back up the trail, riding bareback on one of their burros. About nine o’clock in the morning Elio listens for the sound of the conch shell. “Oooo!” it goes, “Oooo!” It tells the children in Elio’s village that it is time to come to school. The children have no clocks, and neither does the schoolteacher. After the sun has been up about the right time, the teacher blows the shell, and in a few minutes school begins. The children sit up straight on their benches, hold ing their books high, and read; every body shouts the lesson at once. That way shows the teacher who is work ing and who isn’t. The teacher watches the sun, and when it is straight over head, casting a short shadow, it is time for the children to go home for lunch. After they have eaten, the teacher blows the conch shell again, and the children come back to study a while longer. Elio is very happy to go to school, and is proud that he has learned to
Elio's neighbors build a thatehed-roof house.
E LIO was walking along the path through the coffee bushes. All at once he stopped whistling black beetle, something like a June bug. Very carefully he placed it in his shirt pocket. Then he went on about his errand, all the time guard ing the beetle in his pocket. When he got home again, he proud ly showed it to his mother. She stopped raking the coffee, and went with Elio to the shade of a large bush where he put the beetle on the ground. There they watched it crawl around on its thin black legs. Its body was shiny and black and sleek. The neighbor children crowded around in admiration. When Elio put the beetle on Maria’s bare foot, she squealed and backed away from the circle. Elio was very pleased for he loves to tease his friends. Elio is a Mazateco Indian boy, who lives in a little village down in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. His father earns his living by selling the coffee he raises. Ever since he was tiny, Elio has helped. Sometimes he helps to pick the red cranberry-like berries. The picking is just a small part of the work that is done in the raising of coffee. The coffee must be thoroughly dried before the outside part can be pounded off, and the seed left clean, ready for roasting. Early OCTOBER, 1946
in the morning, Elio often' helps his mother to spread the coffee berries out in the sun to dry, and in the afternoon he helps to rake them up and get them into the house -again. Many of Elio’s neighbors work for his father. As the sun is just coming up they go out to pick the coffee berries. About two hours before the sun sets, they come in again with heavy loads on their backs. Elio’s father measures the coffee in a used five-gallon kerosene can, and then each person is paid about ten cents for each can-full he has picked. While the people are waiting for the coffee to be measured, Elio some times plays the Victrola for them. He may play a march, or some hymns with Spanish words, or he may play the records that talk the Mazateco language. These records tell how the Lord Jesus loves us, and that He died instead of us, to pay for our sins. One of the records tells about Heaven and how beautiful it is. When the Mazateco records play, most of the people sit very quiet, listening. Elio’s father owns three burros. Every morning and evening Elio takes them down to the brook for water. As he goes he is very apt to whistle, “Jesus Loves Me,” or “Love Lifted Me.” Other boys take their burros to the same brook. The boys like to race
and pounced. He caught a great big
One of the other Mazateco boys. 19
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