248 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



chief end. Further, he thought it behooved him 

 to celebrate so great an event by a fiesta of 

 modest proportions, and to accomplish both these 

 ends he journeyed with his children and family 

 to the city of Tucson. 



Here he rented a small house, and summoning 

 all his co-madres and com-padres together, the 

 fiesta was duly inaugurated, and the children were 

 put to school. There does not seem to be any 

 institution among people in other parts of the 

 world, or any relationship, that compares with or 

 is like the bond which the Mexican expresses by 

 the terms co-madre and com-padre. Perhaps it is 

 enough to say that it embraces all kinsmen, inti- 

 mate friends as well as others, not only those to 

 whom obligation is felt, but also many who are 

 obligated. I leave the imagination of the reader 

 to depict the royal manner in which Castro at this 

 time must have dispensed his hospitality. Rumors 

 of it have reached me through his son-in-law, one 

 Billy Elliott, a giant, red-haired Irishman, a happy- 

 go-lucky nomad who had travelled far as a rolling 

 stone, and had finally settled down to the occupa- 

 tion of a miner and prospector in this remote 

 region. His description was both florid and 

 graphic. 



But alas for good intentions ! Prosperity thus 

 acquired is traditional for its evanescence. It is 

 said that all the " forty-niners " who retained their 



