plains and the Rockies?""More than thirteen years."
"It's a long time.Don't you ever get homesick?""Not till now."
"Why NOW?-after such a long cure."
"These preparations of the retiring commandant's have started it up.""Of course.It's natural."
"It keeps me thinking about Spain.I know the region where the Seventh's child's aunt lives;I know all the lovely country for miles around;I'll bet I've seen her aunt's villa many a time;I'll bet I've been in it in those pleasant old times when I was a Spanish gentleman.""They say the child is wild to see Spain.""It's so;I know it from what I hear."
"Haven't you talked with her about it?"
"No.I've avoided it.I should soon be as wild as she is.That would not be comfortable.""I wish I was going,Antonio.There's two things I'd give a lot to see.One's a railroad.""She'll see one when she strikes Missouri.""The other's a bull-fight."
"I've seen lots of them;I wish I could see another.""I don't know anything about it,except in a mixed-up,foggy way,Antonio,but I know enough to know it's grand sport.""The grandest in the world!There's no other sport that begins with it.I'll tell you what I've seen,then you can judge.It was my first,and it's as vivid to me now as it was when I saw it.It was a Sunday afternoon,and beautiful weather,and my uncle,the priest,took me as a reward for being a good boy and because of my own accord and without anybody asking me I had bankrupted my savings-box and given the money to a mission that was civilizing the Chinese and sweetening their lives and softening their hearts with the gentle teachings of our religion,and I wish you could have seen what we saw that day,Thorndike.
"The amphitheatre was packed,from the bull-ring to the highest row -twelve thousand people in one circling mass,one slanting,solid mass -royalties,nobles,clergy,ladies,gentlemen,state officials,generals,admirals,soldiers,sailors,lawyers,thieves,merchants,brokers,cooks,housemaids,scullery-maids,doubtful women,dudes,gamblers,beggars,loafers,tramps,American ladies,gentlemen,preachers,English ladies,gentlemen,preachers,German ditto,French ditto,and so on and so on,all the world represented:Spaniards to admire and praise,foreigners to enjoy and go home and find fault -there they were,one solid,sloping,circling sweep of rippling and flashing color under the downpour of the summer sun -just a garden,a gaudy,gorgeous flower-garden!
Children munching oranges,six thousand fans fluttering and glimmering,everybody happy,everybody chatting gayly with their intimates,lovely girl-faces smiling recognition and salutation to other lovely girl-faces,gray old ladies and gentlemen dealing in the like exchanges with each other -ah,such a picture of cheery contentment and glad anticipation!not a mean spirit,nor a sordid soul,nor a sad heart there -ah,Thorndike,I wish I could see it again.
"Suddenly,the martial note of a bugle cleaves the hum and murmur -clear the ring!