Patrocina
prepared carni seca with peppers, a little boy came around with
cuajada, a delicious sweet curd cheese, and I tried my hand at
bread, following out Ellen's instructions.
How often I said to my husband. "If we must live in this wretched
place, let's give up civilization and live as the Mexicans do!
They are the only happy beings around here.
"Look at them, as you pass along the street! At nearly any hour
in the day you can see them, sitting under their ramada, their
backs propped against the wall of their casa, calmly smoking
cigarettes and gazing at nothing, with a look of ineffable
contentment upon their features! They surely have solved the
problem of life!"
But we seemed never to be able to free ourselves from the fetters
of civilization, and so I struggled on.
One evening after dusk, I went into the kitchen, opened the
kitchen closet door to take out some dish, when clatter! bang!
down fell the bread-pan, and a shower of other tin ware, and
before I could fairly get my breath, out jumped two young squaws
and without deigning to glance at me they darted across the
kitchen and leaped out the window like two frightened fawn.
They had on nothing but their birthday clothes and as I was
somewhat startled at the sight of them, I stood transfixed, my
eyes gazing at the open space through which they had flown.
