ently he did not
have much use for his younger brother, who was very poor. Juan had
nothing that he could call his own but a cow. One day, disappointed
over his life of poverty, he killed his cow, and some days afterward
he set out to find his fortune. He took nothing with him but the
hide of his cow. When he reached the next town, he saw large piles of
cattle-hides in front of a butcher's shop. Late that night he stole
out secretly and put the skin of his cow in one of the piles. The
next morning he went to the shop to talk with the butcher.

"Mr. Butcher," he said, "I have come here to look for my lost cow. Have
you not killed a cow with a mark J on the right hip?"

"No," answered the honest man, "all the cows which were killed here
came from my herd out there in the mountains."

Juan stood musing for a few moments, and then said, "Let us look
through these piles of hide to see whether you killed my cow or not!"

"All right," answered the butcher, and so they began the investigation.

When they found the hide which Juan had put there, he began to quarrel
with the man. "You must pay me five hundred pesos for my cow, or else I
shall bring a law-suit before the court against you," he said angrily.

"I wonder how this could have happened!" the butcher exclaimed.

"There is no use of wondering," said Juan impatiently. "You stole
my cow, and now you have to pay for it." The man, who was very much
afraid of being brought before the court, gave Juan the five hundred
pesos; and Juan went away with the money in his pocket, and the hide
on his head.

On his way home he came to a tree standing at a cross-roads. He was
very tired and thirsty, but he could not find a house where to ask
for water. He climbed the tree to look for a place to go to, but,
instead of a house, he saw a company of armed men coming down the
road. The men stopped under the tree to rest. Juan was so terrified
that he hardly knew what to do. As he was trembling with fright, the
hide fell down from the tree and frightened the men away. They thought
that it was a curse from heaven because of their misdeeds. When Juan
realized that the men were gone, he recovered from his fright and
quickly descended. There on the ground he saw a number of sacks full
of money, and, loading a horse with two of the sacks, he started for
his home town.

As soon as he reached his house, he went to his brother's to borrow a
salop. [66] Then he inserted several pesetas and te