America First
Page 10
tongue.
Riego could not take his eyes away, but he reached out his handquickly to touch Pascual.
The sweet-faced senora leaned over him.
"America," she whispered in explanation.
_America!_ Beautiful America! Riego crept forward, unconscious now ofthe crowd around. Oh, to _understand_ America!
Then a strange thing happened. The beautiful goddess suddenly ceasedspeaking, and her face became clouded with thought. Her eyes werefocussed on the eager boy who had crept forward and was standingspellbound before her--the most conspicuous of the group ofdark-faced, bewildered children.
Riego did not know that everybody in that audience had suddenly leanedforward in dead silence.
After one tense moment the Beautiful One advanced to the edge of theplatform and descended the steps till she stood almost among them.
And now this strange, new, better country was speaking to Riego _inhis own tongue_!
"You didn't _understand_ me, did you?" she asked in Spanish.
"Not _then_, my lady!--but _now_!" It was Riego who answered her, butthe other dark faces were alight like his own now. The crowd wasleaning forward again.
"Ah, that is all the trouble!" said the Beautiful One. "Our new peoplesimply do not understand America! Do you wish me to tell you the storyin Spanish?"
There were many who answered this time.
Then she told them in their own tongue of the great struggle for a newfreedom and a new peace which had been waged upon this soil over ahundred years before. And the breathless children heard how this newideal of freedom had passed all bounds of the country in which it wasborn, and thrilled all lands. They heard how the noble La Fayette ofFrance, Steuben of Prussia, and Kosciuszko of Poland each had offeredhis all that America might be forever a refuge for the oppressed. Theylearned how the German De Kalb had laid down his life at Camden forthe new faith, and how Count Pulaski had poured out the last drop ofhis Polish blood to make the world's great dream of freedom "come true."
Then the Beautiful One told the children how, throughout the more thanone hundred years since the fight was won, the footsore and oppressedof many lands have found in America work and a just reward forworking, the freedom to do anything which does not harm another, andthe great gift of peace!
"And now," exclaimed the speaker, "which of you will promise with meto be loyal to America? Stand up!"
And they stood up--the dark children, the white-faced senoritas, thegringo soldiers, and all!--and repeated after the Beautiful One:
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
When Riego turned from the inspiring scene it was to see his brotherPascual walking away, and in close conversation with Alonzo Lorente.
* * * * *
The days passed, but Riego still treasured in his heart his firstvision of America. He knew now that the Beautiful One was only acharming senorita and daughter of the big captain who commanded at theAmerican camp. But he liked to think of her as "America"--thebeneficent goddess who had smoothed the furrows from his father's browand crowned his faithful labors with reward.
And then, one momentous day, the Beautiful One stood in the shop-door,asking in Spanish if she might be allowed to enter. She was all inwhite this time--snow-white. To Riego's fond imagination she was stilla shining goddess.
Riego's father welcomed the senorita and dusted the bench that shemight sit and rest, for Riego had told him of the great Americanfestival, and Antonio had learned much besides.
The senorita had come to speak to the father about his sons--and hersmiling glance included both the sullen Pascual and Riego, who stoodworshipfully by.
It seemed that the senorita--Miss Flora Arden was her name--was toteach a class of "newly made Americans," and again her glanceincluded the boys. She wanted to teach them to speak the Englishlanguage and to help them to a better understanding of America. Thesenorita believed that most of the trouble which the newly madeAmericans encountered was due to the fact that they did not know howto find and use the good gifts which their new country had to offer.And she was certain that most of the trouble they _gave_ was becausethey brought old prejudices with them, and so did not open theirhearts to America.
Riego understood the spirit of her proposal better than he did thewords of her correct Spanish. His father listened throughout withthoughtful, grave attention.
There were no charges to be made for this teaching? Then what was thesenorita to gain for so much effort?
"I?" said the senorita--she was standing now, ready to depart--"I gaina better country! My father is a soldier and serves his country byhelping to keep the peace along this troubled border. If I had been ason I might have done as much. But I am only a daughter, Antonio! Andyet"--and she put her arm over Riego's shoulders as she spoke--"if Ihelp to make loyal even _one_ of America's adopted sons, am not I,too, serving my country?"
The father's rare smile assented to her offer, even before his lipsmade the promise.
Riego followed the Beautiful One to the door.
Outside, Alonzo Lorente slouched against a lamp-post. The senoritalooked into Lorente's face and recoiled slightly. Riego saw therecoil, and an unnamed fear suddenly laid its hand upon his heart.
* * * * *
Pascual and Riego went to Miss Arden's class--Pascual sullen anduninterested, Riego breathlessly eager. But they had not attended manytimes--indeed, had just begun to glimpse something of the bigness andgoodness of their new country--when the stroke fell that was to changetheir little world. The good father dropped at his work-bench,speechless and bewildered. The American doctor said he would be ableto work again, but that his mind would never be quite the same.
Their wise father thus reduced to childishness, and their motherignorant of the new conditions and the new tongue, the boys were leftto plan for themselves.
Pascual left Miss Arden's class. He explained that he would now haveto take charge of his father's shop; but he found time to make manytrips across the dark Rio Grande and to talk much with Lorente, whonow resumed his old practice of dropping in at the shop to chat. Hisyounger brother, however, continued under the senorita's instruction.
Riego learned at Miss Arden's class that "freedom" gives one the rightto do as he wishes only in so far as he does not wish to interferewith the rights of another.
"There is no 'freedom' except in loyal obedience to law," she told himone day. "America is a 'free' country because--though here aregathered people from all lands--they join together in making lawswhich are kind and impartial to all, and they stand together insupport of the laws they make."
"But, senorita, Alonzo Lorente says--" began the boy, and stopped short.
"What does Alonzo Lorente say?" the senorita asked quickly.
"I--I promised not to tell," stammered the child.
There was the blue truth of heaven in the senorita's eyes as she lookedinto his own, and answered: "Riego, it is more than dishonest in Lorenteto accept the blessings which America affords him and not be true toher. It is worse than traitorous in him to help spoil the peace of thecountry which is his refuge from oppression. If Alonzo Lorente likes theold way better than the new, he should go back to the old country. If hehonestly wishes to change what he finds here, and thinks he can betterthings, he has one man's just share in deciding, for he is a naturalizedcitizen and can vote on any question. But Alonzo Lorente _should speakout openly or else keep silent_!"
Before Riego left that afternoon Miss Arden had him repeat with her:
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
But little Riego did not dream in how short a time would his loyaltyto his new country be tested. One afternoon--his father was stilllying unconscious--Riego was tending the shop alone, for Pascual hadcrossed the Rio Grande
in the early morning and had not yet returned.
It was a dull, dull afternoon, for no patrons came, and the visitorsmerely glanced in and passed on. It was hot and still, so the sleepyRiego decided to rest. He found a cool spot behind a pile of boxes,and lay down and closed his eyes.
* * * * *
When Riego opened his eyes again it was with a start. There werevoices--smothered voices--some men were in the shop! Riego lay stilland listened.
"We will attack the gringo camp to-night--just before dawn," asmothered voice was saying. "Alva has three hundred men and more. Theycan easily surprise and destroy these eighty Americans, and so canseize their horses and ammunition."
"But the patrol?" It was Pascual's voice that whispered the question.Riego's heart turned sick. He recognized the voice of