A White Umbrella In Mexico Author:Francis Hopkinson Smith Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: sight of me not only my host, but all his guests, rose to their feet and welcomed me heartily, crowding about the chair against which I propped... more » the picture. Then a door in the rear of the breakfast- room opened, and the senora and her two pretty daughters glided in for a peep at the work of the morning, declaring in one breath that it was very wonderful that so many colors could be put together in so short a time; that I must be muy fatigado, and that they would serve coffee for my refreshment at once. This to a tramp, remember, discoveredon a doorstep but a few hours before, with designs on the hallway! This done I must see the garden and the parrots in the swinging cages and the miniature Chihuahua dogs, and last I must ascend the flight of brick steps leading to the roof and see the view from the tip-top of the house. It was when leaning over the projecting iron rail of this lookout, with the city below me and the range of hills above dotted with mining shafts, that I made bold to ask my host a direct question. " Senor, it is easy for you to see what my life is and how I fill it. Tell me, what manner of man are you ? " " Con gusto, set/or. I am tin minero. The shaft you see to the right is the entrance to my silver mine. I am un agricul- tor. Behind yon mountain lies my hacienda, and I am un bienhechor (a benefactor). The long white building you see to the left is the hospital which I built and gave to the poor of my town." When I bade good-by to my miner, benefactor, and friend, I called a sad-facedIndian boy who had watched me intently while at work, and who waited patiently until I reappeared. To him I consigned my " trap," with the exception of my umbrella staff, which serves me as a cane, and together we lost ourselves in the crowded ...« less