Chap. XI. EPISODES OF MEXICAN LIFE. 383 
kindness he had displayed to him. Don Guillermo will- 
ingly granted the request, the young man took goods for a 
few hundred dollars : three years elapsed, no payment was 
made, and nothing was heard of the young man, and now 
his creditor appears suddenly in Temosachic. " Where 
does Natividad Andrada live ? " asked Don Guillermo of 
the first person we met as we rode into the village. 
" There is his mother's house," was the answer. We rode 
on to the open door, at which a respectable-looking old 
woman appeared. " Is Natividad at home ? " " No, 
Sir." "Is he in the neighbourhood?" "He is in the 
village." "Let him be called; I must speak to him." 
In two minutes he came. He was a young man of more 
than middle height, well formed, and with good regular 
features, on which an irregular life now began to show its 
traces. " Natividad," said Don Guillermo to him, " as 
you have not come to me, I have been obliged to come to 
you. Why have I never seen you again in Chihuahua ? " 
" I was unable to pay your honour." " Can you pay me 
now?" " No: I am poor; I have nothing." " Do you 
know how much you owe me ? " " Not exactly." " Three 
hundred dollars." " It is so, since your honour says so." 
" Cannot you pay me at least a portion of it ? " "I 
have nothing." " Then you must come with me and 
work for me." "I am ready; I believe your honour's 
demand is just." " Then get ready : I cannot wait." 
" I am ready ; I wear all I possess." This consisted of 
an old straw hat, a coarse cotton shirt, wide unbleached 
cotton trowsers, sandals, and a gay-coloured ragged woollen 
blanket, with which the poorest man gracefully covers his 
rags. 
During this conversation, which deeply affected the fate 
of several persons, we had not got off our horses, and the old 
