1 1 o Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



tail was still fast to the buggy. Thereupon my 

 friend took the whip and applied it smartly to 

 Alcalde's quarters. Alcalde, who had doubtless 

 been nursing his wrongs throughout that afternoon, 

 and who now was given an opportunity, as the 

 lawyers say, to show cause, retaliated by kicking 

 the buggy into a heap of kindling wood. My 

 friend's wife watched this performance with interest, 

 and when it was over she turned to her husband 

 and said quietly : " My dear, after this, I shall turn 

 on the water and let it run as often and as long as 

 I please." 



Of the hired men and girls who honoured us by 

 working for wages which an English curate would 

 not despise, I could write citrrente calamo, but I dare 

 not do it, for I feel like the stout gentleman who 

 remained in the plains, because he was sensible 

 that in the hills he might begin to roll, and go on 

 rolling, till he rolled out of the world altogether. 

 I have so much material that I dare not cut the 

 wire which holds the bale together. One or two 

 stories, however, may be pulled out, without dis- 

 turbing the rest. We employed a man who in his 

 youth had had an encounter with a circular saw. 

 The saw, in such cases, generally has the best of it ; 

 and on this occasion two of our hired man's fingers 

 were left in the pit. Upon one of the remaining 

 fingers he wore a diamond ring! And he actually 

 told me that his hand " kind o' needed settin' off." 

 It never seemed to strike the poor fellow that the 

 proper place for that maimed hand was his pocket. 

 He used to wave it about — so my brother said — 

 as if it were a Pampas plume. 



