Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1916-10-05

And now he says to follow him and
he'll get us a place to stay"
"Some native pigsty with f1eas," l
remarked skeptically aside to Johnny.
"You conn.," begged the padrone,
with a fash Of teeth.
We came bearing our household
goods, because we could nowhere see
any one to bear them for us. At that
we had to leave the heaviest pieces on
the beach. Talbot insisted on Juggling
his huge bundle Of newspapers.
"They may come In handy" he an
swered us vaguely. "Well, they're
mine, and this is my back" he coun-
tered to Johnny's and my Impotence
with such foolishness.
The padrone led up through town to
the outskirts. There we came to a
substantial low house Of several rooms,
with a veranda and veritable ch1mneys.
The earth in front had been beaten so
hard that even the downpour Of yes
terday had not appreciably softened it.
To our summons appeared very suave
and courteous figure. that. it appeared,
Of the alcalde Of the place.
"My fr'en'," explained the padrone
in English, for our benefit, they good
peepele. They wan estay. Got no
place estay.
The alcalde. portly gentleman with
side whiskers and a great deal Of dig
nifty, bowed.
"My house is all yours" said he.
Thus, although arriving late, we stop
ped at the best quarters in the town.
The sense of obligation to any one but
our boatman was considerably relieved
when next day we paid what we owed
for our lodging Also, had 1t not been
for Talbot and Johnny, l am sure
Yank and | would have taken to the
jungle. There seemed to be required
so much bowling, smiling, punctilious-
ness and elaborate complimenting that
in a short time l felt myself in the pre-
else mental attitude Of a very small
monkey shaking the bars of his cage
with all four hands and gibbering In
the face Of some benign and infinitely
superior professor. | fairly ached be-
hind the ears trying to look sufficiently
alert and bland and intelligent. Yank
sat stolid, chewed tobacco and spat out
of the window, which also went far
toward stampeding me. Talbot and
Johnny, however, seemed right at
home. They capped the old gentle
mans most elaborate and involved
speeches, they talked at length and
pompously about nothing at all, their
smiles were rare and sad and linger-
ing-not bit like my imbecile though
well meant grinning-and they seemed
to be able to stick it out until judg-
ment day Not until / heard their pri-
vate language after it was all over
did / realize they were not enjoying
the occasion thoroughly.
At dusk millions Of frefies came
out, the earth grew velvet black, and
the soft, tepid air breathed up from
the river. Lights of the town fickered
like larger yellower frefies through
the thin screen Of palms and jungle.
and the various noises. subdued by
distance, mingled with the voices Of
thousands of insects and a strange
booming from the river. | thought it
very pleasant and wanted to stay out.
but for some reason we were hailed
within. There the lamps made the
low broad room very hot. We sat on
real chairs, and the stilted exchange
resumed. | have often wondered
whether our host enjoyed it or wheth-
er he did it merely from duty and was
as heartily bored as the rest of us.
A half naked servant glided in to
tell us that we were wanted in the
next room. We found there our good
padrone and another, fine tall man,
dressed very deliberately in short jack
ct and slit loose trousers, all sewed
with many silver buttons and orna-
ments.
"He my fr'en'," explained the pa
drone. "He have dose mulas."
With the gorgeous individual Talbot
concluded bargain. He was to fur
nish us riding animals at $40 each per