which renders many of them deservedly
odious.

When dinner was ready he sat down with the rest; and as it was the
custom here for everybody to wait upon himself, Tommy insisted upon
their suffering him to conform to the established method. The food,
indeed, was not very delicate, but it was wholesome, clean, and served
up hot to table,--an advantage which is not always found in elegant
apartments. Tommy ate with a considerable appetite, and seemed to enjoy
his new situation as much as if he had never experienced any other.
After the dinner was removed, he thought he might with propriety
gratify the curiosity he felt to converse with the Black upon fighting
bulls, for nothing had more astonished him than the account he had heard
of his courage, and the ease with which he had subdued so terrible an
animal. "My friend," said he, "I suppose in your own country you have
been very much used to bull-baitings, otherwise you would never have
dared to encounter such a fierce creature. I must confess, though I can
tame most animals, I never was more frightened in my life than when I
saw him break loose; and without your assistance, I do not know what
would have become of me."

"Master," replied the Black, "it is not in my own country that I have
learned to manage these animals. There I have been accustomed to several
kinds of hunting much more dangerous than this; and considering how much
you white people despise us blacks, I own I was very much surprised to
see so many hundreds of you running away from such an insignificant
enemy as a poor tame bull."

Tommy blushed a little at the remembrance of the prejudices he had
formerly entertained concerning blacks and his own superiority; but not
choosing now to enter upon the subject, he asked the man where then he
had acquired so much dexterity in taming them?

"I will tell you, master," replied the Black. "When I lived a slave
among the Spaniards at Buenos Ayres, it used to be a common employment
of the people to go into the woods to hunt cattle down for their
subsistence. The hunter mounts his fleetest horse, and takes with him a
strong cord of a considerable length; when he sees one of the wild kind
which he destines for his prey, he pursues it at full speed, and never
fails to overtake it by the superior swiftness of his horse. While he is
thus employed, he holds the cord ready, at the end of which a sliding
noose is formed, and when he is at a convenient distance, throws it fr