which the young mulatto was to live with the mistress to whom she was
so devotedly attached. Minha was a trifle sorrowful, but the joyous
Lina was quite unaffected at leaving Iquitos. Minha Valdez would be
the same to her as Minha Garral, and to check her spirits she would
have to be separated from her mistress, and that was never thought
of.
Benito had actively assisted his father in the work, which was on the
point of completion. He commenced his apprenticeship to the trade of
a fazender, which would probably one day become his own, as he was
about to do that of a merchant on their descent of the river.
As for Manoel, he divided his time between the house, where Yaquita
and her daughter were as busy as possible, and the clearing, to which
Benito fetched him rather oftener than he thought convenient, and on
the whole the division was very unequal, as may well be imagined.
CHAPTER VII
FOLLOWING A LIANA
IT WAS a Sunday, the 26th of May, and the young people had made up
their minds to take a holiday. The weather was splendid, the heat
being tempered by the refreshing breezes which blew from off the
Cordilleras, and everything invited them out for an excursion into
the country.
Benito and Manoel had offered to accompany Minha through the thick
woods which bordered the right bank of the Amazon opposite the
fazenda.
It was, in a manner, a farewell visit to the charming environs of
Iquitos. The young men went equipped for the chase, but as sportsmen
who had no intention of going far from their companions in pursuit of
any game. Manoel could be trusted for that, and the girls–for Lina
could not leave her mistress-went prepared for a walk, an excursion
of two or three leagues being not too long to frighten them.
Neither Joam Garral nor Yaquita had time to go with them. For one
reason the plan of the jangada was not yet complete, and it was
necessary that its construction should not be interrupted for a day,
and another was that Yaquita and Cybele, well seconded as they were
by the domestics of the fazenda, had not an hour to lose.
Minha had accepted the offer with much pleasure, and so, after
breakfast on the day we speak of, at about eleven o’clock, the two
young men and the two girls met on the bank at the angle where the
two streams joined. One of the blacks went with them. They all
embarked in one of the ubas used in the service of the farm, and
after having passed between the islands of Iquitos and Parianta, they
reached the right bank of the Amazon.
They landed at a clump of superb tree-ferns, which were crowned, at a
height of some thirty feet with a sort of halo made of the dainty
branches of green velvet and the delicate lacework of the drooping
fronds.
“Well, Manoel,” said Minha, “it is for me to do the honors of the
forest; you are only a stranger in these regions of the Upper Amazon.
We are at home here, and you must allow me to do my duty, as mistress
of the house.”
“Dearest Minha,” replied the young man, “you will be none the less
mistress of your house in our town of Belem than at the fazenda of
Iquitos, and there as here—-”
“Now, then,” interrupted Benito, “you did not come here to exchange
loving speeches, I imagine. Just forget for a few hours that you are
engaged.”
“Not for an hour–not for an instant!” said Manoel.
“Perhaps you will if Minha orders you?”
“Minha will not order me.”
“Who knows?” said Lina, laughing.
“Lina is right,” answered Minha, who held out her hand to Manoel.
“Try to forget! Forget! my brother requires it. All is broken off! As
long as this walk lasts we are not engaged: I am no more than the
sister of Benito! You are only my friend!”
“To be sure,” said Benito.
“Bravo! bravo! there are only strangers here,” said the young
mulatto, clapping her hands.
“Strangers who see each other for the first time,” added the girl;