BOLICHE HOSPITALITY 99 



we made a dash for a couple of houses just visible in the 

 distance, traveling along at the rate of eight miles an hour 

 for the next two hours. By the time we arrived the rain 

 had changed to sleet, and we were thoroughly wet and 

 chilled. The houses proved to be the railroad station of 

 Colonel Holditch and the Boliche de la Pampa. There was 

 little grass, no shelter, and no apparent drinking water for 

 the horses. 



However, I found the station agent, Sefior Grandiole, 

 who, on reading my letter of introduction, became the 

 soul of hospitality, arranging so that we could get supper 

 at the boliche, sending a man two miles with me to 

 show me where to water the horses. We soon got them 

 watered and fed and were very glad to get inside of a 

 building. That evening I felt the paucity of my Spanish 

 keenly, for the tendency was for the conversation to range 

 widely. However, we spent the evening very sociably, 

 drinking coffee in the boliche, and went through more con 

 per mis so and permitte mes, with stately bows and other 

 Spanish courtesies than at any other time during the trip. 



We slept in the telegraph office, our beds practically 

 covering the floor. In the night a train (engine and one 

 car) arrived and the conductor, coming in to hunt for the 

 sleeping agent and stumbling over our beds, enriched our 

 vocabulary with a series of words we have rather hesitated 

 about using. However, the agent finally woke up, and 

 when he explained over whose august feet the conductor 

 had fallen, that officer became as courteous as the agent 

 had been. 



When we rose, though it was midsummer, the ground 

 was frozen hard and the wind still blowing though the rain 

 had ceased. During the evening we had learned of a 

 short cut down to the coast road, about which nothing 

 seemed to be known in Comodoro Rivadavia, except that 

 it was impassable, and judging from its condition when we 

 went over it later, I guess that going south it would have 



