Chapter 9 Summary

Each of the characters wakes the next morning reflecting on dreams and trying to envision the day. Harriet is still disoriented. She has never been so close to an actual battle scene and she is remembering the old gringo's question about whether or not she looked at herself in the mirrors in the ballroom of the hacienda.

General Arroyo leads his men out to look for the Federales. The women and children and some of the oldest men have remained behind. Harriet has gotten everyone busy cleaning up the debris from the fire. She gathers the women and children in the ballroom to begin teaching them, using her limited Spanish. When he returns, General Arroyo is very upset to find what Harriet has done. He had been determined to burn the hacienda down as a humiliation to the owners. He finds them in...