"I myself see them—by Santa Maria el Blanco, I swear eet—with these eyes. Pedro and his wife grow very poor an' all the goats die. Nothing for them to eat or the bebees. Not one leetle crumb of bread, not one leetle drop of goat's milk. But the good God is sorry even for them who forget Heem an' after, he send into the hills a man who had leetle shows with painted dolls—you pull them with strings like this.
"He see on the grass the three leetle bebees, lying flat on thin bellies—for as I tell you, Señorita, they have so leetle food—with their arms on the ground—so" (crooking his clenched fists to his jaws). "They lie just like real mermaids as I see them—so many times—on the sand of the beeg South Sea Islands, or bebee seals on the rocks where it ees very cold.
"The man with the little dolls see their tails go 'thump,' 'thump,' 'thump,' on the ground just like Alfonso here" (he placed his hand on the head of the mongrel, who was illustrating that part of the story realistically on the deck) "only his tail is short like bologna an' theirs grow long and green an' so shiny like water.
"He turn their tails to gold. I mean he make much money out of those tails. For he take those little mermaid bebees to the beeg city, with his show of little dolls, an' his dancing girl from Algier who did many wiggles. He ask ten centesimos for the people to have one leetle look at those bebees with tails. Soon he had many pesetas an' so he turn those tails to gold, as I have said.
"I myself see them in Carnival time. By Santa Maria el
