Rico went into the room, seated himself on a bench, and did not stir.

 

He sat there for at least a half-hour. Presently he heard the cousin moving about in the kitchen. Then he thought that he would go up very softly, and peep into the bedroom. Perhaps his father would like something to eat: it was long past the meal-time.

 

He slipped behind the stove, mounted the little steps, and went very softly into the bedroom. After a while he returned, went at once into the kitchen, approached quite close to his cousin, and said softly,—

 

"Cousin, come up."

 

The woman was about to strike him angrily, when she happened to glance at his face. He was perfectly³ colorless,—cheeks and lips as white as a sheet, and his eyes looked so black that the cousin was almost afraid of him.

 

"What is the matter with you?" she asked hastily, and followed him almost involuntarily.

 

He mounted the little steps softly, and entered the chamber⁴. His father lay on the bed with staring, wide-open eyes,—he was dead.

 

"Oh, my God!" screamed the cousin, and ran crying out of the door that opened upon the passage on the other side of the room, went down the staircase, and across into the opposite house, where she called out to tell the neighbor and the grandmother the sad news; and thence she ran on to the teacher and to the mayor.

 

One after another they came, and entered the quiet room until it was full of people; for the news spread from one to another of what had taken place. And in the midst of all the tumult⁵, and of all the clamor of the crowd of neighbors, Rico stood by the bedside speechless, motionless, and gazed at his father. All through the week the house was filled with people who wished to look at the man, and hear from the cousin how it had all happened; so that the lad heard it repeated over and over, that his father had been at work down in St.

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