Chapter I: Front Matter

Our Little Porto Rican Cousin

The Little Cousin Series

Each volume illustrated with six or more full-page plates
in tint. Cloth, 12mo, with decorative cover,
per volume, 60 cents.

=LIST OF TITLES=

BY MARY HAZELTON WADE (unless otherwise indicated).

=Our Little African Cousin=
=Our Little Armenian Cousin=
=Our Little Brown Cousin=
=Our Little Canadian Cousin=
By Elizabeth R. Macdonald
=Our Little Chinese Cousin=
By Isaac Taylor Headland
=Our Little Cuban Cousin=
=Our Little Dutch Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little English Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Eskimo Cousin=
=Our Little French Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little German Cousin=
=Our Little Hawaiian Cousin=
=Our Little Indian Cousin=
=Our Little Irish Cousin=
=Our Little Italian Cousin=
=Our Little Japanese Cousin=
=Our Little Jewish Cousin=
=Our Little Korean Cousin=
By H. Lee M. Pike
=Our Little Mexican Cousin=
By Edward C. Butler
=Our Little Norwegian Cousin=
=Our Little Panama Cousin=
By H. Lee M. Pike
=Our Little Philippine Cousin=
=Our Little Porto Rican Cousin=
=Our Little Russian Cousin=
=Our Little Scotch Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Siamese Cousin=
=Our Little Swiss Cousin=
=Our Little Turkish Cousin=

(_In Preparation_)

=Our Little Spanish Cousin=
=Our Little Swedish Cousin=

L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
New England Building, Boston, Mass.

Our Little Porto Rican Cousin

By
Mary Hazelton Wade

_Illustrated by_
L. J. Bridgman

Boston
L. C. Page & Company
Publishers

_Copyright, 1902_
BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY

(INCORPORATED)

_All rights reserved_

Published, June, 1902

Fifth Impression, March, 1906

Colonial Press
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co.
Boston, Mass., U. S. A.

Preface

THE beautiful island of Porto Rico lies, as you will see by looking at the map, near that great open doorway to North America and the United States which we call the Gulf of Mexico. Very near it looks, does it not?

So the little cousin with whom we are going to become acquainted to-day is our near neighbour as well. To be sure, a schoolboy or girl from Massachusetts would have to travel a thousand miles or so to see his Porto Rican cousin; and even a child from Florida could not say good morning to his Porto Rican neighbour unless he were to take a sail of several hundred miles.

However, we, who are used to taking little excursions over the world (between the covers of a book), so that we may learn to know our tiny Eskimo cousins who live near the icy pole, and our little African cousins south of the equator, as well as our Japanese cousins on the other side of the globe, think nothing of the distance between here and Porto Rico. We should expect to feel very much at home after we arrived there, especially now that Porto Rico has become part of our own country.

We shall find our Porto Rican cousins and neighbours, with their dark skins, black hair, and soft black eyes, somewhat different in appearance, indeed, from ourselves; and we shall not be able to understand what they say unless we have learned the Spanish language; for, as we know, the parents or forefathers of our Porto Rican cousins came from Spain to Porto Rico, just as the parents and forefathers of most of us who speak English came from England.

However, these are slight differences; and the Spanish people, from whom our black-eyed Porto Rican cousin is descended, belong to the same branch of the great human family as we do, who are descended, most of us, from English people. That is, the Spanish people and their descendants, the Porto Ricans, belong to the white race. Manuel is thus a nearer relative than the little black cousin, who belongs to the negro race; or the little Japanese cousin, who belongs to the yellow or Mongolian race; or the little Indian cousin, who belongs to the red race; or the little Malayan cousin, who belongs to the brown race. So we shall welcome the Porto Rican neighbours near our doorway into our nation's family. They were already our cousins by descent; they have become our adopted brothers in our nation.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE
I. MANUEL 9
II. DOLORES 15
III. LESSONS 21
IV. THROUGH THE WOODS 28
V. THE COFFEE-TREE 35
VI. SONGS AND STORIES 40
VII. A CRUEL SPORT 50
VIII. EARLY TIMES 56
IX. THE CARIBS 63
X. A SEASIDE PICNIC 68
XI. THE WONDERFUL CAVE 78
XII. THE HURRICANE 87
XIII. THE NEW BABY 93
XIV. THE CITY 98

List of Illustrations

PAGE
MANUEL _Frontispiece_
"A FOUNTAIN IS PLAYING IN THE CENTRE OF THE PAVED YARD" 12
DOLORES 17
"THE HOMES OF THE WORKMEN" 40
"ONE IS QUITE LARGE, AND IS FORMED IN THE SHAPE OF A FAN" 73
A STREET IN SAN JUAN 101

Our Little Porto Rican Cousin