all and wiry, and his well kept white
feathers testified to a devoted master. How impatient that absurd
little rooster was for the fight to begin, and how he struggled to
get off his gaff and go into the fray unarmed, the weight on his legs
seeming an impediment to action, and how insolently he strutted and
crowed before his antagonist, an equally well groomed gentleman of
exceptional manners, attired in a gorgeous suit of green and gold. But
handsome as the darker rooster was, the white one seemed to be the
universal choice, and heavy were the stakes in his favour, so heavy
that when, after a few minutes' fighting, his wing was broken, a
general groan went up throughout the cockpit, a groan which merged
into sullen silence when the poor little chicken fell before the
furious onslaught of his enemy.

Again and again the victorious green and gold rooster jumped upon
his prostrate foe, pecking now at his crop, now at his eyes, in a
perfect frenzy of triumphant rage, the little white fellow lying
so still meanwhile that everyone thought him dead. But suddenly
he struggled to his feet, and, despite the grievously broken wing,
whipped the big bully in a way to raise a cheer even from the hitherto
indifferent Americans.

As for the natives, they simply shouted themselves hoarse, and,
contrary to all precedent, jumped down into the pit, throwing their
_sombreros_ on high and yelling vigorously, "_Muy valiente gallo--muy
valiente!_" The little rascal had simply been sparring for wind, and
he seemed to wink an eye at us after having chased his vanquished
enemy to a corner, for, like the coward he was, the green and gold
rooster turned tail and ran at the first opportunity.

It is to be hoped that the _muy valiente gallo_ had his wing patched
up and lived to tell his tale of bravery to many a barn-yard chick--a
war-scarred veteran whose honourable wound entitled him to the respect
of all domestic fowl. But knowing Filipino nature, I am rather inclined
to think that the white rooster made a very acceptable broth for his
master on the following day, the flesh of fighting-cocks being quite
too tough for consumption in any other form.

On our return to the ship's boat we were accompanied to the water's
edge by a juvenile contingent of natives, some of them being our
friends of the forenoon, who returned any notice of themselves on our
part by a rapturous gleam of teeth and eyes. One of them, a youngster
of perhaps ten or eleven,