dulation to disturb the beauty and symmetry of the corn-stalk procession.
Pancho's knowledge of burros was as profound as of other subjects. As fifty of them were passing one morning, he happened to see me gazing on the strange scene, when the oracle broke silence by saying: "Alli va el ferro-carril Mexicano" ("There goes the Mexican railroad"), adding parenthetically, "Tambien se llaman licenciados" ("They are also called lawyers"); "tienen cabezas muy duras" ("they have very hard heads").
At last I was convinced that burros are possessed of an uncommon amount of good sense as well as much patience and meekness. Their shrewdness was intensely amusing to me when I saw how keenly they watched the arriéro—driver—unburden one of their companeros, and how quickly they jumped into the place to be also relieved of their terrible loads.
A man with a crate of eggs hanging from his head went trotting by, advertising his business by screaming, "Huevos! Huevos!" in deafening tones. Pancho, at his post of duty in the zaguan, called the vender with the long tangled hair and swarthy skin. After peeping cautiously around, he entered, when I went at once to make the bargain for myself, and to turn over another leaf in the book of my experiences. I wanted to buy two dozen, and handing him fifty cents, told Pancho to count the eggs. The man turned the half-dollar over and over—looking at me and then at the half-dollar; and at last handed the money back to me, saying: "No se venden asi" ("They are not sold in this way")—"solamente por reales" ("only by reals"). I said: "You sell six for a real,
