CHAPTER XI.
NEW AMBITION
"DID you have a good time on your trip with Harlan and his father?"asked Lieutenant Barretas of Vasco.
"To be sure I did," was the answer. "I am not likely ever to forget thesights I have seen in this journey through our country."
"I hope you thanked your American friends for the pleasure you haveenjoyed."
"I did, father."
"Our people are much indebted to the Americans for the prosperity intowhich we have come. I have some more good news to tell you now."
"What is it?" asked Vasco, his face aglow with eager anticipation.
"To-morrow a public school is to be opened, and I have decided that youshall attend."
This conversation occurred on Sunday, the day after Vasco's arrivalhome. The lieutenant was making his usual Sunday visit with his family,though he had come a little late on account of army affairs that hadcalled him to the Blue House--the President's mansion. It was therethat he had learned about the school.
Vasco received the information with a doubtful smile. A few weeksbefore he would have been sad to hear such a suggestion. But hisacquaintance with Harlan, and especially the close companionship of thepast week, had wrought certain changes in his spirit, and a dawningambition had begun to arise within him.
He had come to see that there was a world different from that in whichhe had lived,--that his friend Harlan was of that world,--and thatthe key to that world was knowledge. And knowledge, he knew, could beobtained only by hard labour. Was it worth the effort?
That was the question Vasco asked himself as he stood before his father.
To his credit be it said that his answer was the right one.
"I am glad of the chance," at last he told his father. "You may be surethat I shall try to make the best of it."
Let it be said here that this opportunity to go to school was a resultof the formation of the new republic of Panama. One of the provisionsof its constitution is: "Primary instruction shall be compulsory, and,when public, shall be free. There shall also be schools of arts andtrades."
Monday morning Vasco and his sister Inez together started for school.To them, thus far, the institution was but a name, vague in itsmeaning, but full of great possibilities.
May we not well leave our little Panama cousin right here, as he standson the threshold of a new life, under the folds of a new flag, witha new ambition and an earnest purpose spurring him on to attain to ahigher and better life than he has ever known?
THE END.
Vasco, Our Little Panama Cousin Page 14