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He grudges every centavo spent under our direction for the betterment of these truly admirable wild men The governor, the Christian governor, of a province bordering on the wild men's territory, had, indeed, no other idea of the way to treat his pagan neighbors, about 50,000 in number, than to kill them all.
The devil take them both!" exclaimed Juan, the look of disgust on his face gradually changing to one of resignation that serene expression of the born gambler whom experience has taught that days of famine are certain to follow those of plenty. "Look!" he repeated. "The cards are bewitched not a centavo! My pockets are empty as Lazarus' stomach!
Is this the best you can dig up for a fellow?" Pasa looked at him as a mother looks at a beloved but capricious babe. "Think better of it," she said, in a low voice; "since for the next meal there will be nothing. The last centavo is spent." She pressed closer against the grating. "Sell the goods in the shop take anything for them." "Have I not tried? Did I not offer them for one-tenth their cost?
"Gentlemen," he declared, "I give you my word of honor no, I'll give you a Spaniard's oath I swear, by the virtue of my dead mother and the honor of my dead father, I did not bet one single centavo on Panchito for myself, although I did negotiate bets for Brother Anthony, Father Dominic, and my servants, Pablo and Carolina.
"As I live, I believe you have sold it! God! What a miser! For the sake of another centavo you would see me starve? There's a heart for you!" "YOUR little fish!" roared the brigand, clashing his blade on the filthy counter. "No shark ever stole so many fish as you. Come, I shall make an end of you, and have some peace. Starve? YOU? Bah! Your body is like a gourd." "Yes, and quite as hollow.
Well fortified at the excellent hotel, I struck out past the patriot priest's house over an arched bridge into the open country. As in any unknown land, the beginning of tramping was not without a certain mild misgiving. The "road" was only a trail and soon lost itself. A boy speaking good Spanish walked a long mile to set me right, and valued his services at a centavo.
It was remarkable how easily and quickly one circulating medium disappeared and another took its place. At first there was some trouble about getting the poor people to recognize the copper on a basis of a hundred to a peso. They were willing enough to receive change on that basis, but, in giving it, tried to treat the new centavo as a dacold, eighty to the peso.
When Felipe's little store of money was exhausted he went to the collector and raised the question of finances. "Salaries!" exclaimed the collector, with hands raised; "Valgame Dios! not one centavo of my own pay have I received for the last seven months. The pay of an admiral, do you ask? Quien sabe? Should it be less than three thousand pesos?
Sellers of lottery-tickets, writers of love-letters, jugglers and mountebanks plied their trades. The cries of the water-carrier and vender of sweet-meats mingled with those of the inevitable beggar who asked alms for the love of God; invoking blessings or curses upon the head of him who gave or refused him a centavo. Babel reigned.
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