21

21.

After she has gone Amanda says, "Poor Caridad -- she's got TB. Three
of her sisters died with it in the last three years. Now Caridad is
going to die with it, the last one, and her mother just looks at her all
the time and cries. It hurts her mother to know that Caridad is going
to die, too, like all the others. Her mother fusses at her all the time
but it is only because she is so worried about her dying. They are a
very nice family and the girls were beautiful."

When the cooking is over and the meal placed on the table, there is
a sudden burst of very rapid and excited Spanish which I am unable to
understand. Perico dashes out of the front door. I ask what has happened,
but receive no answer. In a few minutes Perico returns, and there is
more rapid talking in Spanish. The dinner is getting cold.

At last Amanda says, "Well, I guess you might as well know; we been
trying to borrow some knives from the neighbors but none of them has got
any either. I guess we will have to use the big knife and pass it around
the table. I'm so ashamed not to have no knives, but we don't never use
any."

We all gather about the small table. "Just help yourself to every-
thing," invites Amanda. Perico tears the end off of a hot loaf of Cuban
bread. His hands are extremely dirty.

"Perico!" shouts Amanda. "Get up from here and wash your hands! You
know better than to sit down to eat with your hands like that."

I am suddenly startled by a loud "Mooo..." from directly under the
kitchen window. Everyone laughs loudly.

"What's a cow doing so close?" I ask.

"That was no cow," says Enrique, "That was a caballo -- a horse --

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