of a long row of big bales of fleece, tied,
stamped with the Moreno brand, ready to be drawn away to the mills.
"Now, there is something substantial," he thought; "no chance of wool
going amiss in market!"

If a year's crop were good, Juan's happiness was assured for the next
six months. If it proved poor, he turned devout immediately, and
spent the next six months calling on the saints for better luck, and
redoubling his exertions with the sheep.

On one of the posts of the shed short projecting slats were nailed, like
half-rounds of a ladder. Lightly as a rope-walker Felipe ran up these,
to the roof, and took his stand there, ready to take the fleeces and
pack them in the bag as fast as they should be tossed up from below.
Luigo, with a big leathern wallet fastened in front of him, filled with
five-cent pieces, took his stand in the centre of the shed. The thirty
shearers, running into the nearest pen, dragged each his sheep into
the shed, in a twinkling of an eye had the creature between his knees,
helpless, immovable, and the sharp sound of the shears set in. The
sheep-shearing had begun. No rest now. Not a second's silence from the
bleating, baa-ing, opening and shutting, clicking, sharpening of shears,
flying of fleeces through the air to the roof, pressing and stamping
them down in the bales; not a second's intermission, except the hour of
rest at noon, from sunrise till sunset, till the whole eight thousand
of the Senora Moreno's sheep were shorn. It was a dramatic spectacle. As
soon as a sheep was shorn, the shearer ran with the fleece in his
hand to Luigo, threw it down on a table, received his five-cent piece,
dropped it in his pocket, ran to the pen, dragged out another sheep, and
in less than five minutes was back again with a second fleece. The shorn
sheep, released, bounded off into another pen, where, light in the head
no doubt from being three to five pounds lighter on their legs, they
trotted round bewilderedly for a moment, then flung up their heels and
capered for joy.

It was warm work. The dust from the fleeces and the trampling feet
filled the air. As the sun rose higher in the sky the sweat poured off
the men's faces; and Felipe, standing without shelter on the roof, found
out very soon that he had by no means yet got back his full strength
since the fever. Long before noon, except for sheer pride, and for
the recollection of Juan Canito's speech, he would have come down and
yielded his place