Thirteen Stories
liked the scheme, pronounced it practical and businesslike, and, to show goodwill, despatched a boy to town to bring a demijohn of caña back at full speed, instructing him to put it down to our account, not to delay upon the way, and to be careful no one stole it at the crossing of the Yi.

p. 11

Long we sat talking, waiting for the advent of the boy, till at last, seeing he would not come that night, and a thick mist rising up from the river having warned us that the night was wearing on, we spread our saddles on the floor, and went to sleep. At daybreak, cold and miserable, the boy appeared, bringing the caña in a demijohn, and to our questions said he had passed the river, hit the “rincon,” and heard the dogs bark in the mist; but after trying for an hour could never find the house. Then, thinking that his horse might know the way, laid down the reins, and the horse took him straight to the other horses, who, being startled at the sudden apparition of their friend saddled and mounted in the dead of night, vanished like spectres into the thickest of the fog. Then tired of riding, after an hour or two, took off his saddle, p. 12and had passed the night, as it appeared at daybreak, not a quarter of a mile away.

p. 12

Between the town and Don Guillermo’s house there ran a river called the Yi; just at the pass a “balsa” plied, drawn over by stout ropes. On either side the “pass” stood pulperias, that is camp-stores, where gin and sardines, Vino Carlon, Yerba, and all the necessaries of frontier life could be procured. Horses and cattle, mules and troops of sheep passed all the day, and gamblers plied their trade, whilst in some huts girls, known as “Chinas,” watched the passers-by, loitering in deshabille before their mare’s hide doors, singing “cielitos,” or the “gato,” to the accompaniment of a guitar, or merely shouting to the stranger, “Che, si quieres cosa buena vente por acá.” A half-Arcadian, half-Corinthian place the crossing was; fights there were frequent, and a “Guapeton,” that is, a pretty handler of his knife, once kept things lively for a month or two, challenging all the passers-by to fight, till luckily a Brazilian, going to the town, put things in order with an iron-handled whip.

The owner of the “balsa,” one Eduardo Peña, cherished a half-romantic, half-antagonistic friendship for Don Guillermo, speaking of him as “muy Catolico,” admiring his fine seat upon a horse, and yet not understanding in the least the qualities which made him a man of mark in all the “pagos” from the Porongos to the Arazati. “Catolico,” p. 13with 
 Prev. P 11/122 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact