For three or four days Ned toiled in the hot field with Benito and the boys and at night he slept on the floor of earth.

The work was hard and it made his body sore.

The food was of the roughest, but these things were trifles compared with the gift of freedom which he had received.

How glorious it was to breathe the fresh air and to have only the sky for a roof and the horizon for walls! Benito and the older boy again took the bergantin loaded with vegetables up La Viga to the city.

They did not suggest that Ned go with them.