Free (1/3) Go Saddle the Sea by Joan Aiken

I have a curiosity to see other lands."
    "And how do you plan to get there?" inquired Don José.
    "I shall go to the coast; I have heard that from the port of Villa Viciosa many ships sail to England at this season carrying cargoes of filberts; my intention is to take a passage on one of these ships."
    "But how will you pay for your passage?"
    "I have a little money saved; and shall hope to earn more. I can sing quite well; I shall sing in the streets; or work, and run errands for people."
    Don José looked thoughtful at this, and said that since the French wars people were not very free with their cash.
    "Oh, well, I can make wooden tops, and toys, and pipes for children to play on."
    I had learned these arts from the shepherd who taught me to fish; it was he who had shown me how to make the bull-roarer that had scared off the assassins.
    "Can you make pipes?" cried Nieves, delighted. "Oh, make me one, if you please! I should like to play on a pipe that you had made."
    I promised that I would do so when we reached the mill. Meanwhile, discovering that she dearly loved any kind of song or music, I cudgeled my brain to remember all Bernie's songs:
    "
Este pobre niño, no tiene cuna, su papa es carpulero, he hara una...
" and others of the kind. She joined in, José did likewise, and between us we made so much noise that ravens and wild hawks flew shrieking from their rocky perches, and at length José said we had better desist, or we might start an avalanche rolling down the mountain. This was indeed a most dismal and craggy region through which we were passing, with black rock, steep as the side of a church, on every side, and scarcely a tuft of green to be seen.
    How Don José managed to travel that fearsome path at night, on his own, pulling the handcart behind him, with Nieves on it, inert as a corpse, I shall never comprehend. That was the real miracle! But he said that, when he was a young man, he had lived much in the mountains, before taking to the mill business.
    At last we came to a gentler country, of wide grassy mountain valleys, with many waterfalls like white plumes above us on the hillsides; then, always
descending, we made our way through a great pine forest, and at last came out of the trees into a wide, gracious vale, where the grass was of the brightest possible green, the fields still had maize growing in them, the trees were palms, or apple trees still laden with fruit, and beautiful blue flowers grew by the sides of the road, or climbed to the eaves of the houses. These were thatched; and often stood on stone legs, entered by ladders; I wondered if this was for defense against wolves, but Don José said no, more from the damp. Now we were within ten or twelve leagues of the Western Ocean, where the air, blowing inland, is so heavy with moisture that the ground becomes like a sponge. Much rain falls; and even the oxen here wear great caps of fur, gaily decorated.
    Dusk was falling by the time we reached a small village at the foot of a ravine which entered the valley halfway down its length.
    "Now I wish to get down and walk!" exclaimed Nieves. "I would like everybody to see that your journey was worthwhile, dear father!" and she was so insistent that at last he agreed to let her walk slowly up the village street, while he took one of her arms, I took the other, and the cart rode on the mule's back.
    It was a mild, misty evening, with a great moon rising, and several people were out strolling up and down the village street. News of our coming spread like a stubble fire:
    "Look,
look!
As I'm a living woman, it's the miller's Nieves, walking on her own two legs!"
    "Hey! Here comes Don José with his daughter—walking just like any girl! And a strange boy!"
    "The miller has come back with his girl and she's
cured
! And they have a boy with them whose hair is yellow as barley straw!
He
can't be from Cobenna!"
    People came running and exclaiming and clapping their hands, embracing both Don José and his