Don Pedro wasn’t used to using a lantern or a watch; he trusted blindly in the early morning crowing of the rooster, in his instinct and in the position of the moon according to the phase of its rotation around the earth.

 That morning he had agreed with Abelardo Gaviria to go and see some cows to buy them: he would earn some good pesos if he managed to get them very cheaply. He had thought, before going to bed, that if he arrived at milking time he would be able to know which cows were tame and milky, that was the move: waking up at Abelardo's farm, with which he could select the best and then offer them to customers who needed them for milk; he could guarantee them as tame and milky, and leave the buyer satisfied.

He got up with the first crowing of the rooster, prepared coffee and looked for his horse to harness it and leave quickly. He drank his coffee, lit an oil lamp, got on and set off. He had to ride about five hundred (500) meters, cross the creek and, through the plain, ride another five hundred (500) meters until he reached the gate that gives access to the road. “I am carrying my lamp, which I will turn off when I get to the road.” 

But it didn't happen that way. He did not find the gate and began to ride up and down by the edge of the fence, “I cannot believe this happens to me. It was God's will or fate. 

Every cloud has a silver lining.” 

Resigned, he returned, tied up the horse and got into his narrow bed without knowing what time it was, but he slept peacefully. He had been mistaken about the crowing of the rooster and the position of the waning moon.

Dawn broke and he started his journey again.

“Hello, Don Pedro," shouted Gonzalo Figueroa from his ranch. 

“May I have a word?” He approached and shook his hand to greet him. 

He looked nervous.

“What's the matter, Gonzalo?” – “Don Pedro, we are worried because last night, at about twelve o'clock, we saw a light running along the fence from top to bottom and from bottom to top. Whoever it was, after half an hour, went home. That worried us.” 

Don Pedro was quick to say: “nobody came over there.” 

Then it was the souls in purgatory," said Gonzalo. 

Don Pedro said goodbye because he needed to get to Abelardo's place soon. 

Gonzalo was pensive. But he would always tell this story, emphasizing that the souls of the dead protected Don Pedro.

After riding for the remaining distance, he arrived at Abelardo Gaviria’s, who was waiting for him with the cattle in the pen, “Hello, Don Pedro!, come and have a coffee.
 

I am going to sell you some cows very cheap so that you can make some pesos, when you sell them you’ll pay me.” 

Don Pedro thought, “what’s meant for you will be yours: this man is going to help me; that light of mine dazzled me, but this man had his own light to give me: his kindness.” 

And so it was. Don Pedro bought the cows and took them to his farm.

My light dazzled me, but friendship with people enlightens me, it’s worth having friends. 

Now there's the matter of the souls late at night, but they'll never know that was me. I won't give them the pleasure of knowing.”

Days, months and years went by and, thanks to Gonzalo's story, that event is still remembered, but with the certainty that some spirits passed through that place on a certain date, to protect that kind and lonely man, whose last name is not remembered but who traded cows and horses.

(*)Nepomuceno Vásquez-Celis is a retired High School Professor from Latin America, with a Degree in Philosophy from the “Universidad Nacional” from Bogotá, Colombia. He taught generations of students from Middle and High Schools across the country of Colombia, in South American, and after a long and meritorious career, retired to his native Province of  Santander, where “Los Andes” Mountain Chain dies down and stretches itself into the State of Táchira and Zulia in the neighboring Republic of Venezuela.