Then Jose shyly described to them his holiday with Antonio at Guimarães. "There is Antonio off in the field now, and father is sitting with him, in the shade."
The five students were very comfortable on the vine-covered porch this warm August afternoon, so they stayed a little longer, and told Jose more about Coimbra,--how the city was, after Guimarães, made the capital of Portugal, and how, as the Christian kings, beginning with Affonso Henriquez, drove the Moors farther and farther south, until, after Coimbra, the more southern city of Lisbon was made the capital.
The students shook Jose's hand and clapped him on the back as they started to go on with their journey. "Some day I hope you will visit Coimbra," one of them said.
"_Graçias, senhor_," Jose answered very politely. "Some day I will go there, but not yet, for I am only a little boy."
"You have seen and learned more than most boys of your age in Portugal. I believe you will some day come to study at Coimbra," the leader of the students said.
"_Á deus, à deus_, boy; come to Coimbra some day," the students cried as they went off; a jolly, laughing group in their black coats.
Through the summer, talk of public reforms, of railroad strikes, of riots and unrest, reached the Almaida farm. It made the father think with a half regret of the old days of quiet. It made Antonio long for the time when the young republic of Portugal would have passed through these first months of change and become settled.
But none of this talk disturbed Jose. He was the happiest boy in all Portugal. His father was nearly well. His big brother was going to stay in Portugal. His mother grew brighter of face every day. Joanna was soon to marry a young village carpenter. Malfada and Jose himself could go to school again in the autumn. Little Tareja in a few years would also be able to go. And every day Antonio told Jose stories about the great world outside of Portugal.
Antonio valued education more than ever, since his four years of life in America. He knew that it was too late for him to go to school again, because of his age and because of the need for him to work on the farm. But he talked with Jose of the future when, if the boy turned out to be good at studies, he might go to the University at Coimbra. And it happened in the years afterward, that Jose did go to Coimbra, and that the leader of the students who had stopped at the Almaida farm for brôa and fruits on the August afternoon, was then a teacher at Coimbra.