"What's the matter?
Why are you crying ?" "I dreamed--O God!" exclaimed Basilio, sitting up, covered with perspiration.

"It was a dream! Tell me, mother, that it was only a dream! Only a dream!" "What did you dream ?" The boy did not answer, but sat drying his tears and wiping away the perspiration.

The hut was in total darkness.
"A dream, a dream!" repeated Basilio in subdued tones.
"Tell me what you dreamed.

I can't sleep," said his mother when he lay down again.
"Well," he said in a low voice, "I dreamed that we had gone to glean the rice-stalks--in a field where there were many flowers--the women had baskets full of rice-stalks the men too had baskets full of rice-stalks--and the children too--I don't remember any more, mother, I don't remember the rest." Sisa had no faith in dreams, so she did not insist.
"Mother, I've thought of a plan tonight," said Basilio after a few moments' silence.
"What is your plan ?" she asked.

Sisa was humble in everything, even with her own sons, trusting their judgment more than her own.
"I don't want to be a sacristan any longer." "What ?" "Listen, mother, to what I've been thinking about.