The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER X 61
A few months after the finding of the old Spaniard's body there appeared a youth, apparently a Spanish
mestizo, who said that he was the son of the deceased. He established himself in the place and devoted his
attention to agriculture, especially the raising of indigo. Don Saturnino was a silent young man with a violent
disposition, even cruel at times, yet he was energetic and industrious. He surrounded the grave of his father
with a wall, but visited it only at rare intervals. When he was along in years, he married a young woman from
Manila, and she became the mother of Don Rafael, the father of Crisostomo. From his youth Don Rafael was
a favorite with the country people. The agricultural methods introduced and encouraged by his father spread
rapidly, new settlers poured in, the Chinese came, and the settlement became a village with a native priest.
Later the village grew into a town, the priest died, and Fray Damaso came.
All this time the tomb and the land around it remained unmolested. Sometimes a crowd of boys armed with
clubs and stones would become bold enough to wander into the place to gather guavas, papayas, lomboy, and
other fruits, but it frequently happened that when their sport was at its height, or while they gazed in awed
silence at the rotting piece of rope which still swung from the branch, stones would fall, coming from they
knew not where. Then with cries of "The old man! The old man!" they would throw away fruit and clubs,
jump from the trees, and hurry between the rocks and through the thickets; nor would they stop running until
they were well out of the wood, some pale and breathless, others weeping, and only a few laughing.