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"Every stalk of cane growing there is one of my wife's bones." He then took his father's old ax and with it on his shoulder continued his sullen rounds. Every time he left the house Tandang Selo and Juli trembled for his life. The latter would get up from her loom, go to the window, pray, make vows to the saints, and recite novenas.
They mustn't try to interpret the meaning of the laws and the books, they're so tricky and pettifogish! Just as soon as they learn Castilian they become enemies of God and of Spain. Just read the Tandang Basio Macunat that's a book! It tells truths like this!" And he held up his clenched fists. Padre Sibyla rubbed his hand over his tonsure in sign of impatience.
Thinking to rescue Juli, she made her read and re-read the book called Tandang Basio Macunat, charging her always to go and see the curate in the convento, as did the heroine, who is so praised by the author, a friar. Meanwhile, the friars had gained their point.
However, the administrator of the religious order left to them, for humanity's sake, the usufruct of the land on condition that they pay a small sum annually a mere bagatelle, twenty or thirty pesos. Besides, Tandang Selo said to him, "Patience! You would spend more in one year of litigation than in ten years of paying what the white padres demand. And perhaps they'll pay you back in masses!
Tandang Selo saw all his friends pass and thought sadly that this year he had no Christmas gift for anybody, while his granddaughter had gone without hers, without wishing him a merry Christinas. Was it delicacy on Juli's part or pure forgetfulness? When he tried to greet the relatives who called on him, bringing their children, he found to his great surprise that he could not articulate a word.
Sister Bali's advice was accepted and she herself volunteered to interview the town clerk. Juli gave her four reales and added some strips of jerked venison her grand-father had got, for Tandang Selo had again devoted himself to hunting. But the town clerk could do nothing the prisoner was in Manila, and his power did not extend that far.
He did not believe in the advice of the curates, laughed at Tandang Basio Macunat, had plenty of money and good clothes, yet he went to school reluctantly and looked with repugnance on his books.
At eight o'clock in the evening it was rumored that more than seven friars, proceeding from neighboring towns, were assembled in the convento to hold a conference. On the following day, Tandang Selo disappeared forever from the village, carrying with him his hunting-spear. L'Espagne et sa, vertu, l'Espagne et sa grandeur Tout s'en va! Victor Hugo
Tandang Selo got up, sat down, went outside, came back again, knowing not where to go, where to seek aid. Juli appealed to her images, counted and recounted her money, but her two hundred pesos did not increase or multiply.
In order to avoid any quarrel with the curate or the government, he settled from his own pocket the shortages in the tax-lists, paying for those who had died or moved away, and he lost considerable time in making the collections and on his trips to the capital. "Patience! Pretend that the cayman's relatives have joined him," advised Tandang Selo, smiling placidly.
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