tos. The young men went equipped for the chase, but as sportsmen who
had no intention of going far from their companions in pursuit of any
game. Manoel could be trusted for that, and the girls--for Lina could
not leave her mistress--went prepared for a walk, an excursion of two or
three leagues being not too long to frighten them.

Neither Joam Garral nor Yaquita had time to go with them. For one reason
the plan of the jangada was not yet complete, and it was necessary that
its construction should not be interrupted for a day, and another was
that Yaquita and Cybele, well seconded as they were by the domestics of
the fazenda, had not an hour to lose.

Minha had accepted the offer with much pleasure, and so, after breakfast
on the day we speak of, at about eleven o'clock, the two young men and
the two girls met on the bank at the angle where the two streams joined.
One of the blacks went with them. They all embarked in one of the ubas
used in the service of the farm, and after having passed between the
islands of Iquitos and Parianta, they reached the right bank of the
Amazon.

They landed at a clump of superb tree-ferns, which were crowned, at
a height of some thirty feet with a sort of halo made of the dainty
branches of green velvet and the delicate lacework of the drooping
fronds.

"Well, Manoel," said Minha, "it is for me to do the honors of the
forest; you are only a stranger in these regions of the Upper Amazon.
We are at home here, and you must allow me to do my duty, as mistress of
the house."

"Dearest Minha," replied the young man, "you will be none the less
mistress of your house in our town of Belem than at the fazenda of
Iquitos, and there as here----"

"Now, then," interrupted Benito, "you did not come here to exchange
loving speeches, I imagine. Just forget for a few hours that you are
engaged."

"Not for an hour--not for an instant!" said Manoel.

"Perhaps you will if Minha orders you?"

"Minha will not order me."

"Who knows?" said Lina, laughing.

"Lina is right," answered Minha, who held out her hand to Manoel. "Try
to forget! Forget! my brother requires it. All is broken off! As long
as this walk lasts we are not engaged: I am no more than the sister of
Benito! You are only my friend!"

"To be sure," said Benito.

"Bravo! bravo! there are only strangers here," said the young mulatto,
clapping her hands.

"Strangers who see each other for the first time," added the girl; "who
meet,