ACROSS THE ANDES 137 



that I was in the palace, and had refused to go 

 down to dinner until he had had a play with 

 me; and he was patiently and expectantly 

 waiting outside the door for me to appear. I 

 seized him, tossed him up, while he shouted 

 gleefully, caught him, and rolled him on the 

 floor, quite forgetting that any one was look- 

 ing on; and then, in the midst of the romp, 

 happening to look up, I saw the lady on whom 

 I had been calHng, watching the play with 

 much interest, with her equally interested two 

 brothers, both of them sovereigns, and her 

 lords-in-waiting; she had come out to see what 

 the little boy's laughter meant. I straightened 

 up, whereupon the little boy's face fell, and he 

 anxiously inquired: "But you're not going to 

 stop the play, are you.^" Of all this my new- 

 found friend reminded me. If was a far cry 

 in space and in surroundings, from where he 

 and I had first met to the Andes that border 

 Patagonia. He was a man of knowledge and 

 experience, and the half-hour I spent with him 

 was most pleasant. 



At Nahuel Huapi we were met by a little 

 lake steamer, on which we spent the next four 

 hours. The lake is of bold and irregular out- 

 line, with many deep bays, and with mountain 

 walls standing as promontories between the 



