had as a crew a man, a woman,
evidently his wife, and two half-grown boys, he was more fortunate.
Could he use an oar? He could. Then he might come, because there was
little promise of wind, and the sails would be of no use. A strong arm
would help, as it was sixteen miles down La Viga to the Lake of
Xochimilco, on the shores of which they lived. The boys were tired and
sleepy, and he would serve very well in their stead.

Ned took his place in the boat, truly thankful that in this crisis of
his life he knew how to row. He saw that his hosts, or rather those for
whom he worked, were an ordinary peon family, at least half Indian,
sluggish of mind and kind of heart. They had brought vegetables and
flowers to the city, and now they were thriftily returning in the night
to their home on the lake that Benito Igarritos and his sons might not
miss the next day from their work.

Igarritos and Ned took the oars. The two boys stretched themselves on
the bottom of the boat and were asleep in an instant. Juana, the wife,
spread a serape over them, and then sat down in Turkish fashion in the
center of the bergantin, a great red and yellow reboso about her head
and shoulders. Sometimes she looked at her husband, and sometimes at the
strange boy. He had spoken to them in good Mexican, he dressed like a
Mexican and he walked like a Mexican, but she had not been deceived. She
knew that the Mexican part of him ended with the serape and sombrero.
She wondered why he had come, and why he was anxious to go to the Lake
of Xochimilco. But she reflected with the patience and resignation of an
oppressed race that it was no business of hers. He was a good youth. He
had spoken to her with compliments as one speaks to a lady of high
degree, and he bent manfully on the oar. He was welcome. But he must
have a name and she would know it.

"What do you call yourself?" she asked.

"William," he replied. "I come from a far country, England, and it is my
pleasure to travel in new lands and see new peoples."

"Weel-le-am," she said gravely, "you are far from your friends."

Ned bent his head in assent. Her simple words made him feel that he was
indeed far from his own land and surrounded by a thousand perils. The
woman did not speak again and they moved on with an even stroke down the
canal which had an uniform width of about thirty feet. They were still
passing houses of stone and others of adobe, but before they had gone a
mile they were halted b