Jose: Our Little Portuguese CousinSawyer, Edith A. (Edith Augusta)
General
Jose: Our Little Portuguese Cousin
Sawyer, Edith A. (Edith Augusta)
Children -- Portugal -- Juvenile literature
The five students were very comfortable on the vine-covered porch
this warm August afternoon, so they stayed a little longer, and told
Jose more about Coimbra,--how the city was, after Guimarães, made the
capital of Portugal, and how, as the Christian kings, beginning with
Affonso Henriquez, drove the Moors farther and farther south, until,
after Coimbra, the more southern city of Lisbon was made the capital.
The students shook Jose's hand and clapped him on the back as they
started to go on with their journey. "Some day I hope you will visit
Coimbra," one of them said.
"_Graçias, senhor_," Jose answered very politely. "Some day I will go
there, but not yet, for I am only a little boy."
"You have seen and learned more than most boys of your age in Portugal.
I believe you will some day come to study at Coimbra," the leader of
the students said.
"_Á deus, à deus_, boy; come to Coimbra some day," the students cried
as they went off; a jolly, laughing group in their black coats.
Through the summer, talk of public reforms, of railroad strikes, of
riots and unrest, reached the Almaida farm. It made the father think
with a half regret of the old days of quiet. It made Antonio long for
the time when the young republic of Portugal would have passed through
these first months of change and become settled.
But none of this talk disturbed Jose. He was the happiest boy in all
Portugal. His father was nearly well. His big brother was going to stay
in Portugal. His mother grew brighter of face every day. Joanna was
soon to marry a young village carpenter. Malfada and Jose himself could
go to school again in the autumn. Little Tareja in a few years would
also be able to go. And every day Antonio told Jose stories about the
great world outside of Portugal.
Antonio valued education more than ever, since his four years of life
in America. He knew that it was too late for him to go to school again,
because of his age and because of the need for him to work on the farm.
But he talked with Jose of the future when, if the boy turned out to
be good at studies, he might go to the University at Coimbra. And it
happened in the years afterward, that Jose did go to Coimbra, and that
the leader of the students who had stopped at the Almaida farm for brôa
and fruits on the August afternoon, was then a teacher at Coimbra.
Of the money brought from America Antonio had spent hardly any except
that for farm tools and implements. The rest of the money, a good round
sum for a young Portuguese farmer, was in the bank at Guimarães. Once a
month, now, Antonio added a few dollars to this--not half nor quarter
as much as he might have had in America, but although a man earns less
in Portugal, living costs less there.
With this money, and with what he would add to it in the future,
Antonio planned to pay for Jose's education, and some time soon it
would make him able to build near his father's, a new home where he
could bring Inez Castillo as his bride.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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