After a run in the garden, the _ayo_, or preceptor, called to take
him to school. Fernando skipped happily away to study until twelve
o'clock, when dinner was served to the day boarders, a dinner of soup,
vegetables, and dessert, with a little playtime afterward. Spanish boys
do not take tea or coffee until they are grown up. At half-past four
the boys are turned out of school, and then comes the delight of the
day to Fernando. His _ayo_ has disappeared, and in his stead has come
Manuel, his own man, who tells such delightful stories of knights and
warriors and the glories of Spain, and who thinks that all his little
master does is perfect. Manuel knows all about the city, and he is
willing to take Fernando any place he wishes to go, provided it is a
fit place for a boy of rank. He knows just where the marionettes are
playing, and if there is a gay crowd on the square, a trained bear or
a funny little monkey, he will be sure to have heard about it, and
take Fernando to see it. If there is no special excitement, Manuel
takes him to the _paseo_, where all the boys of the town gather. Here
they play in mimic battles and bull-fights, and Fernando enters into
everything with delight, until Manuel thinks it is time for the señora,
his mother, to pass by in the carriage. How delighted the little boy is
to see her, and how his tongue rattles as he tells her all the events
of the day, as he rides home with her through the long soft twilight
of the soft Spanish night! How good his supper tastes, a simple little
supper of chocolate, rich and dark, white bread and golden honey, with
some little iced cakes, which dear old Dolores, the cook, has made for
the little master. All the servants love Fernando dearly, for though he
has a hot temper, and sometimes is very wilful, he is so loving that
they do not mind his naughtiness. After supper Fernando says the rosary
with his _aya_, goes over his lessons a little, and then tumbles into
bed in a happy slumber.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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