wn, in paying the men and
walking back to the village, leaving them sitting on the stones.

The untoward circumstances of the morning threw Don Juan into a
somewhat anxious state; he had incurred the expense of preparations,
and was uncertain whether we intended to do him the honour of dining
with him; apprehensive of another bofetada, he was afraid to mention
the subject, but on reaching his house he sent to give notice that
dinner was ready, and to inquire when he should send it to us. To make
amends, and again conciliate, we answered that we would dine at his
house, which he acknowledged through Albino as a much higher honour.

His house was on the principal street, but a short distance from the
plaza, and one of the first erected, and the best in the place. He had
been induced to settle in Iturbide on account of the facilities and
privileges offered by the government, and the privilege which he seemed
to value most was that of selling out. As he told us himself, when he
came he was not worth a medio, and he seemed really to have held his
own remarkably well. But appearances were deceitful, for he was a man
of property. His house, including doors and a partition at one end, had
cost him thirty dollars. The doors and partition his neighbours
regarded as a piece of pretension, and he himself supposed that these
might have been dispensed with, but he had no children, and did not
mind the expense. At one end of the room was a rude frame, supporting
the image of a tutelary saint. Near it was a stick thrust into the mud
floor, with three prongs at the upper end, in which rested an earthen
vessel containing castor oil, with a wick in it, to light up the
mansion at night; a sort of bar with bottles containing agua ardiente
flavoured with anise, for retailing to the Indians, which, with a small
table and three hammocks, constituted the furniture of Don Juan's
house. These last served for chairs, but as he had never anticipated
the extraordinary event of dining three persons, they could not be
brought into right juxtaposition to the table. Consequently, we sent
for our two borrowed chairs, and, with the table in front of one of the
hammocks, we were all seated except our host, who proposed to wait
upon us. There was one aristocratic arrangement in Don Juan's
household. His kitchen was on the other side of the street, a rickety
old frame of poles, and Don Juan, after running across several times,
bare-headed, to watch the prog