iy 
1829.) oy 
THE FORTUNE-HUNTERS: A TALE OF THE SOUTH. 
In the stable-yard of the inn, called the Little Windmill, that we find, 
on the road leading from Castello to Andalusia, on the confines of the 
’ famous country of Alcudia, on a certain day, the hottest of the summer, 
there encountered, by chance, two youths of from fourteen to fifteen 
years of age; of a certainty the elder could not be more than seventeen. 
They were both well-looking, though in a pitiable state. Their habits 
ragged—broken—torn—and falling in rags. As to cloaks, there was no 
question of them at all. Their breeches were but coarse canvas ; and the 
skin of their legs served in place of stockings. However, in revenge for 
that they had shoes—those of the one were of wood, such as are com- 
monly named alpargates, and as much worn by dragging as by walking. 
Those of the other, pierced with a hundred holes, and without soles, 
appeared less for use than ornament. One wore a tattered green cap, 
after the hunting fashion—the other, a flat crown with a tremendous 
brim. ~The one, who wore a shoulder-helt, had a shirt, the colour of 
yellow chamois, folded up and thrust into his sleeve. The other came 
lightly along without any burthen, except that the eye could detect some- 
thing that swelled out the bosom of the shirt, and afterwards proved 
a pack of cards wrapped in an old rag. Their faces were burned brown by 
the sun—their nails long and black—and their hands no whiter. One 
had a short sword—the other a couteau de chasse, with a yellow handle. 
Both having entered at the same instant to repose under at least a roof 
that shut out the sunbeams, they sat themselves down on two benches 
directly opposite to each. The elder began by saying, “ May one ask 
your country, my lad, and what road you travel?”—“<I have no 
country, Senor Cavalier,” replied the other; “and I know no more of 
the road I travel.” But, in good truth,” said the first, “ you do not 
look as if you fell from the clouds; and it being an impossibility that 
you should remain where you are, you must perforce go somewhere 
else.” “ You are right,” returned the second. ‘“ However, I have told 
‘you nothing but what is; because the place I come from is not mine. 
have only a father there who does not acknowledge me for his son, and 
‘a step-mother who treats me as a step-child. The road I travel depends 
on chance; and it will finish wherever I find the necessaries for my 
existence.”—“ Have you any particular talents?” demanded the elder. 
“None other,” replied the younger, “than to run like a hare, to leap like 
a doe, and to use the scissors with some dexterity.”—*« All very good, 
useful, and advantageous,” said the first ; “ for you will easily find some 
 sacristan to make you an offering, on All Saints’ Day, that you may cut 
jm paper ornaments on Holy Thursday.’—“ It is not in that way 1 
4 ke use of scissors,” replied the second. “ You must know, that by 
_ Heaven’s grace, my father being a tailor and gaiter-maker, he taught me 
to cut out these latter, which, as you know, are but half stockings, with 
a foot-piece that we call palaynas ; and so able am I at them, that I 
might pass for master, but that my evil destiny, which persecutes me 
unceasingly, has never allowed me to profit by my ability.”—“ Honest 
people are generally the least lucky,” replied the elder; “ and I have 
always heard, ‘a rich head and a poor pocket.’ But you are yet young 
endugh to correct the caprices of fortune. However, if I do not much 
ceive myself, you have yet some other qualities in secret that you have 
not manifested to me.”—“ It is true,” replied the second, “I have yet 
M.M. New Series:—Vou. VII. No. 42. 4E 
