Christmas Under Three Flags

Long years ago, while the Mexican standard still waved over the Alamo, San Antonio de Bexar, the most flourishing Catholic Mission east of the Rio Grande, rejoiced in an Alcalde as famous for wisdom and virtue as for piety and goodness. Successful in his public enterprises, he was equally fortunate in his private relations, having a beautiful wife, an inviting home, and a brood of stalwart sons. That they had no daughter was much regretted by both, Donna Inez saying: "Boys serve to perpetuate the name and uphold the family honor, but it is the girls who, lifting the domestic burden from the mothers' shoulders, and cheering, comforting the fathers, bless and brighten home," and, when in answer to repeated _Novenas_ of prayer and votive offerings, a daughter was born to them, they, naming her Maria Jesusa Pepita, gratefully dedicated her to the Virgin. Growing in beauty and grace and developing many lovable traits, Jesusa more than fulfilled parental hopes. Humoring, petting her father, preparing his _pulque_, filling his pipe, she became his daily companion and the idol of his heart.

Don Pedro's office, adjoining the Alamo, then garrisoned by Mexican troops ordered to report to him and serve him when needed, was really the High Court of Justice where the Mission officials met to consider public matters, whether civil, religious or military. His home, the most spacious and pretentious at the Mission, was a one-story, flat-roof _adobe_ structure, with about fifteen chambers separated by quaint halls, corridors and alcoves, and stood back of the Alamo amid extensive grounds, which, irrigated by a large _acequia_, teemed with rare, beautiful flowers, with orange, lemon and citron trees, with vine-covered bowers and arcades almost hidden beneath clusters of luscious grapes. Some curious animals roamed in these beautiful grounds, and among those specially petted and cared for by Jesusa were Chihuahua dogs, tricky and playful; Maltese cats, soft-eyed fawns, white rabbits, and a canary bird which, as it tuned up when the matin and vesper bells rang, was supposed to be under the Virgin's protection. Though an earnest defender of the faith, Don Pedro was a devotee of those sports -- cock fighting, bull fighting, card playing -- patronized by his associates. He had a cock pit in his yard for the rearing and training of game cocks, where their mettle was often tried Sunday afternoons, and on his Salado ranch, where, in spite of frequent Indian raids, his family spent much time, he had a breed of superior bulls imported from Spain.