"As long as you have to keep your yard clean you might as well plant something useful in it, so that you will get a good return for your labour." "That is a good idea. Is there anything more?" "Yes. You must take up a piece of the beautiful prairie land near town, build a fence around it to keep out the wild hogs and deer, and plant it with rice, camotes or something else that will give your family plenty of food and if possible leave a surplus to sell, so that you can buy better clothes with the money you make." "But I cannot break this thick prairie sod." "The ground will be ploughed for you the first time. After that you must look after it yourself." "Is that all?" "No. There is one additional very important thing. I am getting old and fat, [61] and I can no longer scramble around over these hills as I used to do. I want to come and see you every year, and find out how you are getting on. You will have to help build good trails for my big horse, working ten days every year, or paying two pesos, so that some one else can be hired to work in your place. Everything else that I have told you must be done, if you come to town, is for your benefit, not for mine, and even the trails are only partly for my benefit. You will find it easy and safe to travel over them, and when you want to go to market, your carabao will be able to pack three or four times as much as he can now carry over bad paths." "Will I gain any other advantages by living in town?" "Yes, two very important ones. You and your family will be safe from attack, and you will have a chance to send your children to school." "Must I come and live in town if I do not want to?" "By no means. If you prefer to live up a tree in the mountains, no one will interfere with you so long as you behave yourself. There are plenty of mountains and plenty of trees." As a result of the simple arguments above outlined and of the protection and help given them, nearly all of the Bukidnon people have left the mountain fastnesses through which they have until recently been scattered, and are voluntarily taking up their residences in towns which in their way are models. Could the Filipinos keep them in the towns where we have settled them? No; and they would not if they could. They would chase them back into the forests as they were doing when we made them stop it. Furthermore, they could not if they would. In September, 1912, I heard the people of eastern Bukidnon tell Governor Reyes of Misamis that if their territory were put back into his province, they would take to the hills and live with the Manobos. One of the most important factors in winning and retaining the good will of the non-Christian peoples has been the extension to them of protection from the impositions of their Filipino neighbours. The following is a fair sample of the sort of thing to which they have in the past been subjected.