A WEDDING BALL. 



165 



las were laid in a pile by my side. There was no plate, 

 knife, fork, or spoon. Fingers were made before forks ; 

 but bad habits make the latter, to a certain degree^ ne- 

 cessary. Poultry, mutton, beef, and the like, do not 

 come amiss to fingers, but beans and fried eggs were 

 puzzling. How I managed I will not publish ; but, 

 from appearances afterward, the old lady could not have 

 supposed that I had been at all at a loss. I slept in an 

 outbuilding constructed of small poles and thatched, 

 and for the whole paid eighteen and three quarter cents. 

 I gave a pair of earrings to a woman whom I supposed 

 to be a servant, but who, I found, was only a visiter, 

 and who went away at the same time that I did. 



At a distance of two leagues from the hacienda we 

 passed the house of the wedding-party. The dancing 

 was not yet over, and I had a strong fancy to see again 

 the fair-haired sister of Don Clementino. Having no 

 better excuse, I determined to call him out and " talk 

 mule.'' As I rode up, the doorway and the space 

 thence to the middle of the room were filled with girls, 

 all dressed in white, with the roses in their hair faded, 

 and the brightness of their eyes somewhat dimmed by 

 a night's dissipation. The sister of Don Clementino 

 was modest and retiring, and, as if she suspected my 

 object, shrank back from observation, while he made 

 all open a way for him and his guitar. I had no idea 

 of buying his mule, but made him an offer, which, to 

 my surprise and regret at the time, he accepted ; but 

 virtue is its own reward, and the mule proved a most 

 faithful animal. 



Mounted on my new purchase, we commenced as- 

 cending the great Sierra, which divides the streams of the 

 Atlantic from those that empty into the Pacific Ocean. 

 The ascent was rugged and toilsome, but in two hours 



