That's the way they have. Different people speak a different lingo,
just as different animals make different noises," answered Job,
sententiously. "I can't say as how I likes these Dons; they've too
stuck up and stand clear a manner about them to please me."

"That's my notion, too, Job," said Bob. "I like the Mounseers a
precious sight better; when one is friends with them, they take to our
ways a hundred-fold better than these Dons. They'll talk and laugh
away, and drink too, with a fellow, just for all the world as if they
were as regular born Christians as we are. That's what a Don will never
do; he won't drink with you, he won't talk to you, he won't laugh or
dance, and what's more, he won't fight with you; and that's what the
Mounseers never refuses to do, and that's why I likes them."

Morton enjoyed the change very much, from his usual life on board ship;
he had not the same objection to the Spaniards as had his followers, and
as he had now sufficiently mastered their language to converse with
ease, he was never at a loss for amusement, and was able to obtain all
the information he required about the country. Three days were consumed
in reaching his destination; the French, he found, had lately been in
that part of the country, but had retired northward. The people were
anxious to drive the French out of their country, but they wanted arms,
and money, and leaders.

Ronald was treated with great courtesy wherever he appeared, and he felt
himself a much more important personage than he had ever before been.
He had concluded the work on which he had been sent, and was about to
return to his ship, when one of the Spanish officials informed him that
he had received notification of the approach of a British commissioner,
a military officer, to assist them in organising their forces.

"He must be a great man, an important person," observed the Spaniard;
"for he travels with many attendants, and his wife and family. No
Spanish ladies would dream of travelling about the country at a time
like this."

Morton considered that it would be his duty to communicate with the
commissioner, and hearing that he was only a day's journey off, he set
out to meet him. The village at which he arrived in the afternoon, like
most in Spain, consisted of neat, low, white-washed houses, with bright,
red-tiled roofs, most of them having massive wooden verandahs and
trellis-work in front, forming arbours, over which vines in rich