AMERICA FIRST
Little Riego Yañez was a native of Mexico – of that unhappy part of Mexico which is constantly plundered by revolutionary bands who spend their time in fighting, and who win their supplies by robbing the more stable people of the republic.
Riego's father, Antonio Yañez, had suffered many times at the hands of the revolutionists. He was a saddler by trade, and also a small farmer, so the products of his industry were just what the warring bandits needed. But the warring bandits did not pay for what they needed. They merely took, and rode away!
So Antonio decided on a desperate step – he would emigrate to America.
But Riego's mother objected to removing to America. Mexico was rife with hatred and distrust of the "gringos," and many and dark were the stories told of the country north of the Great North River. Besides, Riego's elder brother, Pascual, an unruly lad of fifteen, was very bitterly opposed to the change.
So it was at length decided that Antonio should dare alone the dangers and hardships of America. If all was as the revolutionists said, he could escape back to Chihuahua. If, by happy chance, he should prosper in the new country, he would send for wife and children.
A year passed. The father's letters – few and short, for he had had little schooling – were chiefly concerned with begging them to come and see for themselves.
Then, one never-to-be-forgotten day, the mother and children packed into a hired wagon the tragic little which the bandits had left them, and set their faces toward the Rio Grande. They, too, were bound for that distrusted country which lay north of the northern edge of their world. The mother and the two girls were hopeful, but Pascual was silent and Riego afraid.
Not till the night came down did they reach the dark river which was to flow forever between the old life and the new. To little ten-year-old Riego this all-pervading darkness meant "America," for to his drowsy brain and anxious heart the black clouds above and the darkly rolling waters below seemed to typify the spirit of the land into which he was crossing.
Another moment, however, and he had given up the struggle to think it all out and fallen asleep with his head on his mother's lap.
The next morning Riego waked up in a better land.
He sat up on his cot and blinked his black eyes and stared about him at the cosey little room. A flood of light poured in at the one tiny window – Then the sun did shine in this land of the gringos!
This was very interesting. Riego hurried into his clothes and started out to see America.
His route of exploration led through a cheery kitchen, where he found his two sisters busy cooking breakfast, and smiling and chatting at their work. But Riego had no time to stop and question, for the green things in the little garden beyond were beckoning to him.
In another minute he was out among them. It was very green – this "America" – very green and very sunny, with rows upon rows of the most wonderful vegetables running out to meet the morning sun!
Soon Riego glimpsed his father and mother beyond a dividing fence at the side, and he ran at once to his father's arms. After the first long embrace Riego drew back, the better to see the father who had dared America alone for his children's sake.
Why – his brow was smoother than Riego remembered! – his eyes clearer! – Did one grow younger, happier, in America?
And now Riego's mother was calling his attention to the snow-white chickens which fluttered about them. There was a cow, too, Riego learned – a cow and a pony and pigs and pigeons – and all theirs!
Riego shouted for joy. But the next moment the joy died upon his lips, and he asked:
"The revolutionists, father? How long will they let us have these?"
"Riego," said his father, "there are no revolutionists in America. Here, if a man works, he receives a just reward, and he is allowed to keep in peace what he earns. Our only danger is from across the border."
Then Riego's mother told him that his father had a fine saddle-shop which the Americans never raided.
It was all very, very wonderful! – A man was paid well for working, and could keep in peace what he earned! – Was this what was meant by "America"?
Riego's father's saddle-shop was the front room of their little dwelling, and opened immediately upon a small street in the Mexican quarter of the village. It was a very interesting place, indeed, for the wide door and the hospitable bench just inside invited in many an entertaining visitor, besides the men who came to buy saddles or to have their harness repaired.
One of these visitors, Alonzo Lorente, was particularly interesting to Riego and his brother, though their father always became moodily quiet when the man came. Lorente was a big, dashing fellow, full of strange oaths and of dark insinuations. And somehow, whenever he entered, the air of the shop became electric with an indefinable excitement.
It did not take Riego long to see that, at such times, his father managed to keep him and Pascual so busy that they missed most of their hero's inspiriting talk. Riego was particularly unfortunate in this respect. He spent little of his time in the shop where his father and Pascual plied the saddler's trade, for it was his duty to help in the market-garden.
This deprivation of Lorente's society, however, had its compensations. It was Riego's especial work to peddle their vegetables at the khaki tents of the gringo soldiers a few miles away, and this was very entertaining and exciting in itself, for the soldiers were jolly and kind and said nice things to one.
And then, one rainy Saturday afternoon, when the peddling was all done, Riego sat in his father's shop and listened to Alonzo Lorente. And Alonzo Lorente startled him awake with the news that all was not well with the land of America. He spoke darkly of "gringos" and of "vengeance."
Pascual, Riego noticed, crept closer and closer to the big man, till his fingers forgot the leather they should have been stretching.
It was then that the unexpected happened. The father, usually so quiet and so busy, suddenly rose from his work-bench and came forward.
"Lorente," he said, and Pascual and Riego started at the iron in his tone, "Lorente, it is not the busy men who have quarrel with America. It is those who have time to do – much talking!"
There was a pause and dead silence, and then Lorente the magnificent turned on his heel with a growl and left the shop.
Then Antonio returned to his work-bench, with Riego following, but Pascual stole to the door and gazed at the receding Lorente till his father called him sharply to his duties.
One day the father did not open his shop at all. It was closed in honor of the great American festival, Riego heard him explain grimly to a follower of Lorente, who questioned. And Riego heard the follower of Lorente laugh scornfully as he strode away.
There being no work that day, Pascual and Riego set out together to explore the yet farther reaches of America.
But they had not gone far past the square where loomed the several American stores when they sighted a crowd in a grove of big trees, and heard voices shouting and hands clapping as if in great joy. A number of gringo soldiers were roving about. Two were coming leisurely toward them across the green.
Riego wanted to press forward to see and hear, but his brother jerked him by the sleeve, exclaiming:
"It is the Americans' great feast-day, the Fourth of July. Come away!"
"But father says we are Americans now. Why can't we go and hear what they are saying?" Riego's voice had risen in his eagerness.
The approaching soldiers stopped and looked at him, and Riego's heart stopped, too.
But the taller of the soldiers saluted him in fine fashion, and addressed to him words of courteous welcome:
"Don Pedro de Alvarado-Rain-in-the-Face-Sitting-Bull, for such as thou art is the picnic! Welcome to our city!"
Riego understood the gesture of invitation. He thanked the courtly soldier, and walked proudly forward, followed by his brother.
It was a gay scene, but quiet now, for someone was speaking. The starry banner of America fluttered everywhere, and smiling, white-faced señoritas and brown-clad soldiers were gathered here and there in listening groups. Under a tree, near the platform, sat musicians with shining silver horns and a big drum. A number of children were seated on the grass in front of the stand. Among them, Riego noticed, were many dark faces like his own.
Suddenly Riego's courage gave way and he started to retreat. But a sweet-faced señora took him by the hand and led him and Pascual to a place where they could see everything, whispering as they went:
"It is our day of freedom."
At first the boy was dazed by the strangeness of the scene, and his interest shifted. But the sound of a sweet, ringing voice soon compelled his attention and he turned quickly toward the platform.
Riego caught his breath. Who was it? What was it that was speaking to him?
In the centre of the platform stood a clear-eyed, white-faced goddess, with the flag of the new country draped around her slender form, and the sunlight of this day of freedom beating down upon her shining head. She was speaking, but in the difficult new tongue.
Riego could not take his eyes away, but he reached out his hand quickly to touch Pascual.
The sweet-faced señora leaned over him.
"America," she whispered in explanation.
America! Beautiful America! Riego crept forward, unconscious now of the crowd around. Oh, to understand America!
Then a strange thing happened. The beautiful goddess suddenly ceased speaking, and her face became clouded with thought. Her eyes were focussed on the eager boy who had crept forward and was standing spellbound before her – the most conspicuous of the group of dark-faced, bewildered children.
Riego did not know that everybody in that audience had suddenly leaned forward in dead silence.
After one tense moment the Beautiful One advanced to the edge of the platform and descended the steps till she stood almost among them.
And now this strange, new, better country was speaking to Riego in his own tongue!
"You didn't understand me, did you?" she asked in Spanish.
"Not then, my lady! – but now!" It was Riego who answered her, but the other dark faces were alight like his own now. The crowd was leaning forward again.
"Ah, that is all the trouble!" said the Beautiful One. "Our new people simply do not understand America! Do you wish me to tell you the story in Spanish?"
There were many who answered this time.
Then she told them in their own tongue of the great struggle for a new freedom and a new peace which had been waged upon this soil over a hundred years before. And the breathless children heard how this new ideal of freedom had passed all bounds of the country in which it was born, and thrilled all lands. They heard how the noble La Fayette of France, Steuben of Prussia, and Kosciuszko of Poland each had offered his all that America might be forever a refuge for the oppressed. They learned how the German De Kalb had laid down his life at Camden for the new faith, and how Count Pulaski had poured out the last drop of his Polish blood to make the world's great dream of freedom "come true."
Then the Beautiful One told the children how, throughout the more than one hundred years since the fight was won, the footsore and oppressed of many lands have found in America work and a just reward for working, the freedom to do anything which does not harm another, and the great gift of peace!
"And now," exclaimed the speaker, "which of you will promise with me to be loyal to America? Stand up!"
And they stood up – the dark children, the white-faced señoritas, the gringo soldiers, and all! – and repeated after the Beautiful One:
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands,
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
When Riego turned from the inspiring scene it was to see his brother Pascual walking away, and in close conversation with Alonzo Lorente.
*****
The days passed, but Riego still treasured in his heart his first vision of America. He knew now that the Beautiful One was only a charming señorita and daughter of the big captain who commanded at the American camp. But he liked to think of her as "America" – the beneficent goddess who had smoothed the furrows from his father's brow and crowned his faithful labors with reward.
And then, one momentous day, the Beautiful One stood in the shop-door, asking in Spanish if she might be allowed to enter. She was all in white this time – snow-white. To Riego's fond imagination she was still a shining goddess.
Riego's father welcomed the señorita and dusted the bench that she might sit and rest, for Riego had told him of the great American festival, and Antonio had learned much besides.
The señorita had come to speak to the father about his sons – and her smiling glance included both the sullen Pascual and Riego, who stood worshipfully by.
It seemed that the señorita – Miss Flora Arden was her name – was to teach a class of "newly made Americans," and again her glance included the boys. She wanted to teach them to speak the English language and to help them to a better understanding of America. The señorita believed that most of the trouble which the newly made Americans encountered was due to the fact that they did not know how to find and use the good gifts which their new country had to offer. And she was certain that most of the trouble they gave was because they brought old prejudices with them, and so did not open their hearts to America.
Riego understood the spirit of her proposal better than he did the words of her correct Spanish. His father listened throughout with thoughtful, grave attention.
There were no charges to be made for this teaching? Then what was the señorita to gain for so much effort?
"I?" said the señorita – she was standing now, ready to depart – "I gain a better country! My father is a soldier and serves his country by helping to keep the peace along this troubled border. If I had been a son I might have done as much. But I am only a daughter, Antonio! And yet" – and she put her arm over Riego's shoulders as she spoke – "if I help to make loyal even one of America's adopted sons, am not I, too, serving my country?"
The father's rare smile assented to her offer, even before his lips made the promise.
Riego followed the Beautiful One to the door.
Outside, Alonzo Lorente slouched against a lamp-post. The señorita looked into Lorente's face and recoiled slightly. Riego saw the recoil, and an unnamed fear suddenly laid its hand upon his heart.
*****
Pascual and Riego went to Miss Arden's class – Pascual sullen and uninterested, Riego breathlessly eager. But they had not attended many times – indeed, had just begun to glimpse something of the bigness and goodness of their new country – when the stroke fell that was to change their little world. The good father dropped at his work-bench, speechless and bewildered. The American doctor said he would be able to work again, but that his mind would never be quite the same.
Their wise father thus reduced to childishness, and their mother ignorant of the new conditions and the new tongue, the boys were left to plan for themselves.
Pascual left Miss Arden's class. He explained that he would now have to take charge of his father's shop; but he found time to make many trips across the dark Rio Grande and to talk much with Lorente, who now resumed his old practice of dropping in at the shop to chat. His younger brother, however, continued under the señorita's instruction.
Riego learned at Miss Arden's class that "freedom" gives one the right to do as he wishes only in so far as he does not wish to interfere with the rights of another.
"There is no 'freedom' except in loyal obedience to law," she told him one day. "America is a 'free' country because – though here are gathered people from all lands – they join together in making laws which are kind and impartial to all, and they stand together in support of the laws they make."
"But, señorita, Alonzo Lorente says – " began the boy, and stopped short.
"What does Alonzo Lorente say?" the señorita asked quickly.
"I – I promised not to tell," stammered the child.
There was the blue truth of heaven in the señorita's eyes as she looked into his own, and answered: "Riego, it is more than dishonest in Lorente to accept the blessings which America affords him and not be true to her. It is worse than traitorous in him to help spoil the peace of the country which is his refuge from oppression. If Alonzo Lorente likes the old way better than the new, he should go back to the old country. If he honestly wishes to change what he finds here, and thinks he can better things, he has one man's just share in deciding, for he is a naturalized citizen and can vote on any question. But Alonzo Lorente should speak out openly or else keep silent!"
Before Riego left that afternoon Miss Arden had him repeat with her:
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands,
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
But little Riego did not dream in how short a time would his loyalty to his new country be tested. One afternoon – his father was still lying unconscious – Riego was tending the shop alone, for Pascual had crossed the Rio Grande in the early morning and had not yet returned.
It was a dull, dull afternoon, for no patrons came, and the visitors merely glanced in and passed on. It was hot and still, so the sleepy Riego decided to rest. He found a cool spot behind a pile of boxes, and lay down and closed his eyes.
*****
When Riego opened his eyes again it was with a start. There were voices – smothered voices – some men were in the shop! Riego lay still and listened.
"We will attack the gringo camp to-night – just before dawn," a smothered voice was saying. "Alva has three hundred men and more. They can easily surprise and destroy these eighty Americans, and so can seize their horses and ammunition."
"But the patrol?" It was Pascual's voice that whispered the question. Riego's heart turned sick. He recognized the voice of Lorente in the terrifying reply:
"Pacheco and a picked few will knife the patrol at the ford, then Alva's men will cross, and approach the camp up the ravine."
"To-morrow morning?" Pascual's voice asked.
"Yes, just before dawn."
There were approaching steps on the street.
A customer entered. Riego heard Lorente departing – heard the customer inquire the price of a saddle, and go out.
It must be done now– now while Pascual was alone, and he could speak to him! The next moment Riego stood before his brother.
"I heard you!" he cried. "Pascual, they must not!"
But Pascual laid a fierce hand upon his breast and pinned him to the wall.
It was a terrible scene – that which followed – terrible in the tense quiet of its enactment – terrible in its outcome!
With Riego pinned against the wall where he needs must listen, Pascual poured forth such a torrent of abuse, of falsehood, against the "gringos" that at length the old hate blood leapt in the younger boy's veins and went beating through his brain.
The gringos were their enemies —enemies! The men who were coming down upon them with the dawn were of their own blood, of their native country! What if the invaders were "revolutionists"? Were they not Mexican? Talk of "loyalty" – one must be loyal to one's own!
When Pascual loosed his grip upon the slight form it was after he had stirred to the very dregs all that was passionate, all that was ignorant and prejudiced and violent, in the boy's nature.