The streets rang with his cheerful voice as he trudged after his
donkey, singing forth the usual summer note that resounds through
the Spanish towns: "Quien quiere agua- agua mas fria que la nieve?"-
"Who wants water- water colder than snow? Who wants water from the
well of the Alhambra, cold as ice and clear as crystal?" When he
served a customer with a sparkling glass, it was always with a
pleasant word that caused a smile; and if, perchance, it was a
comely dame or dimpling damsel, it was always with a sly leer and a
compliment to her beauty that was irresistible. Thus Peregil the
Gallego was noted throughout all Granada for being one of the
civilest, pleasantest, and happiest of mortals.
Yet it is not he who sings loudest and jokes most that has the
lightest heart. Under all this air of merriment, honest Peregil had
his cares and troubles. He had a large family of ragged children to
support, who were hungry and clamorous as a nest of young swallows,
and beset him with their outcries for food whenever he came home of an
evening. He had a helpmate, too, who was any thing but a help to
him. She had been a village beauty before marriage, noted for her
skill at dancing the bolero and rattling the castanets; and she
still retained her early propensities, spending the hard earnings of
honest Peregil in frippery, and laying the very donkey under
requisition for junketing parties into the country on Sundays, and
saints' days, and those innumerable holidays which are rather more
numerous in Spain than the days of the week.
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