A Mounted Mendicant 



pieces to an old hag with one eye and a grizzly beard, 

 thought it a pity to lose the opportunity of getting some- 

 thing himself, since little fortunes were in process of being 

 scattered about the road with such reckless and unbounded 

 profusion. He came up alongside, and entered into a 

 piteous detail of his immediate losses and general poverty. 



At first we did not make out exactly what he would be 

 at and listened to his grievances civilly ; but when he 

 wound up with plain begging, the originality and boldness 

 of the idea of a mounted beggar struck us in so humorous 

 a lio-ht that we could not help laughing in his face. His 

 story was, that he had come into Malaga that morning from 

 a distance, and had sold some garden-stuff for two dollars, 

 of which he had been in some way robbed or cheated, and 

 now he had not an ochavo in the world. We rode along 

 before him talking about his case, when, as the road had 

 turned in from the coast and become lonely, an idea struck 

 me of a sudden. 



" Suppose we rob him," I said to Harry ; " I'll be bound 

 he has the money for his cabbages safe in his pocket ; at 

 any rate we will see." He protested that it was emi- 

 nently absurd, and that we might get into a tremendous 

 scrape— but I would not listen to reason. I foresaw it 

 would be an original adventure. So I turned my pony's 

 head and waited for him to come up. He quickened his 

 pace and overtook us again, making a still more piteous 

 face than before, in the evident impression that we had 

 taken his misfortunes into consideration, and were about to 

 do something handsome for him. What, therefore, must 

 his surprise and horror have been, when, as he got fairly 

 between us, I drew my six-barrelled revolver, and thus 



addressed him. 



"Impudent old scoundrel, stand still— if thou stirr'st 



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