A Buffalo Hunt in Northern Mexico. 



in 



overhead, he rattled the white tessarae careless of fortune, so soon 

 and so utterly to turn against him. From that room, marked by 

 the carven door, music flowed stream -like out into the moonlit 

 court, voices of women leading, beautiful women taught by the 

 maestros of Durango, may be by the maestros of the capital. Well, 

 into that room we went — in honor of the shade of the departed, I 

 took off my hat; there, too, were traces of the glory's time — tessel- 

 lated floor, frescoed ceiling, on the walls frame- marks of pictures and 



THE PATIO. 



mirrors. Ay de mi, Zuloaga ! Evil the hour War came in grim- 

 visaged and cruel, and dispersed the waltzers, the singers, and the 

 smokers, and, of all the dainty furniture, left us but one long table 

 on which to spread our pallets in rest of our weary bones. Needless 

 to say, we adopted the table; it was hard, but it lifted us above the 

 range of fleas, and then — ah, if the gallant Spaniard should wake 

 from his sleep and come to us in dreams ! Viva / 



We returned then to the first patio in search of our mozos, 

 and were greatly astonished there. The house, apparently so 

 deserted, had in our absence given up an unexpected tenantry ; 

 men, women, and children — so many ! where did they all come 

 from ? — were crowded around a delicate-looking shepherd lad 



