HKB
He was silent for a moment, and the horse curveted gracefully under him, as if in doubt whether to gallop away again, or to ask his rider to get off.
"Well!" said Ned, with a pull on the rein. "It seems like a long, wonderful dream since I saw General Zuroaga ride away from us at the cross-roads. What a skirmish that was! Then we made our way through the mountains, and came here, and hasn't it been a curious kind of life ever since? I've learned how to ride like a Mexican. I've seen all there is to see for miles and miles around this place. I've seen lots of old ruins, all that's left of ancient houses and temples and altars. I believe the senora likes nothing better than to tell me yarns about the Montezuma times and about her ancestors in Spain. That's a great country. I think I'll go over there, some day, and see Granada and the Alhambra and the old castles and the Spanish people. I like the Mexicans first-rate, all that I have seen of them. They will be a splendid nation one of these days, but they're awfully ignorant now. Why, every one in these parts believes that our army is all the while being whipped all to pieces by theirs, and I can't exactly swallow that. I'd like to know just what is really going on. I'm all in the dark."
"Senor Carfora!" called out a clear, ringing voice.
He turned in the saddle, from seeming to gaze at the distant forest, and there, in the piazza which ran all along the front of the house, stood Senorita Felicia, her usually pale face flushed with excitement.
"We have a letter from father!" she shouted. "He has completed his regiment, and he is to command it. President Paredes is going north, to drive the gringos out of Mexico, and father may have to go with him. He says it is time for us to move to the city of Mexico. We are to live with my aunt, Mercedes Paez, and you are to come with us. Is it not grand?"
"It is just what I was wishing for!" exclaimed Ned. "I'd give almost anything to see that city, after what your mother has told me."
"Oh," said Felicia, "she was born there, and she'll make you see all there is of it. But we were all ready, you know, and we are to set out early to-morrow morning."
"Hurrah!" responded Ned. "But I'd like to hear from General Zuroaga. I wish I knew whether or not he was much hurt in that fight in the road."
"Father does not believe he was," said Felicia. "Sometimes I almost think he knows all about it. But there are some things he won't speak of, and General Zuroaga is one of them."