SUMMARY
Dry Valley Johnson was a shepherd and had lived in the
country all his life. Then, when he was 35 (or 38), he decided he wanted to change
his life and live gently as a villager, so he moved to Santa Clara, a small
town, and bought a house there.
Dry Valley, although he wasn’t old, was regarded as an
old bachelor who had no interest in women; he even avoided their presence.
However, according to the school mistress, he was handsome enough.
Short after settling in his new abode, someone gave a strawberry
to taste, and, as he found the fruit astonishing, he decided to dedicate all his
time and his energy to grow this plant in his garden. He prepared the ground
and bought a lot of books about strawberry farming.
His garden had a picked fence around, but his
neighbours were a family with a lot of children, and so possible poachers. In
order to protect better his crops, he brought a long, strong whip to drive away any
predator. He exercised with the weapon until he got a fine aim.
One day, when he was away from home, the children
raided his garden and ate as many strawberries as they could. When he was back
and saw the attack, he took his powerful whip and chased the invaders away. All
of them but Panchita flew away; she was a beautiful girl of nineteen with brilliant
thick black hair. Instead of running away, she kept her post and looked
defiantly with a strawberry between her white teeth at Dry Valley and scorned
to move, even knowing he had hit the mark with her brothers.
Dry Valley got paralysed with love. He didn’t know the feeling and was stupefied.
That vision made him change his lifestyle; now he
bought the most fashionable clothes in town and an elegant and modern carriage.
Afterwards, he went to his neighbours to ask a date with Panchita. Panchita
said yes, and the large family were delighted with the prospect of marrying one
of their children. And in order to make himself agreeable to the girl, Dry
Valley tried to behave as a younger man.
But one day, after sprucing himself up, when he was at
the door of Panchita’s to pick her up, he saw her disguised as himself making
fun of him for her brothers, who were having a great time with the mockery. Suddenly,
Dry Valley saw he had made a fool of himself pretending to be young and fashionable.
He went back home, changed to his old country clothes, gave his new clothes to
his cook and tried to forget all about Panchita.
The girl, seeing that her suitor didn’t come for her,
went to see if something had happened to him, because all the time he had been punctual.
But when Dry Valley saw Panchita, threw her out of his house, saying he
regretted being caught by his infatuation and telling her keeping off him.
However, that evening, someone got through his fence
and trespassed on his garden. The man was on the watch and took his sharp cracking
whip…
QUESTIONS
-Do you know any very curious recipe (or remedy) taken
from a magazine or told you by some old people?
-Why do you think that a “bachelor with a hobby” could be an encumbering (or “earthcumbering”) thing?
-“Someone gave him his first strawberry to eat, and he
was done for.” This sentence carries a biblical sense. Have you experienced something
that has changed your life forever?
-What do you know about the song “Strawberry Fields Forever”,
by John Lennon?
-Have you ever “seen yourself in a mirror”, in the sense of our story?
-Would you give, as Faust, your soul (or something less valuable) to recover your youth? What would you give?
VOCABULARY
nux vomica, bay rum, range, cot, cross strains, morning
glory, gourd vines, drove, fleet, mesquite thicket, weathered, hectic,
jay-bird, desecrated, iver (=quiver), macaw, charter, trotter, damper, revelry,
lawn, locoed, motley