g a little apart from his mother--regarding her with curious
intentness--and with Felipe bustling about the team and now and again
bursting out in song of questionable melody and rhythm. Felipe was
preparing the horses for the corral at the rear of the house, and soon
he flung aside the harness and seized each of the horses by the bridle.

"Well, you li'l' devil!" he exclaimed, addressing the reclining colt.
"You coom along now! You live in thees place back here! You coom wit' me
now!" And he started around a corner of the adobe.

The colt hastily rose to his feet. But not at the command of the man. No
such command was necessary, for whither went his mother there went he.
Close to her side, he moved with her into the inclosure, crowding
frantically over the bars, skinning his knees in the effort, coming to a
wide-eyed stand just inside the entrance, and there surveying with
nervous apprehension the corral's occupants--a burro, two pigs, a flock
of chickens. But he held close to his mother's side.

Felipe did not linger in the corral. Throwing off their bridles, he
tossed the usual scant supply of alfalfa to the horses, and filled their
tub from a near-by well. Then, after putting up the bars, he set out
with determined stride across the settlement. His direction was the
general store, and his quest was the loan of a horse, since his team now
was broken, and would be broken for a number of days to come.

The store was owned and conducted by one Pedro Garcia. Pedro Garcia was
the mountain Shylock. He loaned money at enormous rates of interest, and
he rented out horses at prohibitive rates per day. Also, being what he
was, Pedro had gained his pounds of flesh--was alarmingly fat, with
short legs of giant circumference. Usually these legs were clothed in
tight-fitting overalls, and his small feet incased in boots of
high-grade leather wonderfully roweled. Yet many years had passed since
Pedro had been seen in a saddle. Evidently he held to the rowels in fond
memory of his days of slender youth and coltish gambolings. Pedro was
seated in his customary place upon an empty keg on the porch, and
Felipe, ignoring his grunted greeting, plunged at once into the purpose
of his call.

He had come to borrow a horse, Felipe explained. One of his own was
unfit for work, yet the cutting and drawing must go on. While the mare
was recuperating, he carefully pointed out, he himself could continue to
earn money to meet some of his press