The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home
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CHAPTER XVII 83<br />
<strong>The</strong> son's questioning gaze pained Sisa's heart, for she understood it only too well, so she added hastily: "He<br />
came and asked a lot about you and wanted to see you, and he was very hungry. He said that if you continued<br />
to be so good he would come back to stay with us."<br />
An exclamation of disgust from Basilio's contracted lips interrupted her. "Son!" she reproached him.<br />
"Forgive me, mother," he answered seriously. "But aren't we three better off--you, Crispin, and I? You're<br />
crying--I haven't said anything."<br />
Sisa sighed and asked, "Aren't you going to eat? <strong>The</strong>n let's go to sleep, for it's now very late." She then closed<br />
up the hut and covered the few coals with ashes so that the fire would not die out entirely, just as a man does<br />
with his inner feelings; he covers them with the ashes of his life, which he calls indifference, so that they may<br />
not be deadened <strong>by</strong> daily contact with his fellows.<br />
Basilio murmured his prayers and lay down near his mother, who was upon her knees praying. He felt hot and<br />
cold, he tried to close his eyes as he thought of his little brother who that night had expected to sleep in his<br />
mother's lap and who now was probably trembling with terror and weeping in some dark corner of the<br />
convento. His ears were again pierced with those cries he had heard in the church tower. But wearied nature<br />
soon began to confuse his ideas and the veil of sleep descended upon his eyes.<br />
He saw a bedroom where two dim tapers burned. <strong>The</strong> curate, with a rattan whip in his hand, was listening<br />
gloomily to something that the senior sacristan was telling him in a strange tongue with horrible gestures.<br />
Crispin quailed and turned his tearful eyes in every direction as if seeking some one or some hiding-place.<br />
<strong>The</strong> curate turned toward him and called to him irritably, the rattan whistled. <strong>The</strong> child ran to hide himself<br />
behind the sacristan, who caught and held him, thus exposing him to the curate's fury. <strong>The</strong> unfortunate boy<br />
fought, kicked, screamed, threw himself on the floor and rolled about. He picked himself up, ran, slipped, fell,<br />
and parried the blows with his hands, which, wounded, he hid quickly, all the time shrieking with pain.<br />
Basilio saw him twist himself, strike the floor with his head, he saw and heard the rattan whistle. In<br />
desperation his little brother rose. Mad with pain he threw himself upon his tormentor and bit him on the<br />
hand. <strong>The</strong> curate gave a cry and dropped the rattan--the sacristan caught up a heavy cane and struck the boy a<br />
blow on the head so that he fell stunned--the curate, seeing him down, trampled him with his feet. But the<br />
child no longer defended himself nor did he cry out; he rolled along the floor, a lifeless mass that left a damp<br />
track. [60]<br />
Sisa's voice brought him back to reality. "What's the matter? Why are you crying?"<br />
"I dreamed--O God!" exclaimed Basilio, sitting up, covered with perspiration. "It was a dream! Tell me,<br />
mother, that it was only a dream! Only a dream!"<br />
"What did you dream?"<br />
<strong>The</strong> boy did not answer, but sat drying his tears and wiping away the perspiration. <strong>The</strong> hut was in total<br />
darkness.<br />
"A dream, a dream!" repeated Basilio in subdued tones.<br />
"Tell me what you dreamed. I can't sleep," said his mother when he lay down again.<br />
"Well," he said in a low voice, "I dreamed that we had gone to glean the rice-stalks--in a field where there<br />
were many flowers--the women had baskets full of rice-stalks the men too had baskets full of rice-stalks--and<br />
the children too--I don't remember any more, mother, I don't remember the rest."