silent. We pursued
our investigations with zeal and finally reached the alley. It had
been raining heavily for almost a week, and the alley was a mass of
black, sticky mud. Gazing anxiously over the fence, we heard a feeble
chirp from a large gob of mud in the alley. It was our rooster!

The Shanghai had rashly ventured into supposed neutral ground in that
alley and had crowed once too often. The little game cock had squeezed
through the fence and come over to investigate the situation. They had
fought there in the mud. The mud was too deep for the Shanghai to run
and the bantam killed him. During the battle the victor had become so
covered with mud that he could neither move nor crow nor see. He was
in a worse state than Charles with the pawpaws, and indifferent to
honors.

We took him and washed him. He seemed none the worse for his
adventure, but that battle must have been a royal one. It was the
second one we had not seen! We felt like the Roman public deprived of
its "_Circenses_." We really never did see that chicken fight, for he
got the pip or something, a few days after, perhaps from the microbes
in the alley, and in spite of our careful nursing, or possibly because
of it, he died. He died just in time, too, for after we had put {331}
him away with more ceremony than we had used before, father who had got
some inkling of the affair, suddenly broke out at supper: "Boys, are
you keeping game-cocks in the back lot? Fighting-chickens, eh?"

"No, sir," we both answered meekly, with a clear conscience and a
steady eye.

We had lots of pets in those days; some time they may serve for another
story.

THE END

{335}

INDEX

A

Abancay, battle of, 102.
Acla, Spanish settlement, 45-49
Aguilar, Geronimo de, 122
Alcantara, Martin de, 54, 106, 107
Alderete, the King's Treasurer, 205-212
_Alfred_, the, Jones's first ship, 283
Almagrists, the, 106, 111
Almagro, Diego de, 57-67; 88-93; 101-104; 107
Diego, the son, 104, 108, 109
Alvarado, Pedro de, called Tonatiuh, 102, 109, 174, 184, 186,
187, 194
Amazon River, 105
America, Central, 3
South, 3, 4, 18, 27
Anahuac, Empire of, 125
Andalusia, New, 7
Antigua del Darien, Maria de la, 20, 23-27; 33-41
Arbolancha, 42
Arguello, the notary, 48, 49
Arrows, poisoned, used by Indians, 10, 11, 13, 14
Astor, John Jacob, 261-272
Fur Trading Company, 262
Astoria, 262-276
Ata