I.

Title of the story – How my Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife

II. Author: Manuel E. Arguilla
III. Vocabulary
 Cud – food that cattle bring back from the stomach into the mouth and chew again.
 Labang never stopped chewing his cud.
 Forelock – lock of hair just above the forehead.
 He ran his fingers through its forelock.
 Pondered – think over.
 I pondered the matter quantity to myself
 Bolted – Run away
 I climbed into the cart over the wheel and Labang would have bolted.
 Sunk – below the level of surrounding
 The sun had sunk down from the woods.
 Surmise – conjecture
 I surmised she must be eating with rest of her family.
 Jerkily – sudden sharp movement or pull.
 The lantern rocked jerkily with the wind.

IV. Characters and their roles

 Maria – Wife of Leon
 Baldo – brother of Leon
 Usong and Celin – Twins

V. Setting
 Nabnegcan

VI. Conflict
I did not say anything more because I did not know what to make of the tone of her voiceas
she said her last voice. All the laughter seemed to have gone out of her. I waited for my brother
Leon to say something, but he was not saying anything. Suddenly he broke out into song and the
song was SkySow with the stars that he and Father sang when we cut hay in the fields at night
before he went away to study. He must have taught he the sing because she joined him and her
voice flowed into is like gentle stream meeting a stronger one. And eacaht ime the wheels are
countered a big rock, her voice would catch in her throat, but mt brother Leon would Sing on,
until, laughing softly she would join him again.

VII. Climax
I stopped Labang on the road before our house and would have gotten down but my brother
Leon took rope and told me to stay in the cart. He turned Labang into the camachille tree but
my brother Leon reined in labang in time. There was light down stairs in the kitchen and mother
stood in the doorway and I could see her smiling skyly. My borther Leon was helping Maria over
the wheel. The first word that fell from his lips agter he had kissed mother hand were:
VIII. Resolution
IX. Summary of the story
She stepped down from the coretels of Celin with a quick, delicate grace. She was tall she
looked up to my brother with a smile and her forehead was on a level with his mouth. She
hesitated and I saw that her eyes were on long, curving horns. But she came and touched
Labang’s forehead with her long fingers, and Labang never stopped chewing his cud except that
his big eyes helped closed. And by and by she was scratching his forehead very delight. My
brother Leon put down the twins on the grassy side of the road. He paid Celin twice the usual fair
from the station to the edge of Nagnebcan. Then he was standing beside us, and she turned to
him eagerly. I watched Celin where he stood in front of his house, and he ran his fingers through
its forelock and could not keep jis eyes away from her. He did not say moving. He did not say
Mayang, I knew then that he had always called her Maria and that to us all she would be Maria,
and in my mind and said Maria it was a beautiful name. I pondered the matter quietly to myself
thinking father might not like it. Nut it was only the men if my brother Leon said bacjward and it
sounded much better that way. The was on our eyes for it was dipping into the bright sea. The sky
was bright and deep and sky is blue above eyes. But along the saw tooth him of the ketage. Her
hills to the southwest flamed huge mess of clouds. Before us the fields swam in a golden haze
through which flouted bug purple and red and yellow bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun.
Labang’s white coat, which I had wished and bounded that morning with coconut husk, glistened
like beated cotton under the lenglight and his horns appeared tipped with fire. I climbed into the
cart over the wheel and Labang would have bolted for he was always like that but I kept a firm
hold on his rope. He was restless and would not stand still so that my brother Leon to say Labang
several times. When he was quiet again my brother Leon lifted the turks into the cast placing the
smaller on top. She looked down once at her high heeled shoes, the she gave her left hand to my
brother Leon, place a foot in the hub of the wheel in one she had up into the cast. But Labang was
fairly dreing with impation and ot was all I could do to keep him from running away. I looked back
and they were sitting side leaning against the trunk. Seemingly but a man’s height above the toys
to step back of the wait, long that stars. But in the deep gorge the shadows had fallen heavily and
over the white Labang’s coat was merely a dim, greyish blur. Heated earth on hinged with the
clean, sharp to the night air of the day inside in the sky. Now the shadows took fright and did not
crowd so near. Clumps of andadasu and arraic flashed into view and quickly disappeared as we
passed by. Ahead the elongated shadow of Labang bubbled up and down swayed drunkly from
side to side for the lantern rocked fochily with the cart. We come to the house of Lacay Julion and
I spoke to Labang loudly but moning did not come to the windows so I surmised she must be
eating with the rest of the family. And I thought of the food being ready at home and my mouth
watered. We met the twins usong and Celin and I said : Celin them by name. And they shouted
back and asked my brother Leon and his wife was with me. And my brother Leon shouted to them
and then told me Labang. Their answers were lost in the cart of the wheel. I did not hear anything
more because I had to go back to the cart to unhitch Labang. But I hardly him under the bush
when I hear father was calling me. I met my brother Leon going to bring up the trunks. As I passed
through the kitchen there were mother and my suck aurilia and Maria and it seemed to me ther
were crying, all of them. There was no light in fathers room. There was no movement. He sit in big
aare malain by the western window, and star shone directly through it. He was smoking, but he
removed the smell of tobacco from his mouth when he saw me. He laid it carefully on the window
before speaking. He was silent again. I could hear the low voices of mother and my sister Aurelia
downstairs. There was also the voice of my brother Leon and I thought that fathers voice must
have been like. I when father was young. He had laid the roll of tobacco on the window rail once
more. I watched the smoke waiver faithly upward from the highlid end and vanish slowly into the
sight outside. I looked at Maria and she was lovely. She was tall. Beside my brother Leon, She was
tall and very still. There I went out, and in the darkened hall the frequence of her like a moving
when prayers are in bloom.
 X. Quotation of the story and explain
The sun was in our eyes, for it was dipping into the bright sea/ The sky was wide and deep
and very blue above us, but along the saw tooth rim of katayaghan hills to the southwest flame
hugo maspes of clouds. Before us the fields swam in a golden haze through which floated big
purple acid and yellow bubbles when I looked at the sinking sun Labang’s whitecoat, which I had
wished and brushed that morning with coconut husk, glistened like beaten cotton under the
lamplight and his horns appeared tipped out fire.
Explanation:
The climate is good, the sky is very clear. It is very heat at that moment, the sun is very heat.

XI. Moral Lesson

There’s no place like home.

XII. Guide Questions

1. Who is Leon? Describe him.
- Leon is working in the city
- He is a good person
- He is very loving son
2. Describe Maria. Do you think she is a typical city girl? What is her physical description? Does
Baldo like him?
- Maria was lovely, she was tall, her nails is long but not painted, she was fragrant, has
a small dimple on the right cheek. She was a typical city girl. Yes Baldo like him.
3. Who is the person speaking/narrating the story
- Baldo
4. Where is the setting of the story?
- In the far away province, barangay Nabnegcan.
5. What tests were given to Maria? Enumerate. If you were Maria would you survive the
challenge?
- She sat up straight on the bottom of the cart legs bent together to one side.
- Her skirts spread over them so that only the toes and heels of her shoes were visible.
- If I were Maria I try best to survive the challenge.
6. How did Maria deal with the test? Site proof of Marias good sense.
- I saw the wind on her hair.
7. What is the reason of the father why he tested Maria?
- He tested Maria, because she is a city bred and he afraid that she did not overcome
the trials.
8. Characterize the father. How does he react to events unfolding before him?
- The father is the mildest – tempered, gentlest man
9. Maria was city bred yet she triumphantly overcomes his trials. Could this be out of love?
Could love change a persevere character?
- You can survive the challenge and charge you character if you love someone.
10. What Filipino tradition is shown in the story?
- Introduce your love to your parents.
11. In today’s setting, if you are in a relationship, would your love to your introduce the person
you love to your parents.
- Yes. Manuel Arguilla is known as the most prominent author who uses local color in
his story. What is local color. Local color means the story is happened and the setting
is in our own place.
 Manuel Estabilla Arguilla

(Nagrebcan, Bauang, June 17, 1911

– beheaded, Manila Chinese Cemetery, August 30,
1944) was an Ilokano writer in English, patriot, and
martyr.
He is known for his widely anthologized short story
"How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife," the
main story in the collection How My Brother Leon
Brought Home a Wife and Other Short Stories, which
won first prize in the Commonwealth Literary Contest
in 1940.
 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

ILOCOS SUR COMMUNITY COLLEGE

BANTAY, ILOCOS SUR

In Partial Fulfilment
Of the Requirement
For the Subject

Reading
And
Writing

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