ther twenty-four hours."

The next day, just as we were starting, l'Encuerado killed a hocco. The
fire was soon lighted, and the game washed down with a mouthful of
brandy, which somewhat restored our energy. About midday, when the heat
was most intense, the aspect of the ground altered, the trees became
wider apart, and our strength seemed to redouble.

"Now, Master Sunbeam!" cried Sumichrast, "lengthen your strides a
little, if you please; don't you hear the murmur of a stream?"

"Three days you've been telling me this story, so that now both
Gringalet and I are skeptical."

"How will you behave when you cross the savannahs?"

"Just as at present. I would walk without drinking, so as not to excite
my thirst," replied the child archly, who had failed to be convinced by
our reasoning.

"Oh, come! I thought you were too ill for irony. Never mind, I can bear
witness that you have behaved like a man. What do your legs say?"

"That they would be very willing to rest."

"You would like to find yourself at Orizava?"

"I should rather see a stream, an alligator, and a puma."

"You are most unreasonable. I should be contented with the stream."

"Don't you find that the mosquitoes in the _Terre-Chaude_ bite much
sharper than those in the _Terre-Temperee_?" asked the boy, addressing
l'Encuerado.

"No, Chanito; they are all alike, for they belong to the same family, as
your papa says."

"Then they must be more numerous here, for every instant one receives a
fresh pinch."

"You must not complain yet, Chanito; you'll see what it will be when we
reach the stream."

"How will it be then?"

"We shall not be able to open our mouths without swallowing some of
these blood-suckers. But, Chanito, do you know what these mosquitoes
are?"

"Yes, papa told me yesterday that they were _diptera_, and relations of
the gadflys. Their proboscis is a kind of sheath inclosing six lancets,
by the help of which they pierce our skin and suck our blood."

"But where do these hungry wretches come from?"

"From the water, where the insect lays its eggs. You know those little
worms which are constantly moving up and down in pools; they are the
larvae of the mosquito."

"The mosquito, that terrible scourge of the _Terre-Temperee_ and the
_Terre-Chaude_, renders these regions inaccessible to the inhabitants of
the _Terre-Froide_. They can not get accustomed to their bites, which
cover their bodies with large red pustules, causing feve