Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/135

Rh fruit, and dried meat, and garden tools, hung upon the brown walls of the cottage.

In a little while the old man rose up, and without observing me, turned himself round and began to lay together his bed-clothes, very little of which however the bed possessed. He folded up sheets and coverlid, and finally rolled up a small, closely woven and handsome mat, which served as a mattress. When he had laid them aside very carefully, he again seated himself on his little bedstead, which was merely a few boards, and gazed again sleepily at the fire. Presently, however, he looked up, and became aware of me. He gave me a friendly look, as if in salutation, and said, “Cafe!” but I did not know whether he invited me to take coffee with him, or asked for some from me. The cat and the chicken seemed to smell breakfast, and began to move, and as I supposed that the breakfast hour might be at hand and the breakfast over the fire, I bade the old man, the cat, and the chicken, “''Buon dios! Retornero!''” and leaving them to understand that as they might, I proceeded onward around the little plantation.

I found in the banana grove two little brushwood cottages, in each of which there dwelt a large pig, which was just now enjoying its breakfast of large banana leaves. Swine are the principal wealth of the negro-husbandman, and even of the plantation-slaves. They are fattened without difficulty on banana leaves and the fruits of the earth, and are sold when fat for about fifteen dollars each. Beyond the fruit-tree and swine-grove lay a field in which maize and some kind of root were cultivated, but very indifferently. A negro man and woman were here at work, but the work was evidently ad libitum. We greeted one another, and made an attempt to converse, but it ended in laughter. They burst into peals of laughter at my words, and at my want of understanding, and I laughed at their capital hearty laughter, really