I am here to tell the story of the four sister seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Winter was the eldest sister, cold and oppressive. Spring was the next eldest, bright and cheerful. Summer was after her, hot and dry, and the youngest, Autumn was scared and brittle.
The four sisters each lived together in a small shack in their civil settlement with their mama and their papa.
Each morning, Winter would go out and gather firewood for the family, because she was the only one who could brave the constant cold weather. One morning, Winter was wandering the trails when she came across a French subject of the king. He looked to be a vaquero
"What is a lovely lady like thou doing outside so early in this weather?" He asked
"I am gathering wood for my family. I'm not cold, I am perfectly fine."
"Why don't you come along with me, I have a hacienda not very far from here."
"No, I'm fine."
But before winter could reply, the man swept Winter up by the feet and took her away. Winter struggled and hassled, but her efforts proved fruitless and she was taken away.
Winter died of hypothermia that evening when she knew that the man would not let her go, and the best thing to do was to not give him what he wanted.
The following day, the weather had changed. It was significantly warmer and Spring's garden had grown greatly. Spring decided that morning to add an expansion to her garden so she went to the commissary and bought some seeds.
The weather was like this for roughly three months, until Spring's garden was the largest in town. The sisters' family was the wealthiest family in any civil settlement, presidio or compound, until one day, when the alcalde of their civil settlement decided to suppress Spring's garden after discussing it with the ayuntamiento.
"Halt!" cried the alcalde "Spring, your garden has put many crop-growers out of business, and I'm afraid that I will not allow this to go on for any longer."
Though Spring did not like this idea, she decided that it was for the best. The garden was the only thing that made Spring happy, so she threw herself into a acequia and rot into the ground.
The family was devastated to know that they lost their two oldest daughters, but it was not uncommon in their village to have children die so they got over it.
The next morning was very hot, and many people stayed inside all day, but not Summer. Summer was perfectly alright with the weather, so her family told her to go to the freshwater stream to collect water to keep cool.
Summer arrived at the stream and couldn't be happier. She put her hands to the cool water and splashed it on her face, and it was the best feeling. Summer filled up the bucket with water, and she couldn't contain herself. She jumped into the water, not realizing that it was 10 feet down. Summer didn't know how to swim, and she drowned in the cool water that she loved so much.
Poor Autumn was the last sibling left. Since her sisters had died, her civil settlement had made an alliance with the French and was informed of what had happened to Winter. Autumn couldn't handle being the last sibling left knowing that her sisters had died, and she threw herself off of one of the browning trees.
Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn's mama and papa spoke with the alcalde that evening informing them of their four daughters. The alcalde was heartbroken, as he did care for his villagers a great deal. That evening, the alcalde made a deal with the gods, telling them to change the weather every three months in the sisters' honor. These were called 'seasons' and each of them were named after one of the four seasons. Each season people would routinely go outside and do what each sibling did best. In Winter they would collect firewood, in Spring they would garden, in Summer they would swim and in Autumn they would climb trees
