24 THE ADVENTURES OF 



" When you don't want to walk any more, Chanito, you must 

 tell me, and you shall ride on the top of my pack." 



" No," said I, turning round ; " if you do anything of the kind, 

 I will send both of you home." 



"My shoulders are my own," replied the Indian, earnestly; 

 " surely I have a right to employ them as I choose." 



Sumichrast burst out laughing at this logic, and I was obliged 

 to go on in front or I should have done the same. Nevertheless, 

 I feared lest Lucien should learn, on the very first day of his 

 journey, to depend too much on I'Encuerado's kindness. I was, 

 therefore, pleased to hear him refuse several times the Indian's 

 offer of putting him up on his pack, an idea which the faithful 

 fellow persisted in with an obstinacy which I had long known 

 him to possess. A little time after — thinking, doubtless, that his 

 dignity compelled him to prove that he was easily able to increase 

 the weight of his load — he seized Gringalet, who was walking 

 close behind lolling out his tongue, and throwing the dog up 

 on his back, and commencing an Indian trot, ran by us with a 

 triumphant look. Gringalet was at first taken by surprise, and, 

 raising a cry of distress, wanted to jump down ; but he soon sat 

 quiet enough, without displaying any uneasiness, to the great joy 

 of my son, who was much amused at the incident. 



The plain which we were crossing seemed absolutely inter- 

 minable. 



"It's no use our walking," said Lucien ; " we don't appear to 

 make any advance." 



" Fortunately, you are mistaken," replied Sumichrast. " Look 

 in front of you, and you will see that the trees on ahead, which a 

 short time ago looked like one uninterrupted mass of foliage, can 

 now be discerned separately." 



" You mean the forest which we can see from here?" 



" What you take for, a forest is nothing but a few trees scat- 

 tered about the plain." 



" Isn't M. Sumichrast wrong in that, father?" 



" No, my boy ; but those who have more experience than you 

 might well be mistaken, for when* objects are seen at a distance 

 they always seem to blend together in a group. This morning. 



