hile this work had been going on, the boys had been engaged up at the
house. The first thing was to make a churn, then to put up some large
closets and some more shelves, and the bullock-carts had to be sent to
Rosario for a fresh supply of planks. This occupied them until the dam
was finished. The girls had tried their first experiment at butter, and
the result had been most satisfactory. The dinners, too, were pronounced
to be an immense improvement upon the old state of things.

Soon after the dam was finished, Hans, who had been too long a rover to
settle down, expressed his desire to leave; and as Mr. Hardy had
determined to lessen his establishment,--as, now that the heavy work was
over, it was no longer necessary to keep so many hands,--he offered no
objection to his leaving without the notice he had agreed to give. Wages
were high, and Mr. Hardy was desirous of keeping his remaining capital
in hand, in case of his sheep and cattle being driven off by the
Indians. One of the peons was also discharged, and there remained only
Lopez, Seth, Terence, and two peons.

CHAPTER VI.

A TALE OF THE MEXICAN WAR.

Mr. Hardy was rather surprised at Seth Harper, the Yankee, having
remained so long in his service, as the man had plainly stated, when
first engaged, that he thought it likely that he should not fix himself,
as he expressed it, for many weeks. However, he stayed on, and had
evidently taken a fancy to the boys; and was still more interested in
the girls, whose talk and ways must have been strange and very pleasant
to him after so many years' wandering as a solitary man. He was
generally a man of few words, using signs where signs would suffice, and
making his answers, when obliged to speak, as brief as possible. This
habit of taciturnity was no doubt acquired from a long life passed
either alone, or amid dangers where an unnecessary sound might have cost
him his life. To the young people, however, he would relax from his
habitual rule of silence. Of an evening, when work was over, they would
go down to the bench he had erected outside his hut, and would ask him
to tell them tales of his Indian experiences. Upon one of these
occasions Charley said to him: 'But of all the near escapes that you
have had, which was the most hazardous you ever had? which do you
consider was the narrowest touch you ever had of being killed?'

Seth considered for some time in silence, turned his plug of tobacco in
his mouth, e