of boys always went together, and they all kept their bright eyes and their sharp ears open.
If Manuelo's father sold his fish for good prices, he bought a white cotton suit of clothes for Sunday, or a shell comb for his wife. Manuelo's mother and sisters could make good clothing, for every day, of hemp and palm threads; and a very fine, silky gauze of pineapple fiber. But Juanita liked the bright calicos in the Chinese and American shops. She sold her fruit in the market and bought gaily colored skirts and ribbons and slippers.
In the evening, Manuelo's family sat in the open door of the house, and on the rounds of the ladder, below. Big fireflies flitted in the dark garden. They could smell the flowers and fruits. The father played a new tune on his guitar, and Juanita danced. Sometimes his father played with the village band in the Plaza. On feast days, there was a church procession with beautiful tall candles and banners. Fire crackers were snapped and rockets sent up. On dark nights, the sky above the volcano was often rosy with the fires far down in the heart of the mountain.
In the house a light burned all night. The lamp was a cocoanut shell full of oil. A light might be needed at any moment. When an earthquake shook a house, everybody must scramble down the ladder in a hurry. The animals ran out from under the house. The chickens squawked, the pigs squealed, and the water buffalo mooed. The whole village of people and animals tumbled out of doors. When the trembling stopped they all .went back to bed again. Manuelo turned over and over on his bed of palm leaves. He was kept awake so long that he thought perhaps he wouldn't wake up in time to go to the American school in the morning.
That would worry the lady teacher, but it wouldn't worry Manuelo. See The Philippine Islands, page 1469.
