some tapping of the head and neck, and you are there.
You are ever the right side up. Houp la! But let us not precipitate
this thing. The more haste, we do not so much accelerate ourselves."

He appeared to be suiting the action to the word as he lingered in the
doorway of the stable. "Come on," I said.

"Pardon," he returned, with a bow that was both elaborate and evasive,
"but you shall yourself precede me--the stable is _yours_."

"Oh, come along!" I continued impatiently. To my surprise, he seemed to
dodge back into the stable again. After an instant he reappeared.

"Pardon! but I am re-strain! Of a truth, in this instant I am grasp by
the mouth of thees horse in the coat-tail of my dress! She will that I
should remain. It would seem"--he disappeared again--"that"--he was out
once more--"the experiment is a sooccess! She reciprocate! She is, of a
truth, gone on me. It is lofe!"--a stronger pull from Chu Chu here sent
him in again--"but"--he was out now triumphantly with half his garment
torn away--"I shall coquet."

Nothing daunted, however, the gallant fellow was back next day with a
Mexican saddle and attired in the complete outfit of a _vaquero_.[147-1]
Overcome though he was by heavy deerskin trousers, open at the side
from the knees down, and fringed with bullion buttons, an enormous flat
_sombrero_,[147-2] and stiff, short embroidered velvet jacket, I was
more concerned at the ponderous saddle and equipments intended for the
slim Chu Chu. That these would hide and conceal her beautiful curves
and contour, as well as overweight her, seemed certain; that she would
resist them all to the last seemed equally clear. Nevertheless, to my
surprise, when she was led out, and the saddle thrown deftly across her
back, she was passive. Was it possible that some drop of her old
Spanish blood responded to its clinging embrace? She did not either
look at it nor smell it. But when Enriquez began to tighten the "cinch"
or girth, a more singular thing occurred. Chu Chu visibly distended her
slender barrel to twice its dimensions; the more he pulled the more she
swelled, until I was actually ashamed of her. Not so Enriquez. He
smiled at us, and complacently stroked his thin moustache.

"Eet is ever so! She is the child of her grandmother! Even when you
shall make saddle thees old Castilian stock, it will make large--it
will become a balloon! Eet is trick--eet is a leetle game--believe me.
For why?"

I had not listened, a