I've
set myself down sometimes for a regular idiot; but by the living
gracious!
set myself down sometimes for a regular idiot; but by the living
gracious!
Warner - World's Best Literature - v19 - Oli to Phi
"
The boy, who knows by hard experience that his father never
deals in vain threats, now, despite the signals his mother makes
him to keep still, shuts his eyes, and speaking as rapidly as if
he feared the words would burn his mouth, says:
"Mother brought home a pint of brandy this morning, and
has the bottle hidden in the straw mattress. "
Tuerto no sooner hears these words than he fells his culprit
spouse to the floor with a resounding whack, rushes to the
bed, rummages amid the contents of the poor mattress, pulls out
from it a small bottle which contains the remainder of the con-
traband liquor, and returning with it towards his wife, hurls it
at her head at the moment when she is just getting up from
the floor. It knocks her down anew, and the children are sprin-
kled with the flying spirits. The wretched woman, sorely hurt,
laments and groans; the frightened children weep; and the irate
mariner sallies forth to the balcony, cursing his wife and the
day that he was ever born.
## p. 11311 (#531) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11311
Uncle Tremontorio, who arrived from the sea at the same
time with his mates Bolina [Billy Bowline] and Tuerto, had
been in his balcony knitting away at his fishing-nets (his custom-
ary occupation when at home) from the beginning of the dispute
between his neighbors. From time to time he would take a bite.
out of a hunk of bread, and another of dried codfish, the pro-
vision that constituted his usual dinner. Though he is perfectly
well posted about what has just taken place [across the narrow
street], it is not his way to mix himself up in what does not
concern him. But the furious husband, who needs an outlet for
venomous rage that still half chokes him, calls up his neighbor,
and the pair shout from one balcony to the other the following
dialogue: -
"Uncle Tremontorio, I can't stand this devil of a woman any
longer. One of these days you'll hear of some desperate deed
on my part; I suppose that's the way it will all end. "
"I have told you that it was your own fault, from the begin-
ning. She tacked your way a little, and you let go your whole
cable and thought your voyage was over. "
"What could I do? I thought then she was one of heaven's
own saints. "
"What could you do? Do? why, what I've always told you:
haul her taut, and make fast with a double turn. Rough wind
astern? all right, ahead you go. "
"But there's not a bone in her body I haven't already
tinkered at with a cudgel, as you might mend the ribs of a
boat. "
"You waited till the wood was rotten, my friend. "
"As God is my witness she's the worst villain unhung. What
is going to become of those poor brats of mine when I am taken
away from them? for the devil will never take that woman: he
has no place to put her. Last week I handed her twenty-four
reals to dress the children with.
Have you laid eyes on that
money? Well, neither have I. The drunkard spent them for
drink. I gave her a walloping that left her for dead, and yet
what does she do? Three days after that she sells a sheet from
our bed for a quart of rum. Yesterday I gave her twenty-one
cents for meat, and she drank them also. And with all this the
young ones are naked, I haven't a shirt to my back, and I never
dare think of treating myself to an honest glass of wine of a
fête-day. "
## p. 11312 (#532) ##########################################
11312
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
"Why don't you get an exorcism said over her? Maybe she's
bewitched by evil spirits, and that's the cause of it. "
"I've spent a small fortune in those very tomfooleries, Tre-
montorio. I took her to more than three leagues from here, to
get a parson that they said had the gift of such things, to chuck
the gospels at her. Well, he did; then he gave me a little card
he had said a prayer over, and a sprig of rue, sewed it all up in
a bag, hung it round her neck, charged me nearly four dollars
for it, and that was all the good it did - not the first blessed
thing. The very next day she had a jag on worse than ever,
and wanted to paint the town red. I've given her brandy with
gunpower in it, a thing, they say, that creates a distaste for
liquor, but that beast, did it affect her that way? Not much!
she seemed to like the drink after that better than ever. I've
laid out a treasure in candles alone, setting them up before the
Holy Martyrs, to see if they'd rid her of the vice; and it was
just the same as if I had not spent a farthing. I swear to you,
I don't know what to do, Uncle Tremontorio, unless it is to kill
her: there are no bounds to this vice of hers. Just tell me what
you say of this: When I gave her the brandy with powder in it,
she was taken with such a colic I thought she'd burst. I had
heard that flannels soaked in spirits, applied good and hot, was
a cure for that sort of pains in the stomach; so I heated up
about half a pint of liquor in a saucepan. When it was blazing
hot, I took it over to the bedside, where the thief of the world
was writhing about in contortions. I had to leave the saucepan
with her a minute while I went to the chest to get out some
rags; I turned around, and, man, what do you think I saw ? she
was just swallowing down the last drops of the spirits from the
saucepan, almost ablaze as it was. Man, man, was there ever a
worse curse of God? "
"Well, friend in regard to that- ahem! what can I say to
you? When a woman chooses to take the crooked path, like
yours, give her the stick, and plenty of it. If with that she
doesn't mend her ways and float off in good style, then either
sink her to the bottom, once for all, or string yourself up to a
yard-arm. "
"I've told you already—what's the matter with you? - that
I've covered every inch of her body with the welts of a stick,
and I've decorated her face all over with bruises till there's
hardly room for another. "
________
_______________
――――――
-
## p. 11313 (#533) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11313
"Then go hang yourself, and leave me in peace to finish
these meshes. And you may as well know that the reason I
never married is to keep out of the devil's own scrape that you
are in. "
THE CANDIDATE VISITS HIS VOTERS
From Los Hombres de Pro'
ON SIMON Started upon his electioneering tour. In the first
village of his district, at the poor inn, a group of six agents
were waiting for him; their horses, caparisoned with orna-
mental trappings, after the fashion of the country, tied to the
posts or the projecting window gratings. They received him hat
in hand.
[All then passed into the dining-room, where a dozen more persons met
them, and a liberal dinner was served, for which the candidate duly paid.
The several days' ride through the mountain district next began. ]
The cavalcade was headed by one of the six caciques [village
magnates, previously mentioned]. He was a lean, dark man,
with a large nose, a penetrating eye, his face almost beardless,
although he was by no means young; he spoke little, but that
to the point; and as to confidence in men, he would have been
distrustful even of his own shadow. He knew the voters of the
district, every man of them, with all his virtues, vices, minor
faults, and necessities; and in consequence, he knew how to win
or to compel them.
(
·
"The Squire'" (said he),-" for thus they call him,-whom
we must see, is a rough sort of customer, but much bent on hav-
ing everybody flatter and bow down to him. When we leave
him, don't forget to give him a cigar; not one of the kind you
furnished us at dinner, you know, but one of those you have
in your cigar-case for your own particular use. "
Don Simon did his best not to notice this polite little slur,
and put himself at the orders of his adviser.
The party found the local great man presiding over the
turning-up of a new field he had just bought on that out-of-the-
way upland. He was still youthful; and he had a despicable
physiognomy. He manifested no great curiosity on the approach
of the little troop. He confined himself to returning coldly
XIX-708
•
## p. 11314 (#534) ##########################################
11314
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
the very affable salute which Don Celso [the leader] directed to
him, as representative of all the rest, and especially of Don
Simon, whom he proceeded to introduce to the impassive elector
as follows:
"This gentleman is our candidate, Don Simon de las Peñas-
cales by name, an illustrious man, I assure you, with thirty
thousand dollars income, and great talents. He comes to-day
expressly to thank you for your kind co-operation in his coming
election, reserving a more fitting payment till some later oppor-
tunity shall offer. "
"Servant, sir," responded the "Squire," laconically, staring at
his distinguished guest.
"Delighted, my dear sir. I hope I find you well," began Don
Simon, uncovering his head with a grandly sweeping bow, and
tendering his right hand to him of the new-plowed land.
"Me? ye-up, I'm well," replied the "Squire," without sign of
a movement to take the proffered hand.
"Do you smoke? " the candidate now inquired, feeling for his
cigar-case.
"Once in a while, if the tobacco is good for anything. "
"Then do me the favor to accept this. It is of the choice
brand of the Vuelta de Abajo.
"You sure of that? " grunted the other, taking it and biting
off the end.
"
"And how are our affairs going around here? " inquired the
candidate, trying to strike out some spark of interest from that
piece of flint, that unmitigated boor.
"We'll puff-"see when-the time comes," he returned,
using up about half a box of matches in lighting his cigar in the
open air.
"No need of asking him that, Don Simon," remarked Don
Celso. "When you come to see what the Squire has done, I
warrant you'll be more than satisfied. "
"In that case," said Don Simon, taking Don Celso's hint, “and
since we still have far to go to-day, and since I have had the
great honor of making your acquaintance, it only remains for me
to put myself at your disposal for anything that you may demand
of me, either now or henceforward and forever. "
"The same thing say I," muttered the Squire, scarce touching
the hand offered him anew, and turning back to the men work-
ing for him.
## p. 11315 (#535) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11315
When they had ridden on a bit, Don Simon could not help
saying to Don Celso in a crestfallen way:-
"If that fellow is one of those who support me, what can I
expect of the doubtful ones? And, for heaven's sake, what sort
of manners will those have who are against me? "
[Later on, they meet an inn-keeper who charges for the very rent of the
ground their horses stand on while they are talking to him. This incident is
developed in a long and amusing account. He promises to vote and use his
influence for Don Simon, if the latter will see that a certain road is built,
joining his mountain inn to the main road; but only on condition- as other
candidates have promised the same thing before-that Don Simon shall put
up the money for the road, about $3,000, in advance, out of his own pocket.
Don Simon is disappointed, betrayed, put upon, in numberless ways, and
would have lost his election except that- having started out as a Liberal can-
didate- he shrewdly turns Conservative, and secures his seat by the favor of
the ministry. ]
THE PORTRAIT OF DON GONZALO GONZALEZ OF
GONZALEZ-TOWN
From Don Gonzalo Gonzalez de la Gonzalera ›
L
OOK at him; here he is:-A man of middling size, carefully
clad in a suit of fine black, his knobby flat feet shod in
refulgent patent leather; clean-shaven; his shirt-collar ter-
minating, above his low-cut vest and glossy embroidered shirt-
front, in a butterfly-shaped bow, made with the open-worked
ends of his cravat. Over all this wandered in serpentine con-
volutions a heavy gold chain. His hair was very much frizzed,
and upon two lateral rows of ringlets, rather than upon his head,
lightly rested a silk hat. One of his thick, hairy hands grasped
a gold-headed cane, while in the other, lying along his thigh, he
held ceremoniously a pair of kid gloves.
The speech of
such a man may be divined: it was over-soft, mawkish, sicken-
ing. He doted on alliterations, like huevo hilado, and he used to
say frido, cercanidas, and cacado. *
What name should he adopt on going back to his native vil-
lage? His father, who used to be dubbed "Tony Breechclout "
for short, was called "Antonio Gonzalez "; he himself Nicho-
las. " But if he were going to style himself simply "Nicholas
Gonzalez," he might as well make it "Johnny Drumsticks" and
have done with it.
What if, for example, without ceasing
*It is a vulgar affectation of elegance, in the Spanish Americas, to insert a
❝d in such words, which should be simply frío, cercanías, cacao.
## p. 11316 (#536) ##########################################
11316
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
to sign "Gonzalez," he should add to it something like "de la
Gonzalera"? Some people shorten their names, do they not?
what harm, then, if some others should lengthen theirs out a
little? A trifle more or less of a thing-what difference does
it make?
No sooner planned than decided. He ordered a thousand
lithographed visiting-cards of various tinted pasteboards; and upon
these was placed, in fantastic characters and in vivid colors, the
name "Gonzalo Gonzalez de la Gonzalera. "
CLETO'S PROPOSAL TO SOTILEZA
[Sotileza is a poor waif, adopted by a worthy family, and has turned out
to be a charming and admirable character. The name is derived from a very
fine, strong cord, used in the apparatus of the fishermen. Cleto belongs to
a family of sardine-sellers, the terror and scandal of the street; but he him-
self aspires to higher things. ]
―
From Sotileza ›
SOT
OTILEZA Continued her sewing on the garment of Pachuca, by
the light of the candle which she had just set in its socket
on the wall. Cleto, now in her presence, actually felt the
tremendous difficulty which he had trusted to conjure away by
his boldness and resolution. The gift of speech - the confounded
gift of gab, that was always denied him-was lacking to him at
this moment more than ever.
"I was passing by," he began to stammer, trembling with his
diffidence, "I happened to be passing along this way, and so—
er as I was passing this way, I says to myself, says I, 'I'll
just stop into the shop a minute. ' So that's the way I happened
to come My! but that's a good skirt you're sewing there,
Sotileza. Yours, is it? "
Sotileza told him it was not; and out of politeness, asked him
to sit down.
-
Cleto took a seat a good distance away from her; then,
looking and looking at her a long while, as if he were trying
to intoxicate himself through the medium of his eyesight to a
sufficient extent to break the trammels that held his tongue, he
at length succeeded in saying:-
« Sotileza, once you sewed on a button for me. Do you recol-
lect about it? "
## p. 11317 (#537) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11317
"I'm afraid too many other things have happened since," she
returned smilingly, without looking up from her work.
"Well, for me, it's just the same thing as if it took place
yesterday. "
"Well, what of it, supposing it was so? "
"Whyer why, you see, after that button- It was like
a jewel to me; and I've got it yet, right here on the waistband
of these breeches. Look at it; do you see it? After that button,
I kept coming back and coming back to this house, for there's
no staying in mine; and by gracious! well, you know that, Soti-
leza, that isn't what you might call a habitation at all, nor are
those female kin of mine women like other women, nor is that
man there a man. Well, then, I had never known anything
better than that kind of folks, and for want of knowing better,
I gave you a slap in the face one day; you remember about that.
Holy jinks! if you only knew how sorry I've been for that slap,
ever since. "
-
―
Sotileza began to be overcome with astonishment at the dis-
course she was listening to; for never had anything even remotely
like to this proceeded from Cleto's lips. She fixed her eyes with
interest upon his; but the effect of this was, that she cut short
not only the poor fellow's words but the very breath of his
body.
"But why are you saying these things to me now? " she
demanded.
((
"Because I've got to, Sotileza," Cleto plucked up heart to
respond; that's the reason:- and because nobody else would
be willing to come to you and say them for me. I hope it's no
offense. Now, see here, Sotileza, just see what's happening to
me. I did not know till lately, myself, what was the matter with
me; and I let them go on,- that kind of griping feeling in my
insides and that dizzy feeling in my head, that got hold of me
when I came in here. And you kept on growing up and getting
prettier every day: heavens, what new rail you kept whipping
on nearly every time I saw you! No offense in looking on at
it, was there? at least I hope not; and no more was there,
either, in warming up my heart with a glimpse of this shop now
and then. Over there in our tenement there was nothing of the
kind, by a long chalk: filth and brutishness, the good name of
every person they spoke of pitched head first out of the balcony,
not a scrap of decency about anything they did. By thunder!
it's enough to give a fellow a bad temper, even if he was born
## p. 11318 (#538) ##########################################
11318
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
with one like sugar. That's the way I came to give you that
slap, Sotileza; if it wasn't, I would tell you so, honestly. Why,
if any one was to say to me, right here and how, 'Cleto, you
go and jump off the ramparts for Sotileza,' I would do it. Soti-
leza, if it could be of the slightest service to you, even if I got
nothing out of it but my broken neck. I never had any of this
kind of feeling before. Here you have a full account of it with-
out asking for it- and without offense, I hope. You see how it
was; it wasn't my fault. I liked those feelings too, in spite of
the pain, I liked them immensely; they made my disposition
of the purest honey, as if I had never had any other. I was
filled up, filled full with them, till it seemed as if my body
wouldn't hold any more. Then afterwards a tumble here and a
stumble there-a heavy surf, as it were, rolling round inside of
me; little sleep of nights, and a lump in my throat all the time.
Look you, Sotileza, I used to think there were no more troubles
than those I had at home; but now I can see that I slept better,
twice over, than since all this trouble began about you. I—I—
don't offend anybody, do I, in talking this way, Sotileza? And
thener, while all that was going on that I was telling you
just now, I got to getting fonder and fonder of you every day,
and I got to having more and more respect for you; and I tried
harder every day to see if I couldn't read your wishes in your
eyes, so that I could go and serve you somehow without your
having to tell me.
"And so all that was going on month in and month out, and
year after year; I was slowly foundering, and there was no
way of getting afloat again. For you see, Sotileza, it's one
thing for a man to be chock full of feelings like this, and
another thing for him to speak up and tell his girl about them,
if he's tongue-tied like me and can't put two words together. It
knocks me all out when I think what you are, and then what
I am,- the very mud of the gutter, in comparison. Well, I just
couldn't hold it all in any longer, and I went to some folks that
understand how to talk about this kind of thing, to get them
to come and see you for me. But what do you think? they
wouldn't do it. There's a nice charitable lot of parties, isn't it,
to lend a hand when a man was in such sore straits as I was?
You are attending, aren't you, Sotileza, to all this I'm telling you?
Well, the upshot of it was, that since nobody would come and
speak to you for me, I had to come and speak to you myself,
and — and — now I'm doing it. "
## p. 11319 (#539) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11319
It was no news to Sotileza that Cleto was in love with
her; for she had read it clearly in all his looks and actions for
some time past. She was not surprised, therefore, at his avowal;
but she was surprised, and not a little, that he should have mus-
tered the courage to make it. Looking at him with her serene
gaze, she said to him:
"Of course there's no offense in what you say to me, Cleto;
but in the name of all the saints, what possesses you to make
you say it to me just now? »
"My stars! what always possesses people to tell such things?
So they can be known. "
"Well, I know them, Cleto, I know them: now are you
satisfied? "
"Hum-er-why, no, not altogether. That is not enough,
Sotileza. "
"And what do you wish more? "
"What do I wish more? Gracious goodness! I wish to be a
man like another; I want to live a different kind of life from
what I've been living: you yourself have been the light that has
shown me what another kind of life could be. I want to live
the way life goes on in this little shop of yours; I am dying to
work for you, and to be neat and clean and decent-spoken, like
you. I would kiss the ground you walk on, and try and get you
the very mermaids from the sea, whom no one has ever set eyes
on, if you wanted them. Is it too little that I offer? »
He was veritably transfigured at this moment; and Sotileza
could not but marvel at the change.
"I have never seen you so lively and so talkative as to-day,"
was her answer.
"The mounting wave has burst," he rejoined, getting bolder
still; "and I myself believe I am not what I was before.
I've
set myself down sometimes for a regular idiot; but by the living
gracious! I swear I am so no longer, with this that is going
on inside of me, and that makes me talk in spite of myself.
If you can work such a miracle as this without even knowing
it, what miracles could you not work with me when you really
put your mind on it? Now just look at me, Sotileza: I've got no
vices; I never was afraid of work; I haven't a grudge against
a person in the world; I am accustomed to do with little; and
picking out the very best I've had in my life, it has never been
anything but pain and trouble. Seeing here, about you, some-
## p. 11320 (#540) ##########################################
11320
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
thing so entirely different, you know what a value I set on it-
and whose fault it is that I do. There's a man needed in this
house. Are you taking in what I am telling you, Sotileza? "
For that very
Sotileza was giving heed to it only too well.
reason she replied with a certain curtness:
"Yes, I am; but what of it? "
"Again? Confound it! you make me that answer again,"
cried Cleto angrily. "Or is this your way of saying no, without
saying it directly? "
"Come, Cleto," said Sotileza coldly, "I am not under obliga
tions to answer all the questions you choose to put me on such
particulars, or any others. I live quietly here in my house with-
out speaking ill of anybody. I have none but the kindest wishes
towards you, and I know your value full well; nevertheless I
have my own way of thinking and feeling, and I wish to make
no change in my life at present. "
"What have you said, Sotileza? " exclaimed Cleto in dismay.
"Oh, this is boring a big auger-hole into the hull. I am wrecked,
I am lost. "
"Don't put it in that way; it is not so bad as that.
But sup-
pose, for the sake of argument, that if, instead of the no, Cleto,
which you dread to hear, I should say the yes you ask of me,
how would you be the gainer by that? You have to steal into
this house, carefully hiding your movements from your family
over in yours, even if you come here but for an instant, just to
pass the time of day. If such is the case now, what would it be
if — if the plan you are so anxious for came to pass? "
"You've hit it, Sotileza: that's just what the other folks told
me. But is there any sense and right in such a state of things?
I didn't choose the family that I belong to. "
"Who are the other folks that told you the same thing that I
have? " now inquired Sotileza quickly, ignoring the woe-begone
lamentations of the poor young fellow.
"Father Polinar, in the first place" [the parish schoolmaster].
"Father Polinar? And who next? "
"Don Andres " [a young man of the upper class, in love with
Sotileza himself].
"And you went to-to that person, with this pretty tale?
What did he say to you, pray? "
"He abused me like a pickpocket. He left me for dead, as
you might say, when he got through with me. "
>>>
## p. 11321 (#541) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11321
"Well, you see then. When was this? "
"Yesterday afternoon. "
"You deserved all you got. Why do you go to any one with
that nonsense? >>
"Great heavens! don't I keep telling you? My liking for you
choked me; I lacked courage to tell you, and I looked around
for some one else to do it for me. I shall not look any further,
now that I have got the trick of speaking up for myself. But
this is not to the point, Sotileza. "
"What is the point? "
་ Why, that because my folks across the way are a bad lot, I
should have to get the mitten from the only girl I ever loved. "
"I haven't given you the mitten, have I? ”
"Of course it amounts to that, if you shut your door against
me on account of my family over there. "
"I did not even say I was going to do that; I merely put
you the case as a supposition: now do you understand? »
"I'm afraid I do,- born to bad luck that I am.
clearly, for that is what I came to-day to find out.
afraid to speak up and say the worst. "
.
"I beg of you not to make me speak. "
"No, it will be better to speak than keep silent. See here,
Sotileza,- for this is the kind of a person I am: come now, do
you think me of too little account? Then tell me how you
would like me to be, and I shall be only too glad to become that,
cost what it may. Is there some one else who has got the
inside track with you? is that the reason? I tell you I would
be a dozen times as good a man as he, no matter who he is, if
you would take an interest in me. "
"There's a nice piece of conceit, I must say. "
"My very life is bound up in this matter, Sotileza: would
I dare to talk so, otherwise? Oh, I beseech you. The whole
thing is to have a little kindness for me in your heart, and all
the rest will follow as if upon wheels. You will only have to
say to me, 'You've got to do this or do that, or go here or go
there,' and I will jump and do it on the instant. I shall not
disturb you the least bit; a mere corner of the house will do for
me, and the farthest corner at that, even if it be worse than the
one I have now. I will eat the scraps you leave over, of what I
gain for you with my hardest daily toil, so that you may live at
leisure like a lady. I can live on just nothing at all, Sotileza; for
-
But tell me
Don't be
## p. 11322 (#542) ##########################################
11322
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
as sure as God is in heaven, what makes me fatter than anything
is to have a little order, a grain of human kindness, a scrap or
two of jolly good-nature, in the house. By the powers, how I
should enjoy that kind of thing! So now you see what I beg
of you, what I beseech of you. And you won't be offended, will
you? And you will say yes, Sotileza? I know you will; for one
cannot be allowed to beg in this way for what is impossible. "
The desperate energy of the poor youth only caused Sotileza
to smile. He persisted, but in vain, in trying to draw out a defi-
nite answer from her. His obstinacy in the end annoyed her;
and she showed it. Then Cleto, scowling with his disappointment
and wretchedness, said:-
―___
་
"Will you even admit to me that what I have said to you
does not merely go in at one ear and out at the other? "
"And you, animal, what difference does it make to you? "
snapped out Sotileza, in a nettled, offensive manner that froze
the very blood in his veins. "Who and what are you, anyway,
to bring me to book in this way? "
"Nothing, nothing; the very dust under your feet," he an-
swered with abject humility, conscious too late of the rudeness
and lack of tact he had been guilty of. "The trouble I am in
blinded me, and I spoke without thinking. Don't be put out
with me: it was only that; I swear to you by all—”
"Leave me in peace. "
"Yes, but promise not to lay up a dislike against me,"
pleaded Cleto.
"Get out of here, get away from here, for I can hardly endure
the sight of you. "
"Oh, what an unlucky wretch am I," he groaned. "And will
you never pardon me? »
"No, unless you leave here instantly. "
"Don't be too hard with me: I'm going; I'm gone. "
And with this, Cleto, heavy and woe-begone, sallied forth
from the little shop, whence he had more than half believed in
advance he should sally forth triumphant and joyful.
[Cleto makes various long voyages, returns a much more accomplished
and presentable person, without losing his kindly and upright nature; and
in course of time, Sotileza, having the good sense to feel that this is a much
better match for her than one with Andres in the higher station, marries
him. ]
Translated from the original Spanish by William Henry Bishop.
## p. 11323 (#543) ##########################################
11323
CHARLES PERRAULT
(1628-1703)
W
HERE was Red Riding-Hood born? Over what realm ruled
the parents of. Sleeping Beauty? How long since the Fairy
Godmother saved Cinderella from her hard lot? No one
knows; or whether these charming maidens and others, and clever
Little Thumb, Puss-in-Boots, "Figaro of the Nursery," and their
brothers, are French, German, Persian, Indian, or Egyptian, or from
the Northland. They have wandered over
the world winning friends. Always young
and fascinating, they live through the cen-
turies. They came into existence when
the races of men were young and simple-
minded, and they have become the delight
of unjaded child minds forever. No one
knows when they were first heard of in
France, but their stories were familiar to
the peasants long before finding literary
expression. The charcoal burners around
their forest fires, the fathers and mothers
gathered with the children beside the
hearths in wretched cabins, thrilled with
awe and delight at the myths inherited
from their ancestors; and doubtless modified by their own imagina-
tions. These were the stories first written out, and published toward
the end of the seventeenth century, by Charles Perrault.
Before considering them further, it will be interesting to know
something of the man who, after an arduous public life, turned to
fairy lore when he was over sixty, and in it won lasting fame and
child love.
CHARLES PERRAULT
Charles Perrault, the youngest of four brothers, all of whom be-
came distinguished, was born in Paris, January 12th, 1628. His father,
a barrister, taught him at home; and then sent him to the Collège
de Beauvais. He was a boy of noteworthy intelligence, and with the
most ardent desire for accurate and absolute information. He argued
and philosophized with his masters until ordered to be quiet. Then
he boldly left school, accompanied by a young disciple named Beau-
rain, and wandering in the Luxembourg Garden, the truants laid out
a plan of home education for themselves. This, strangely enough. -
## p. 11324 (#544) ##########################################
11324
CHARLES PERRAULT
for French boys usually were then as they are now, in strict sub-
servience to their elders, - they were allowed to follow. Perrault's
impatience of routine and surrender to the guidance of his own indi-
viduality lasted always, and led him to employ his versatile talents
in a great variety of ways. He studied law; then wearied of its.
minutiæ after a few years' practice, and resigned his profession. In
1657 he aided his brother Claude, the famous architect, in building a
house; and that so skillfully that in 1663 Colbert chose him to assist
Claude in superintending the royal building operations. One of his
achievements in this capacity was the design for the peristyle of
the Louvre. Witty, genial, popular, versed in art and literature, he
made himself very useful to Colbert; and at the minister's desire was
elected to the Academy in 1671. Upon that authoritative body the
practical Perrault exercised a lasting influence. He ordered all its
business affairs. He brought about election by ballot, and himself
invented and introduced a balloting machine. More than all, he sug-
gested the public receptions to new members, which have given the
Academy so strong a hold upon the nation. During these years he
constantly showed himself possessed of a modern progressive spirit,
and impatient of dead tradition. When Colbert would have reserved
the palace gardens for royal use, Perrault protested: "I am persuaded
that the gardens of kings are made so great and spacious in order
that all their children may walk in them;" at which Colbert smiled
and left them open to little Parisians.
Perrault was a true royalist, sincerely revering the court and its
customs. His practical work and his panegyrics brought royal favor
and reward. One of these panegyrics - 'Le Siècle de Louis XIV. ’-
caused the famous Battle of the Books, for his share in which Per-
rault was best known in his own day. He read this poem to the
Academy, and its extolling of the present over the past aroused the
wrath of Boileau, who attacked him furiously in behalf of the classics.
A war of epigram ensued; and in his own defense Perrault published
a long poem, tedious reading now,-'Le Parallèle des Anciens et
des Modernes. ' Here again he showed his belief that the new and
the future promised more than the past. Each side had supporters;
neither side won: but the battle raged hotly for years, and was long
continued in England.
Colbert was a crabbed, difficult master, and grew more so. And
Perrault married the lady of his own choice, not Colbert's for him,
which made trouble. So his position became irksome; and in 1683
he resigned. After 1686 he devoted himself to authorship; and wrote
a versified history, short poems, and religious works.
He was glad to exchange public intrigue for simple home life;
"glad to train his children and turn from what was artificial to what
## p. 11325 (#545) ##########################################
CHARLES PERRAULT
11325
was vital and genuine. " In 1691 he published anonymously the first
of his famous tales. This was 'La Marquise de Salusses, ou La Pa-
tience de Grisilidis,'—our Patient Griselda. The plot, borrowed from
Boccaccio, he treated in verse less able than his prose, and suggestive
of an imitation of La Fontaine. Les Souhaits Ridicules' (The Fool-
ish Wishes), and 'Peau d'Âne' (The Donkey's Skin), were also written
first in verse.
Perrault may have heard his children telling the old stories that
he himself had heard in childhood; and his mind, wearied of subtlety,
may have found them freshly interesting and beautiful. His 'Contes
de ma Mère l'Oye,' the tales of genial Mother Goose, were first pub-
lished as a collection in 1697. They had already appeared singly,
and in 1694 three of them had been included in the 'Miscellany of
Mostjen, a bookseller of The Hague.
The Contes de ma Mère l'Oye' were published in the name of
Perrault's young son, Perrault d'Armancour, as though written by the
child; and this has greatly confused the critics. The charm of the
stories is their vivid style. The straightforward telling, the choice
of detail, the graphic coloring, the general simplicity of tone, suggest
a child's rendering. But interspersed are witty phrases, often paren-
thetical, mature reflections, and touches of amiable irony, for which
Perrault himself is surely responsible. Each story terminates with an
odd little moral in rhyme, usually omitted from the English versions.
The French mind has always been in sympathy with fairies; not
boisterous tricksy elves like those of Briton and Germany, but deft
little ladies who love to aid unfortunate human protégés. They are
rarely malevolent like the slighted eighth fairy of Sleeping Beauty's
christening. The element of the grotesque and fascinatingly horri-
ble is usually supplied by ogres and ogresses, direct descendants of
the cannibals told about by early voyagers. Like all folk-lore, these
early French tales abound in clever beasts, such as Puss-in-Boots.
To primitive receptivity of heart and mind, it is no more wonderful
that a cat should talk than that it should purr. Inexperience believes
in fairies as readily as in men; hence the delightful matter-of-course
tone in Perrault's enchanted world. The humor is usually a simple
burlesque, as in The Foolish Wishes,' when the black pudding sticks
to the man's nose.
Perrault's stories made refreshing appeal to the courtiers and fine
ladies at magnificent Louis's court. They welcomed them in the spirit
which led them to throw aside silks and velvets, and masquerade as
shepherds and shepherdesses.
Since then many generations of scholars have studied Perrault's
text, finding their successive clues back to shadowy antiquity. For
most of the tales they have discovered fanciful interpretations, based
## p. 11326 (#546) ##########################################
11326
CHARLES PERRAULT
upon recollections of mythology. These may or may not be legiti
mate. Sleeping Beauty may have been winter, and the Prince re-
awakening spring; but children love the story for itself, not for the
metaphor.
'Bluebeard' probably has a more recent origin than the others.
He may have been suggested by mediæval Gilles de Retz, notorious
for cruel murders of children, which he expiated by being publicly
burned. Or he may have been Cormorus, a Breton prince, reputed a
wife-murderer. At any rate, he is firmly established as the fiercest
of nursery bogies.
Perrault's stories have grown in popularity for two hundred years.
England, Germany, and other nations soon took possession of them.
They have been endlessly retold; changed, colored to suit the taste
of the nations which adopted them. But Perrault's brilliant touch is
discernible under all the modifications; and to him directly, we owe
much of our best-loved fairy literature.
-
LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD
ON
NCE upon a time there lived in a certain village a little
country girl, the prettiest creature was ever seen. Her
mother was excessively fond of her; and her grandmother
doted on her still more. This good woman got made for her a
little red riding-hood; which became the girl so extremely well
that everybody called her Little Red Riding-Hood.
One day her mother, having made some custards, said to
her:
"Go, my dear, and see how thy grandmamma does, for I hear
she has been very ill; carry her a custard, and this little pot of
butter. "
Little Red Riding-Hood set out immediately to go to her
grandmother, who lived in another village.
As she was going through the wood, she met with Gaffer
Wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he durst
not, because of some fagot-makers hard by in the forest. He
asked her whither she was going. The poor child, who did not
know that it was dangerous to stay and hear a wolf talk, said to
him:-
"I am going to see my grandmamma, and carry her a custard
and a little pot of butter from my mamma. "
"Does she live far off? " said the Wolf.
## p. 11327 (#547) ##########################################
CHARLES PERRAULT
11327
I'll go
"Oh! ay," answered Little Red Riding-Hood: "it is beyond
that mill you see there, at the first house in the village. "
«< Well," said the Wolf, "and I'll go and see her too.
this way and go you that, and we shall see who will be there
soonest. "
The Wolf began to run as fast as he could, taking the near-
est way; and the little girl went by that farthest about, diverting
herself in gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and making
nosegays of such little flowers as she met with. The Wolf was
not long before he got to the old woman's house. He knocked
at the door- tap, tap.
"Who's there? "
"Your grandchild, Little Red Riding-Hood,” replied the Wolf,
counterfeiting her voice; "who has brought you a custard and a
little pot of butter sent you by mamma. "
The good grandmother, who was in bed, because she was
somewhat ill, cried out:
-
"Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up. "
The Wolf pulled the bobbin, and the door opened; and then
presently he fell upon the good woman and ate her up in a
moment, for it was above three days that he had not touched a
bit.
The boy, who knows by hard experience that his father never
deals in vain threats, now, despite the signals his mother makes
him to keep still, shuts his eyes, and speaking as rapidly as if
he feared the words would burn his mouth, says:
"Mother brought home a pint of brandy this morning, and
has the bottle hidden in the straw mattress. "
Tuerto no sooner hears these words than he fells his culprit
spouse to the floor with a resounding whack, rushes to the
bed, rummages amid the contents of the poor mattress, pulls out
from it a small bottle which contains the remainder of the con-
traband liquor, and returning with it towards his wife, hurls it
at her head at the moment when she is just getting up from
the floor. It knocks her down anew, and the children are sprin-
kled with the flying spirits. The wretched woman, sorely hurt,
laments and groans; the frightened children weep; and the irate
mariner sallies forth to the balcony, cursing his wife and the
day that he was ever born.
## p. 11311 (#531) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11311
Uncle Tremontorio, who arrived from the sea at the same
time with his mates Bolina [Billy Bowline] and Tuerto, had
been in his balcony knitting away at his fishing-nets (his custom-
ary occupation when at home) from the beginning of the dispute
between his neighbors. From time to time he would take a bite.
out of a hunk of bread, and another of dried codfish, the pro-
vision that constituted his usual dinner. Though he is perfectly
well posted about what has just taken place [across the narrow
street], it is not his way to mix himself up in what does not
concern him. But the furious husband, who needs an outlet for
venomous rage that still half chokes him, calls up his neighbor,
and the pair shout from one balcony to the other the following
dialogue: -
"Uncle Tremontorio, I can't stand this devil of a woman any
longer. One of these days you'll hear of some desperate deed
on my part; I suppose that's the way it will all end. "
"I have told you that it was your own fault, from the begin-
ning. She tacked your way a little, and you let go your whole
cable and thought your voyage was over. "
"What could I do? I thought then she was one of heaven's
own saints. "
"What could you do? Do? why, what I've always told you:
haul her taut, and make fast with a double turn. Rough wind
astern? all right, ahead you go. "
"But there's not a bone in her body I haven't already
tinkered at with a cudgel, as you might mend the ribs of a
boat. "
"You waited till the wood was rotten, my friend. "
"As God is my witness she's the worst villain unhung. What
is going to become of those poor brats of mine when I am taken
away from them? for the devil will never take that woman: he
has no place to put her. Last week I handed her twenty-four
reals to dress the children with.
Have you laid eyes on that
money? Well, neither have I. The drunkard spent them for
drink. I gave her a walloping that left her for dead, and yet
what does she do? Three days after that she sells a sheet from
our bed for a quart of rum. Yesterday I gave her twenty-one
cents for meat, and she drank them also. And with all this the
young ones are naked, I haven't a shirt to my back, and I never
dare think of treating myself to an honest glass of wine of a
fête-day. "
## p. 11312 (#532) ##########################################
11312
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
"Why don't you get an exorcism said over her? Maybe she's
bewitched by evil spirits, and that's the cause of it. "
"I've spent a small fortune in those very tomfooleries, Tre-
montorio. I took her to more than three leagues from here, to
get a parson that they said had the gift of such things, to chuck
the gospels at her. Well, he did; then he gave me a little card
he had said a prayer over, and a sprig of rue, sewed it all up in
a bag, hung it round her neck, charged me nearly four dollars
for it, and that was all the good it did - not the first blessed
thing. The very next day she had a jag on worse than ever,
and wanted to paint the town red. I've given her brandy with
gunpower in it, a thing, they say, that creates a distaste for
liquor, but that beast, did it affect her that way? Not much!
she seemed to like the drink after that better than ever. I've
laid out a treasure in candles alone, setting them up before the
Holy Martyrs, to see if they'd rid her of the vice; and it was
just the same as if I had not spent a farthing. I swear to you,
I don't know what to do, Uncle Tremontorio, unless it is to kill
her: there are no bounds to this vice of hers. Just tell me what
you say of this: When I gave her the brandy with powder in it,
she was taken with such a colic I thought she'd burst. I had
heard that flannels soaked in spirits, applied good and hot, was
a cure for that sort of pains in the stomach; so I heated up
about half a pint of liquor in a saucepan. When it was blazing
hot, I took it over to the bedside, where the thief of the world
was writhing about in contortions. I had to leave the saucepan
with her a minute while I went to the chest to get out some
rags; I turned around, and, man, what do you think I saw ? she
was just swallowing down the last drops of the spirits from the
saucepan, almost ablaze as it was. Man, man, was there ever a
worse curse of God? "
"Well, friend in regard to that- ahem! what can I say to
you? When a woman chooses to take the crooked path, like
yours, give her the stick, and plenty of it. If with that she
doesn't mend her ways and float off in good style, then either
sink her to the bottom, once for all, or string yourself up to a
yard-arm. "
"I've told you already—what's the matter with you? - that
I've covered every inch of her body with the welts of a stick,
and I've decorated her face all over with bruises till there's
hardly room for another. "
________
_______________
――――――
-
## p. 11313 (#533) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11313
"Then go hang yourself, and leave me in peace to finish
these meshes. And you may as well know that the reason I
never married is to keep out of the devil's own scrape that you
are in. "
THE CANDIDATE VISITS HIS VOTERS
From Los Hombres de Pro'
ON SIMON Started upon his electioneering tour. In the first
village of his district, at the poor inn, a group of six agents
were waiting for him; their horses, caparisoned with orna-
mental trappings, after the fashion of the country, tied to the
posts or the projecting window gratings. They received him hat
in hand.
[All then passed into the dining-room, where a dozen more persons met
them, and a liberal dinner was served, for which the candidate duly paid.
The several days' ride through the mountain district next began. ]
The cavalcade was headed by one of the six caciques [village
magnates, previously mentioned]. He was a lean, dark man,
with a large nose, a penetrating eye, his face almost beardless,
although he was by no means young; he spoke little, but that
to the point; and as to confidence in men, he would have been
distrustful even of his own shadow. He knew the voters of the
district, every man of them, with all his virtues, vices, minor
faults, and necessities; and in consequence, he knew how to win
or to compel them.
(
·
"The Squire'" (said he),-" for thus they call him,-whom
we must see, is a rough sort of customer, but much bent on hav-
ing everybody flatter and bow down to him. When we leave
him, don't forget to give him a cigar; not one of the kind you
furnished us at dinner, you know, but one of those you have
in your cigar-case for your own particular use. "
Don Simon did his best not to notice this polite little slur,
and put himself at the orders of his adviser.
The party found the local great man presiding over the
turning-up of a new field he had just bought on that out-of-the-
way upland. He was still youthful; and he had a despicable
physiognomy. He manifested no great curiosity on the approach
of the little troop. He confined himself to returning coldly
XIX-708
•
## p. 11314 (#534) ##########################################
11314
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
the very affable salute which Don Celso [the leader] directed to
him, as representative of all the rest, and especially of Don
Simon, whom he proceeded to introduce to the impassive elector
as follows:
"This gentleman is our candidate, Don Simon de las Peñas-
cales by name, an illustrious man, I assure you, with thirty
thousand dollars income, and great talents. He comes to-day
expressly to thank you for your kind co-operation in his coming
election, reserving a more fitting payment till some later oppor-
tunity shall offer. "
"Servant, sir," responded the "Squire," laconically, staring at
his distinguished guest.
"Delighted, my dear sir. I hope I find you well," began Don
Simon, uncovering his head with a grandly sweeping bow, and
tendering his right hand to him of the new-plowed land.
"Me? ye-up, I'm well," replied the "Squire," without sign of
a movement to take the proffered hand.
"Do you smoke? " the candidate now inquired, feeling for his
cigar-case.
"Once in a while, if the tobacco is good for anything. "
"Then do me the favor to accept this. It is of the choice
brand of the Vuelta de Abajo.
"You sure of that? " grunted the other, taking it and biting
off the end.
"
"And how are our affairs going around here? " inquired the
candidate, trying to strike out some spark of interest from that
piece of flint, that unmitigated boor.
"We'll puff-"see when-the time comes," he returned,
using up about half a box of matches in lighting his cigar in the
open air.
"No need of asking him that, Don Simon," remarked Don
Celso. "When you come to see what the Squire has done, I
warrant you'll be more than satisfied. "
"In that case," said Don Simon, taking Don Celso's hint, “and
since we still have far to go to-day, and since I have had the
great honor of making your acquaintance, it only remains for me
to put myself at your disposal for anything that you may demand
of me, either now or henceforward and forever. "
"The same thing say I," muttered the Squire, scarce touching
the hand offered him anew, and turning back to the men work-
ing for him.
## p. 11315 (#535) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11315
When they had ridden on a bit, Don Simon could not help
saying to Don Celso in a crestfallen way:-
"If that fellow is one of those who support me, what can I
expect of the doubtful ones? And, for heaven's sake, what sort
of manners will those have who are against me? "
[Later on, they meet an inn-keeper who charges for the very rent of the
ground their horses stand on while they are talking to him. This incident is
developed in a long and amusing account. He promises to vote and use his
influence for Don Simon, if the latter will see that a certain road is built,
joining his mountain inn to the main road; but only on condition- as other
candidates have promised the same thing before-that Don Simon shall put
up the money for the road, about $3,000, in advance, out of his own pocket.
Don Simon is disappointed, betrayed, put upon, in numberless ways, and
would have lost his election except that- having started out as a Liberal can-
didate- he shrewdly turns Conservative, and secures his seat by the favor of
the ministry. ]
THE PORTRAIT OF DON GONZALO GONZALEZ OF
GONZALEZ-TOWN
From Don Gonzalo Gonzalez de la Gonzalera ›
L
OOK at him; here he is:-A man of middling size, carefully
clad in a suit of fine black, his knobby flat feet shod in
refulgent patent leather; clean-shaven; his shirt-collar ter-
minating, above his low-cut vest and glossy embroidered shirt-
front, in a butterfly-shaped bow, made with the open-worked
ends of his cravat. Over all this wandered in serpentine con-
volutions a heavy gold chain. His hair was very much frizzed,
and upon two lateral rows of ringlets, rather than upon his head,
lightly rested a silk hat. One of his thick, hairy hands grasped
a gold-headed cane, while in the other, lying along his thigh, he
held ceremoniously a pair of kid gloves.
The speech of
such a man may be divined: it was over-soft, mawkish, sicken-
ing. He doted on alliterations, like huevo hilado, and he used to
say frido, cercanidas, and cacado. *
What name should he adopt on going back to his native vil-
lage? His father, who used to be dubbed "Tony Breechclout "
for short, was called "Antonio Gonzalez "; he himself Nicho-
las. " But if he were going to style himself simply "Nicholas
Gonzalez," he might as well make it "Johnny Drumsticks" and
have done with it.
What if, for example, without ceasing
*It is a vulgar affectation of elegance, in the Spanish Americas, to insert a
❝d in such words, which should be simply frío, cercanías, cacao.
## p. 11316 (#536) ##########################################
11316
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
to sign "Gonzalez," he should add to it something like "de la
Gonzalera"? Some people shorten their names, do they not?
what harm, then, if some others should lengthen theirs out a
little? A trifle more or less of a thing-what difference does
it make?
No sooner planned than decided. He ordered a thousand
lithographed visiting-cards of various tinted pasteboards; and upon
these was placed, in fantastic characters and in vivid colors, the
name "Gonzalo Gonzalez de la Gonzalera. "
CLETO'S PROPOSAL TO SOTILEZA
[Sotileza is a poor waif, adopted by a worthy family, and has turned out
to be a charming and admirable character. The name is derived from a very
fine, strong cord, used in the apparatus of the fishermen. Cleto belongs to
a family of sardine-sellers, the terror and scandal of the street; but he him-
self aspires to higher things. ]
―
From Sotileza ›
SOT
OTILEZA Continued her sewing on the garment of Pachuca, by
the light of the candle which she had just set in its socket
on the wall. Cleto, now in her presence, actually felt the
tremendous difficulty which he had trusted to conjure away by
his boldness and resolution. The gift of speech - the confounded
gift of gab, that was always denied him-was lacking to him at
this moment more than ever.
"I was passing by," he began to stammer, trembling with his
diffidence, "I happened to be passing along this way, and so—
er as I was passing this way, I says to myself, says I, 'I'll
just stop into the shop a minute. ' So that's the way I happened
to come My! but that's a good skirt you're sewing there,
Sotileza. Yours, is it? "
Sotileza told him it was not; and out of politeness, asked him
to sit down.
-
Cleto took a seat a good distance away from her; then,
looking and looking at her a long while, as if he were trying
to intoxicate himself through the medium of his eyesight to a
sufficient extent to break the trammels that held his tongue, he
at length succeeded in saying:-
« Sotileza, once you sewed on a button for me. Do you recol-
lect about it? "
## p. 11317 (#537) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11317
"I'm afraid too many other things have happened since," she
returned smilingly, without looking up from her work.
"Well, for me, it's just the same thing as if it took place
yesterday. "
"Well, what of it, supposing it was so? "
"Whyer why, you see, after that button- It was like
a jewel to me; and I've got it yet, right here on the waistband
of these breeches. Look at it; do you see it? After that button,
I kept coming back and coming back to this house, for there's
no staying in mine; and by gracious! well, you know that, Soti-
leza, that isn't what you might call a habitation at all, nor are
those female kin of mine women like other women, nor is that
man there a man. Well, then, I had never known anything
better than that kind of folks, and for want of knowing better,
I gave you a slap in the face one day; you remember about that.
Holy jinks! if you only knew how sorry I've been for that slap,
ever since. "
-
―
Sotileza began to be overcome with astonishment at the dis-
course she was listening to; for never had anything even remotely
like to this proceeded from Cleto's lips. She fixed her eyes with
interest upon his; but the effect of this was, that she cut short
not only the poor fellow's words but the very breath of his
body.
"But why are you saying these things to me now? " she
demanded.
((
"Because I've got to, Sotileza," Cleto plucked up heart to
respond; that's the reason:- and because nobody else would
be willing to come to you and say them for me. I hope it's no
offense. Now, see here, Sotileza, just see what's happening to
me. I did not know till lately, myself, what was the matter with
me; and I let them go on,- that kind of griping feeling in my
insides and that dizzy feeling in my head, that got hold of me
when I came in here. And you kept on growing up and getting
prettier every day: heavens, what new rail you kept whipping
on nearly every time I saw you! No offense in looking on at
it, was there? at least I hope not; and no more was there,
either, in warming up my heart with a glimpse of this shop now
and then. Over there in our tenement there was nothing of the
kind, by a long chalk: filth and brutishness, the good name of
every person they spoke of pitched head first out of the balcony,
not a scrap of decency about anything they did. By thunder!
it's enough to give a fellow a bad temper, even if he was born
## p. 11318 (#538) ##########################################
11318
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
with one like sugar. That's the way I came to give you that
slap, Sotileza; if it wasn't, I would tell you so, honestly. Why,
if any one was to say to me, right here and how, 'Cleto, you
go and jump off the ramparts for Sotileza,' I would do it. Soti-
leza, if it could be of the slightest service to you, even if I got
nothing out of it but my broken neck. I never had any of this
kind of feeling before. Here you have a full account of it with-
out asking for it- and without offense, I hope. You see how it
was; it wasn't my fault. I liked those feelings too, in spite of
the pain, I liked them immensely; they made my disposition
of the purest honey, as if I had never had any other. I was
filled up, filled full with them, till it seemed as if my body
wouldn't hold any more. Then afterwards a tumble here and a
stumble there-a heavy surf, as it were, rolling round inside of
me; little sleep of nights, and a lump in my throat all the time.
Look you, Sotileza, I used to think there were no more troubles
than those I had at home; but now I can see that I slept better,
twice over, than since all this trouble began about you. I—I—
don't offend anybody, do I, in talking this way, Sotileza? And
thener, while all that was going on that I was telling you
just now, I got to getting fonder and fonder of you every day,
and I got to having more and more respect for you; and I tried
harder every day to see if I couldn't read your wishes in your
eyes, so that I could go and serve you somehow without your
having to tell me.
"And so all that was going on month in and month out, and
year after year; I was slowly foundering, and there was no
way of getting afloat again. For you see, Sotileza, it's one
thing for a man to be chock full of feelings like this, and
another thing for him to speak up and tell his girl about them,
if he's tongue-tied like me and can't put two words together. It
knocks me all out when I think what you are, and then what
I am,- the very mud of the gutter, in comparison. Well, I just
couldn't hold it all in any longer, and I went to some folks that
understand how to talk about this kind of thing, to get them
to come and see you for me. But what do you think? they
wouldn't do it. There's a nice charitable lot of parties, isn't it,
to lend a hand when a man was in such sore straits as I was?
You are attending, aren't you, Sotileza, to all this I'm telling you?
Well, the upshot of it was, that since nobody would come and
speak to you for me, I had to come and speak to you myself,
and — and — now I'm doing it. "
## p. 11319 (#539) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11319
It was no news to Sotileza that Cleto was in love with
her; for she had read it clearly in all his looks and actions for
some time past. She was not surprised, therefore, at his avowal;
but she was surprised, and not a little, that he should have mus-
tered the courage to make it. Looking at him with her serene
gaze, she said to him:
"Of course there's no offense in what you say to me, Cleto;
but in the name of all the saints, what possesses you to make
you say it to me just now? »
"My stars! what always possesses people to tell such things?
So they can be known. "
"Well, I know them, Cleto, I know them: now are you
satisfied? "
"Hum-er-why, no, not altogether. That is not enough,
Sotileza. "
"And what do you wish more? "
"What do I wish more? Gracious goodness! I wish to be a
man like another; I want to live a different kind of life from
what I've been living: you yourself have been the light that has
shown me what another kind of life could be. I want to live
the way life goes on in this little shop of yours; I am dying to
work for you, and to be neat and clean and decent-spoken, like
you. I would kiss the ground you walk on, and try and get you
the very mermaids from the sea, whom no one has ever set eyes
on, if you wanted them. Is it too little that I offer? »
He was veritably transfigured at this moment; and Sotileza
could not but marvel at the change.
"I have never seen you so lively and so talkative as to-day,"
was her answer.
"The mounting wave has burst," he rejoined, getting bolder
still; "and I myself believe I am not what I was before.
I've
set myself down sometimes for a regular idiot; but by the living
gracious! I swear I am so no longer, with this that is going
on inside of me, and that makes me talk in spite of myself.
If you can work such a miracle as this without even knowing
it, what miracles could you not work with me when you really
put your mind on it? Now just look at me, Sotileza: I've got no
vices; I never was afraid of work; I haven't a grudge against
a person in the world; I am accustomed to do with little; and
picking out the very best I've had in my life, it has never been
anything but pain and trouble. Seeing here, about you, some-
## p. 11320 (#540) ##########################################
11320
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
thing so entirely different, you know what a value I set on it-
and whose fault it is that I do. There's a man needed in this
house. Are you taking in what I am telling you, Sotileza? "
For that very
Sotileza was giving heed to it only too well.
reason she replied with a certain curtness:
"Yes, I am; but what of it? "
"Again? Confound it! you make me that answer again,"
cried Cleto angrily. "Or is this your way of saying no, without
saying it directly? "
"Come, Cleto," said Sotileza coldly, "I am not under obliga
tions to answer all the questions you choose to put me on such
particulars, or any others. I live quietly here in my house with-
out speaking ill of anybody. I have none but the kindest wishes
towards you, and I know your value full well; nevertheless I
have my own way of thinking and feeling, and I wish to make
no change in my life at present. "
"What have you said, Sotileza? " exclaimed Cleto in dismay.
"Oh, this is boring a big auger-hole into the hull. I am wrecked,
I am lost. "
"Don't put it in that way; it is not so bad as that.
But sup-
pose, for the sake of argument, that if, instead of the no, Cleto,
which you dread to hear, I should say the yes you ask of me,
how would you be the gainer by that? You have to steal into
this house, carefully hiding your movements from your family
over in yours, even if you come here but for an instant, just to
pass the time of day. If such is the case now, what would it be
if — if the plan you are so anxious for came to pass? "
"You've hit it, Sotileza: that's just what the other folks told
me. But is there any sense and right in such a state of things?
I didn't choose the family that I belong to. "
"Who are the other folks that told you the same thing that I
have? " now inquired Sotileza quickly, ignoring the woe-begone
lamentations of the poor young fellow.
"Father Polinar, in the first place" [the parish schoolmaster].
"Father Polinar? And who next? "
"Don Andres " [a young man of the upper class, in love with
Sotileza himself].
"And you went to-to that person, with this pretty tale?
What did he say to you, pray? "
"He abused me like a pickpocket. He left me for dead, as
you might say, when he got through with me. "
>>>
## p. 11321 (#541) ##########################################
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
11321
"Well, you see then. When was this? "
"Yesterday afternoon. "
"You deserved all you got. Why do you go to any one with
that nonsense? >>
"Great heavens! don't I keep telling you? My liking for you
choked me; I lacked courage to tell you, and I looked around
for some one else to do it for me. I shall not look any further,
now that I have got the trick of speaking up for myself. But
this is not to the point, Sotileza. "
"What is the point? "
་ Why, that because my folks across the way are a bad lot, I
should have to get the mitten from the only girl I ever loved. "
"I haven't given you the mitten, have I? ”
"Of course it amounts to that, if you shut your door against
me on account of my family over there. "
"I did not even say I was going to do that; I merely put
you the case as a supposition: now do you understand? »
"I'm afraid I do,- born to bad luck that I am.
clearly, for that is what I came to-day to find out.
afraid to speak up and say the worst. "
.
"I beg of you not to make me speak. "
"No, it will be better to speak than keep silent. See here,
Sotileza,- for this is the kind of a person I am: come now, do
you think me of too little account? Then tell me how you
would like me to be, and I shall be only too glad to become that,
cost what it may. Is there some one else who has got the
inside track with you? is that the reason? I tell you I would
be a dozen times as good a man as he, no matter who he is, if
you would take an interest in me. "
"There's a nice piece of conceit, I must say. "
"My very life is bound up in this matter, Sotileza: would
I dare to talk so, otherwise? Oh, I beseech you. The whole
thing is to have a little kindness for me in your heart, and all
the rest will follow as if upon wheels. You will only have to
say to me, 'You've got to do this or do that, or go here or go
there,' and I will jump and do it on the instant. I shall not
disturb you the least bit; a mere corner of the house will do for
me, and the farthest corner at that, even if it be worse than the
one I have now. I will eat the scraps you leave over, of what I
gain for you with my hardest daily toil, so that you may live at
leisure like a lady. I can live on just nothing at all, Sotileza; for
-
But tell me
Don't be
## p. 11322 (#542) ##########################################
11322
JOSÉ MARIA DE PEREDA
as sure as God is in heaven, what makes me fatter than anything
is to have a little order, a grain of human kindness, a scrap or
two of jolly good-nature, in the house. By the powers, how I
should enjoy that kind of thing! So now you see what I beg
of you, what I beseech of you. And you won't be offended, will
you? And you will say yes, Sotileza? I know you will; for one
cannot be allowed to beg in this way for what is impossible. "
The desperate energy of the poor youth only caused Sotileza
to smile. He persisted, but in vain, in trying to draw out a defi-
nite answer from her. His obstinacy in the end annoyed her;
and she showed it. Then Cleto, scowling with his disappointment
and wretchedness, said:-
―___
་
"Will you even admit to me that what I have said to you
does not merely go in at one ear and out at the other? "
"And you, animal, what difference does it make to you? "
snapped out Sotileza, in a nettled, offensive manner that froze
the very blood in his veins. "Who and what are you, anyway,
to bring me to book in this way? "
"Nothing, nothing; the very dust under your feet," he an-
swered with abject humility, conscious too late of the rudeness
and lack of tact he had been guilty of. "The trouble I am in
blinded me, and I spoke without thinking. Don't be put out
with me: it was only that; I swear to you by all—”
"Leave me in peace. "
"Yes, but promise not to lay up a dislike against me,"
pleaded Cleto.
"Get out of here, get away from here, for I can hardly endure
the sight of you. "
"Oh, what an unlucky wretch am I," he groaned. "And will
you never pardon me? »
"No, unless you leave here instantly. "
"Don't be too hard with me: I'm going; I'm gone. "
And with this, Cleto, heavy and woe-begone, sallied forth
from the little shop, whence he had more than half believed in
advance he should sally forth triumphant and joyful.
[Cleto makes various long voyages, returns a much more accomplished
and presentable person, without losing his kindly and upright nature; and
in course of time, Sotileza, having the good sense to feel that this is a much
better match for her than one with Andres in the higher station, marries
him. ]
Translated from the original Spanish by William Henry Bishop.
## p. 11323 (#543) ##########################################
11323
CHARLES PERRAULT
(1628-1703)
W
HERE was Red Riding-Hood born? Over what realm ruled
the parents of. Sleeping Beauty? How long since the Fairy
Godmother saved Cinderella from her hard lot? No one
knows; or whether these charming maidens and others, and clever
Little Thumb, Puss-in-Boots, "Figaro of the Nursery," and their
brothers, are French, German, Persian, Indian, or Egyptian, or from
the Northland. They have wandered over
the world winning friends. Always young
and fascinating, they live through the cen-
turies. They came into existence when
the races of men were young and simple-
minded, and they have become the delight
of unjaded child minds forever. No one
knows when they were first heard of in
France, but their stories were familiar to
the peasants long before finding literary
expression. The charcoal burners around
their forest fires, the fathers and mothers
gathered with the children beside the
hearths in wretched cabins, thrilled with
awe and delight at the myths inherited
from their ancestors; and doubtless modified by their own imagina-
tions. These were the stories first written out, and published toward
the end of the seventeenth century, by Charles Perrault.
Before considering them further, it will be interesting to know
something of the man who, after an arduous public life, turned to
fairy lore when he was over sixty, and in it won lasting fame and
child love.
CHARLES PERRAULT
Charles Perrault, the youngest of four brothers, all of whom be-
came distinguished, was born in Paris, January 12th, 1628. His father,
a barrister, taught him at home; and then sent him to the Collège
de Beauvais. He was a boy of noteworthy intelligence, and with the
most ardent desire for accurate and absolute information. He argued
and philosophized with his masters until ordered to be quiet. Then
he boldly left school, accompanied by a young disciple named Beau-
rain, and wandering in the Luxembourg Garden, the truants laid out
a plan of home education for themselves. This, strangely enough. -
## p. 11324 (#544) ##########################################
11324
CHARLES PERRAULT
for French boys usually were then as they are now, in strict sub-
servience to their elders, - they were allowed to follow. Perrault's
impatience of routine and surrender to the guidance of his own indi-
viduality lasted always, and led him to employ his versatile talents
in a great variety of ways. He studied law; then wearied of its.
minutiæ after a few years' practice, and resigned his profession. In
1657 he aided his brother Claude, the famous architect, in building a
house; and that so skillfully that in 1663 Colbert chose him to assist
Claude in superintending the royal building operations. One of his
achievements in this capacity was the design for the peristyle of
the Louvre. Witty, genial, popular, versed in art and literature, he
made himself very useful to Colbert; and at the minister's desire was
elected to the Academy in 1671. Upon that authoritative body the
practical Perrault exercised a lasting influence. He ordered all its
business affairs. He brought about election by ballot, and himself
invented and introduced a balloting machine. More than all, he sug-
gested the public receptions to new members, which have given the
Academy so strong a hold upon the nation. During these years he
constantly showed himself possessed of a modern progressive spirit,
and impatient of dead tradition. When Colbert would have reserved
the palace gardens for royal use, Perrault protested: "I am persuaded
that the gardens of kings are made so great and spacious in order
that all their children may walk in them;" at which Colbert smiled
and left them open to little Parisians.
Perrault was a true royalist, sincerely revering the court and its
customs. His practical work and his panegyrics brought royal favor
and reward. One of these panegyrics - 'Le Siècle de Louis XIV. ’-
caused the famous Battle of the Books, for his share in which Per-
rault was best known in his own day. He read this poem to the
Academy, and its extolling of the present over the past aroused the
wrath of Boileau, who attacked him furiously in behalf of the classics.
A war of epigram ensued; and in his own defense Perrault published
a long poem, tedious reading now,-'Le Parallèle des Anciens et
des Modernes. ' Here again he showed his belief that the new and
the future promised more than the past. Each side had supporters;
neither side won: but the battle raged hotly for years, and was long
continued in England.
Colbert was a crabbed, difficult master, and grew more so. And
Perrault married the lady of his own choice, not Colbert's for him,
which made trouble. So his position became irksome; and in 1683
he resigned. After 1686 he devoted himself to authorship; and wrote
a versified history, short poems, and religious works.
He was glad to exchange public intrigue for simple home life;
"glad to train his children and turn from what was artificial to what
## p. 11325 (#545) ##########################################
CHARLES PERRAULT
11325
was vital and genuine. " In 1691 he published anonymously the first
of his famous tales. This was 'La Marquise de Salusses, ou La Pa-
tience de Grisilidis,'—our Patient Griselda. The plot, borrowed from
Boccaccio, he treated in verse less able than his prose, and suggestive
of an imitation of La Fontaine. Les Souhaits Ridicules' (The Fool-
ish Wishes), and 'Peau d'Âne' (The Donkey's Skin), were also written
first in verse.
Perrault may have heard his children telling the old stories that
he himself had heard in childhood; and his mind, wearied of subtlety,
may have found them freshly interesting and beautiful. His 'Contes
de ma Mère l'Oye,' the tales of genial Mother Goose, were first pub-
lished as a collection in 1697. They had already appeared singly,
and in 1694 three of them had been included in the 'Miscellany of
Mostjen, a bookseller of The Hague.
The Contes de ma Mère l'Oye' were published in the name of
Perrault's young son, Perrault d'Armancour, as though written by the
child; and this has greatly confused the critics. The charm of the
stories is their vivid style. The straightforward telling, the choice
of detail, the graphic coloring, the general simplicity of tone, suggest
a child's rendering. But interspersed are witty phrases, often paren-
thetical, mature reflections, and touches of amiable irony, for which
Perrault himself is surely responsible. Each story terminates with an
odd little moral in rhyme, usually omitted from the English versions.
The French mind has always been in sympathy with fairies; not
boisterous tricksy elves like those of Briton and Germany, but deft
little ladies who love to aid unfortunate human protégés. They are
rarely malevolent like the slighted eighth fairy of Sleeping Beauty's
christening. The element of the grotesque and fascinatingly horri-
ble is usually supplied by ogres and ogresses, direct descendants of
the cannibals told about by early voyagers. Like all folk-lore, these
early French tales abound in clever beasts, such as Puss-in-Boots.
To primitive receptivity of heart and mind, it is no more wonderful
that a cat should talk than that it should purr. Inexperience believes
in fairies as readily as in men; hence the delightful matter-of-course
tone in Perrault's enchanted world. The humor is usually a simple
burlesque, as in The Foolish Wishes,' when the black pudding sticks
to the man's nose.
Perrault's stories made refreshing appeal to the courtiers and fine
ladies at magnificent Louis's court. They welcomed them in the spirit
which led them to throw aside silks and velvets, and masquerade as
shepherds and shepherdesses.
Since then many generations of scholars have studied Perrault's
text, finding their successive clues back to shadowy antiquity. For
most of the tales they have discovered fanciful interpretations, based
## p. 11326 (#546) ##########################################
11326
CHARLES PERRAULT
upon recollections of mythology. These may or may not be legiti
mate. Sleeping Beauty may have been winter, and the Prince re-
awakening spring; but children love the story for itself, not for the
metaphor.
'Bluebeard' probably has a more recent origin than the others.
He may have been suggested by mediæval Gilles de Retz, notorious
for cruel murders of children, which he expiated by being publicly
burned. Or he may have been Cormorus, a Breton prince, reputed a
wife-murderer. At any rate, he is firmly established as the fiercest
of nursery bogies.
Perrault's stories have grown in popularity for two hundred years.
England, Germany, and other nations soon took possession of them.
They have been endlessly retold; changed, colored to suit the taste
of the nations which adopted them. But Perrault's brilliant touch is
discernible under all the modifications; and to him directly, we owe
much of our best-loved fairy literature.
-
LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD
ON
NCE upon a time there lived in a certain village a little
country girl, the prettiest creature was ever seen. Her
mother was excessively fond of her; and her grandmother
doted on her still more. This good woman got made for her a
little red riding-hood; which became the girl so extremely well
that everybody called her Little Red Riding-Hood.
One day her mother, having made some custards, said to
her:
"Go, my dear, and see how thy grandmamma does, for I hear
she has been very ill; carry her a custard, and this little pot of
butter. "
Little Red Riding-Hood set out immediately to go to her
grandmother, who lived in another village.
As she was going through the wood, she met with Gaffer
Wolf, who had a very great mind to eat her up, but he durst
not, because of some fagot-makers hard by in the forest. He
asked her whither she was going. The poor child, who did not
know that it was dangerous to stay and hear a wolf talk, said to
him:-
"I am going to see my grandmamma, and carry her a custard
and a little pot of butter from my mamma. "
"Does she live far off? " said the Wolf.
## p. 11327 (#547) ##########################################
CHARLES PERRAULT
11327
I'll go
"Oh! ay," answered Little Red Riding-Hood: "it is beyond
that mill you see there, at the first house in the village. "
«< Well," said the Wolf, "and I'll go and see her too.
this way and go you that, and we shall see who will be there
soonest. "
The Wolf began to run as fast as he could, taking the near-
est way; and the little girl went by that farthest about, diverting
herself in gathering nuts, running after butterflies, and making
nosegays of such little flowers as she met with. The Wolf was
not long before he got to the old woman's house. He knocked
at the door- tap, tap.
"Who's there? "
"Your grandchild, Little Red Riding-Hood,” replied the Wolf,
counterfeiting her voice; "who has brought you a custard and a
little pot of butter sent you by mamma. "
The good grandmother, who was in bed, because she was
somewhat ill, cried out:
-
"Pull the bobbin, and the latch will go up. "
The Wolf pulled the bobbin, and the door opened; and then
presently he fell upon the good woman and ate her up in a
moment, for it was above three days that he had not touched a
bit.
