“My son Manuel came with me. You saw the colt?”

“I did.”

“We have brought it for Michael’s oldest.”

“Mordecai will be pleased.”

“The colt is not much in return for the many favors you Lewises have done for me and mine. When your boy is a bit older, I shall bring him a colt also, for the good American milk cow you brought me last fall.”

“The cow was a gift.”

“So is this colt, and the next one.”

Petra came to the door. Her large eyes, almost black, took pleasure in the friendship between her husband and this former soldier, retired now to a quiet life as a farmer and livestock raiser at Bexar.

Manuel, eleven, seemed to have grown half a foot taller since Andrew had seen him in Bexar the previous fall. He was a handsome youth, thin, dark-skinned like his father, his eyes large and brown and full of life. He had the look of the outdoorsman about him, though Andrew knew his mother made him attend the church school and brooked no excuses that might let him stay out where he would rather be, with the cattle and horses. Manuel stood up quickly as his father and Andrew entered the room. He bowed slightly, with the good manners of his people, then shook Andrew’s hand with a vigor he had learned from his association with americano frontiersmen like the Lewises.

This Manuel Zaragosa was going to grow up into a considerable man, Andrew thought. He shared the pride of his friend Elizandro.

Little Ben had already made friends with Manuel. Rose, barely two and shy around strangers, remained in a corner. She watched Manuel with misgivings.

Zaragosa said, “A wonderful family you have, Andrew.”

Andrew hugged Petra and smiled. “We may not be through yet.”

She blushed, which made him wonder. She was not pregnant so far as he knew, though no one could accuse him of not trying. She said, “You have worked enough for the day, Andrew. Take time now for a visit with our friend.”

Andrew nodded. The same thought had come to him.

When all the questions had been asked about Zaragosa’s family in Bexar, his wife Elvira, and the children younger than Manuel, he said, “I left the ox in the field. Would you like to come with me, Elizandro, while I bring him up and turn him loose?”

Elizandro nodded and glanced toward his son. Manuel said, “Papa, I will stay and play with Benjamin.”

Walking away, Andrew looked back to see the two boys on the dog-run, where Ben was petting his pup. Manuel was making a show of admiring the awkward little animal that had a hard time moving around without falling over its own feet.

Andrew said, “That’s a fine boy you have, Elizandro. Is he going to be a soldier like you were?”

Zaragosa vigorously shook his head. “No, I came to hate the life of a soldier. I have no wish to see Manuel be a soldier, ever. Better that he become a good farmer and feed people instead of killing them.”