58 THE AU VENTURES OF 



" I fancied that we had arrived too late for the first 

 course, and that all the meat had been used. But shall we 

 live on beans the whole of our journey?" 



" No ; our meals will not be quite so regular as you 

 seem to think. Yet we shall have plenty of meat when we 

 have been lucky in shooting, a little rice when we have 

 .been unfortunate, and fried beans whenever chance throws 

 in our way any inhabited hut." 



"And we shall have to go without dessert?" said the 

 child, making up his face into a comical pout. 



" Oh no, Chanito, there will be dessert to-day," replied 

 1'Encuerado. " Perhaps as good as the cook would provide 

 at home ; but, at any rate, it is sweet enough. Look at it !" 



The Indian girl brought a calabash full of water, and a 

 cone of black sugar, weighing about half a pound. 



"What is that?" cried Lucien. 



" Panela" answered the Indian girl. 



"Poor man's sugar," interposed Sumichrast. "The 

 manufacture of white sugar, which you saw yesterday, 

 costs a good deal, for the laborers employed to make it 

 have to work night and day, and thus it becomes expen- 

 sive. Now, some sugar-makers avoid all this outlay, and 

 they merely boil the juice, so that it will harden in cooling. 

 This dark-colored sugar costs about one-half as much in 

 making as the other." 



" I can well believe it," said the child ; " but it contains 

 all that nasty scum which we saw." 



" That makes it the nicer," said 1'Encuerado ; " it has a 

 richer flavor." 



And taking a morsel of the panela, he soaked it in the 

 water in the calabash and sucked it. 



When Lucien saw that we, too, imitated the Indian, he 

 soon made up his mind to do likewise, the sweet taste 

 overcoming his repugnance. 



