his red
hair bristled out in a most comic fashion, and over his blue flannel
shirt a large red beard flowed almost to his waist. Terence was walking
by the side of the second cart in corduroy breeches and gaiters and blue
coat, with a high black hat, battered and bruised out of all shape, on
his head. In his hand he held a favourite shillelah, which he had
brought with him from his native land, and with the end of which he
occasionally poked the ribs of the oxen, with many Irish ejaculations,
which no doubt alarmed the animals not a little. The Yankee rode
sometimes near one, sometimes by another, seldom exchanging a word with
any one. He wore a fur cap made of fox's skin; a faded blanket, with a
hole cut in the middle for the head to go through, fell from his
shoulders to his knees. He and Lopez each led a couple of spare horses.
The mastiffs trotted along by the horses, and the two fine retrievers,
Dash and Flirt, galloped about over the plains. The plain across which
they were travelling was a flat, broken only by slight swells, and a
tree here and there; and the young Hardys wondered not a little how
Lopez, who acted as guide, knew the direction he was to take.

After three hours' riding, Lopez pointed to a rather larger clump of
trees than usual in the distance, and said, 'That is the camp.'

'Hurrah,' shouted the boys. 'May we ride on, papa?'

'Yes, boys, I will ride on with you.' And off they set, leaving their
party to follow quietly.

'Mind how you gallop, boys: the ground is honeycombed with armadillo
holes; and if your horse treads in one, you will go over his head.'

'I don't think that I should do that,' Charley, who had a more than
sufficiently good opinion of himself, said; 'I can stick on pretty
tightly, and----' he had not time to finish his sentence, for his horse
suddenly seemed to go down on his head, and Charley was sent flying two
or three yards through the air, descending with a heavy thud upon the
soft ground.

He was up in a moment, unhurt, except for a knock on the eye against his
gun, which he was carrying before him; and after a minute's rueful
look, he joined heartily in the shouts of laughter of his father and
brother at his expense. 'Ah, Charley, brag is a good dog, but holdfast
is a better. I never saw a more literal proof of the saying. There, jump
up again, and I need not say look out for holes.'

They were soon off again, but this time at a more moderate pace. This
fall was no