AN ADVENTURE. 



Ill 



satisfied with your custom unless you pay them besides ; 

 and the whole, or a large portion, must be in advance. 

 I was accidentally in arrears to the muleteer ; and, while 

 I was congratulating myself on this only security for his 

 good behaviour, he was torturing himself with the ap- 

 prehension that I did not mean to pay at all. 



In the mean time it began to rain ; and, settling my 

 accounts with the senora, thanking her for her kind- 

 ness, leaving an order to have some bread baked for 

 the next day, and taking with me an umbrella and a 

 blue bag, contents unknown, belonging to Mr. Cather- 

 wood, which he had particularly requested me to bring, 

 I set out on my return. Augustin followed with a tin 

 teapot, and some other articles for immediate use. 

 Entering the woods, the umbrella struck against the 

 branches of the trees, and frightened the mule ; and, 

 while I was endeavouring to close it, she fairly ran 

 away with me. Having only a halter, I could not hold 

 her ; and, knocking me against the branches, she ran 

 through the woods, splashed into the river, missing the 

 fording-place, and never stopped till she was breast- 

 deep. The river was swollen and angry, and the rain 

 pouring down. Rapids were foaming a short distance 

 below. In the effort to restrain her, I lost Mr. Cather- 

 wood's blue bag, caught at it with the handle of the 

 umbrella, and would have saved it if the beast had 

 stood still; but as it floated under her nose she snort- 

 ed and started back. I broke the umbrella in driving 

 her across ; and, just as I touched the shore, saw the 

 bag floating toward the rapids, and Augustin, with his 

 clothes in one hand and the teapot in the other, both 

 above his head, steering down the river after it. Sup- 

 posing it to contain some indispens^able drawing mate- 

 rials, I dashed among the thickets on the bank in the 



