"Have you any eggs to sell?" asked Mr. Page.
The old woman rose from the ground. She was crippled, and appeared bent nearly double. She called her husband, who with great labor also got up from his heap of rags. The child, seeing the bucket in Walter's hand, cried out in Spanish:
"_Huevos, huevos!_"[B] The old people screamed at each other in a _patois_ of Spanish and Indian, principally the latter. Then the child, in obedience to some words from the grandmother, asked, "How many?" "A couple of dozen," was the reply. The little one disappeared into the darkness in the rear of the dwelling, faintly illumined by the dying fire.
She presently issued forth, carrying the eggs in her apron. She counted them into the pail, and Mr. Page placed a quarter in her hand. The old woman snatched it eagerly from the child and thrust it into a bag which she took from her bosom. Nothing could have been more squalid or uncomfortable than the hut, nothing more unlovely than the inhabitants with the exception of the child, whose beauty and innocence neither dirt nor squalor could destroy.
The old man began to busy himself with the fire, throwing some brush upon it, while his wife produced a blackened coffee-pot from one corner and put it on the coals. They gave no more attention to their visitors than as if they did not exist.
"One would think they did not know we were here," said Walter.
"Probably they mean that we should go," suggested his father. "Now that we have the eggs there is no excuse for our staying."
"I wish we could have that cute little thing to live with us," said Nellie. "She is not so very dark. I would like her for a little playmate, mamma."
"She is very attractive," said her mother. "What a pity she must live in a hovel like this." They turned to go, when a young man entered from the outside. It was Dionysio.
"Good-evening," he replied to Mr. Page's salutation. "Were you looking for me?"
"No," replied Mr. Page, "we were not looking for you, but we are glad to see you. We have been purchasing eggs from these old people. I am told they have an excellent lot of fowls. Perhaps you are on the same errand."
"I!" exclaimed the boy; "I live here--these are my grandfather and grandmother--and my little sister," he added, as the child glided to his side.