Library of Congress

A Child of Sorrow Library of Congress

Those who already awaited the coming of vacation days with keen anticipation could undoubtedly better understand and imagine what delights Lucio had in entertaining the thought of spending his vacation with his friend out in the province, just as soon as he had received his sheepskin diploma from the Provincial High School, and laid up his dust-covered books on the shelves in order to resume the happy role of youthful life. In one of the rural and sequestered plains of Central Luzon, called the Fertile Valley, where 'the rice fields yielded the cup of joy to the industrious farmers, and where the harvest filled aplenty the' barns of the poor, there lived simple, homely people, free from' the rush and stir of city life. It was during one Friday morning in the month of April when the sam-paguita began to open its buds to receive the soothing dew of the starry evening hour, which diffused fragrance and sweetness all around; it was when the duma-de-noche, that charming and most fragrant native flower, profusely embalmed the atmosphere at the magic touch of the night which gave it perfume and life, -it was in such springtime, merry and blithesome, when we found Lucio at home and his friend, Camilo, who, before the closing of school days; invited him to take his vacation at their town and then, to their Hacienda. Lucio and Camilo were school chums, members of a recently graduated High School class. Lay those worm-eaten tomes of romance and history, and come with me, and we will gleefully spend our vacation time in the bosom of the fields, and there could you realize real life and be in close touch with human nature," nonchalantly said Camilo, smiling and looking him straight into his eyes as if wishing to convince him