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Updated: May 31, 2025
"Do your legs feel like mine?" he asked of l'Encuerado. "No, Chanito; we did not walk far enough yesterday for that." "You can't mean that we haven't walked far? Papa says that we are now seven leagues from Orizava." "Yes; that may seem a great deal to you, and perhaps too much; that is why I wanted to put you up on the top of my pack. Now, come, let me see where you suffer."
The turf-carpeted bank soon led us into the thick forest again. We had been walking for more than an hour through a perfect labyrinth of gigantic trees, and over a bare and yet rich soil for it is only in the glades that the ground is covered with grass when l'Encuerado heard the call of a small species of pheasant peculiar to this country.
At dawn of day our bivouac was enlivened by hundreds of birds. L'Encuerado cut the mooring line of the raft, and let it float down the stream, thanking it at the same time for the services it had rendered us, and wishing it prosperity in its lonely voyage to the ocean.
The fool had mistaken us for horse-stealers; and the Indian, after soundly thrashing him, at my entreaty let him off. When night came, we were at the foot of the mountains; so all we had to do was to join the main road from Vera Cruz to Mexico. Our horses were now set at liberty, after having been overwhelmed with compliments and polite speeches by l'Encuerado.
"Don't you find that the mosquitoes in the Terre-Chaude bite much sharper than those in the Terre-Tempérée?" asked the boy, addressing l'Encuerado. "No, Chanito; they are all alike, for they belong to the same family, as your papa says." "Then they must be more numerous here, for every instant one receives a fresh pinch."
"It is a galapago," said l'Encuerado; "it is of no use for food." This creature, which is called by the savants the alligator-tortoise, measured more than a yard from its head to its tail. The latter appendage was almost as long as the body, and was covered with a triple row of scaly crests fitting into each other.
A hollow stone which l'Encuerado had found was filled with fat, a morsel of linen served as a wick, and our make-shift lamp soon burned and gave forth light. As the branches which were to serve as torches were being distributed, I noticed that a yellow and transparent drop had formed at the end of each.
"Look, M. L'Encuerado!" cried the boy; "here is an alligator or cayman, a relation of the lizards, and an enemy of man. This ugly young beast has only baby-teeth, so can not bite much. It feeds on fish, otters, calves, and many other animals.
A flock of cardinals, with crested heads, flew around us and settled on a magnolia, which then looked as if it was covered with purple flowers. Farther on, some paroquets, no bigger than sparrows, greeted us with their varied cries. L'Encuerado, after tossing his head several times, and shrugging his shoulders, at last stopped, and could not refrain from answering them.
Its ripe pink fruit was symmetrically placed in a circle of green leaves. Lucien, kneeling down, tried to pluck them. "Pull one from the middle, Chanito," cried l'Encuerado; "that's the only way to get them." The boy seized the centre berry, which came out, and, like the stones of an arch when the key-stone is taken out, all the cones fell.
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