The appreciation which these gifts evoked
intoxicated the little man and roused him to a very madness of
generosity. He pattered away and returned shortly, staggering and
grunting under the weight of another and a still greater offering.
It was a dog--a patient, hungry dog with very little hair. The
animal was alive with fleas--it scratched absent-mindedly with one
hind paw, even while Juanito strangled it against his naked
breast--but it was the apple of its owner's eye, and when Inez
unfeelingly banished it from the house Juanito began to squall
lustily. Nor could he be conciliated until Alaire took him upon
her knee and told him about another boy, of precisely his own age
and size, who planted a magic bean in his mother's dooryard, which
grew up and up until it reached clear to the sky, where a giant
lived. Juanito Garcia had never heard the like. He was spellbound
with delight; he held his breath in ecstasy; only his toes moved,
and they wriggled like ten fat, brown tadpoles.
In the midst of this recital Garcia senior appeared in the door
with a warning.
"Conceal yourselves," he said, quickly. "Some of our neighbors are
coming this way.
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