“Down with Napoleon!” repeated Julio.
And he instantly held out his hand while his grandfather went through his pockets.
Karl’s sons, now four in number, used to circle around their grandparent like a humble chorus kept at a distance, and stare enviously at these gifts. In order to win his favor, they one day when they saw him alone, came boldly up to him, shouting in unison, “Down with Napoleon!”
“You insolent gringoes!” ranted the old man. “That’s what that shameless father has taught you! If you say that again, I’ll chase you with a cat-o-nine-tails. . . . The very idea of insulting a great man in that way!”
While he tolerated this blond brood, he never would permit the slightest intimacy. Desnoyers and his wife often had to come to their rescue, accusing the grandfather of injustice. And in order to pour the vials of his wrath out on someone, the old plainsman would hunt up Celedonio, the best of his listeners, who invariably replied, “Yes, Patron. That’s so, Patron.”
“They’re not to blame,” agreed the old man, “but I can’t abide them! Besides, they are so like their father, so fair, with hair like a shredded carrot, and the two oldest wearing specs as if they were court clerks! . . . They don’t seem like folks with those glasses; they look like sharks.”
Madariaga had never seen any sharks, but he imagined them, without knowing why, with round, glassy eyes, like the bottoms of bottles.
By the time he was eight years old, Julio was a famous little equestrian. “To horse, peoncito,” his grandfather would cry, and away they would race, streaking like lightning across the fields, midst thousands and thousands of horned herds. The “peoncito,” proud of his title, obeyed the master in everything, and so learned to whirl the lasso over the steers, leaving them bound and conquered. Upon making his pony take a deep ditch or creep along the edge of the cliffs, he sometimes fell under his mount, but clambered up gamely.
“Ah, fine cowboy!” exclaimed the grandfather bursting with pride in his exploits. “Here are five dollars for you to give a handkerchief to some china.”
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