34 THE ADVENTURES 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 in- 

 habited hut." 



" And we shall have to go without dessert 1 " said the child, 

 making up his face into a comical pout. 



" Oh, no ! Chanito, there will be dessert to-day," replied I'En- 

 cuerado. " 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 manufac- 

 ture of white sugar, which you saw yesterday, costs a good deal, 

 for the labourers employed to make it have to work night and 

 day, and thus it becomes expensive. Now, some sugar-makers 

 avoid all this outlay, and they merely boil the juice, so that it 

 will harden in cooling. This dark-coloured 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 I'Encuerado ; " it has a richer 

 flavour." 



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. 



When we had finished, our young companion was anxious to 

 know how charcoal was made. Sumichrast led him close to a 

 recently-felled oak, the small branches of which an Indian was 

 cutting into pieces two or three inches long, by means of an 



