lace at one end, where I saw
three very old women seated like witches round a _brasero_, the great
brass dish of burning cinders. With true Spanish stolidity they did not
rise as I approached, but waited for me to speak, looking at me
indifferently. I asked whether I could have anything to eat.

'Fried eggs.'

'Anything else?'

The hostess, a tall creature, haggard and grim, shrugged her shoulders.
Her jaws were toothless, and when she spoke it was difficult to
understand. I tied Aguador to a manger and took off his saddle. The old
women stirred themselves at last, and one brought a portion of chopped
straw and a little barley. Another with the bellows blew on the cinders,
and the third, taking eggs from a basket, fried them on the _brasero_.
Besides, they gave me coarse brown bread and red wine, which was coarser
still; for dessert the hostess went to the door and from a neighbouring
tree plucked oranges.

When I had finished--it was not a very substantial meal--I drew my chair
to the _brasero_ and handed round my cigarette-case. The old women
helped themselves, and a smile of thanks made the face of my gaunt
hostess somewhat less repellent. We smoked a while in silence.

'Are you all alone here?' I asked, at length.

The hostess made a movement of her head towards the country. 'My son is
out shooting,' she said, 'and two others are in Cuba, fighting the
rebels.'

'God protect them!' muttered another.

'All our sons go to Cuba now,' said the first. 'Oh, I don't blame the
Cubans, but the government.'

An angry light filled her eyes, and she lifted her clenched hand,
cursing the rulers at Madrid who took her children. 'They're robbers and
fools. Why can't they let Cuba go? It isn't worth the money we pay in
taxes.'

She spoke so vehemently, mumbling the words between her toothless gums,
that I could scarcely make them out.

'In Madrid they don't care if the country goes to rack and ruin so long
as they fill their purses. Listen.' She put one hand on my arm. 'My boy
came back with fever and dysentery. He was ill for months--at death's
door--and I nursed him day and night. And almost before he could walk
they sent him out again to that accursed country.'

The tears rolled heavily down her wrinkled cheeks.

* * *

Luisiana is a curious place. It was a colony formed by Charles III. of
Spain with Germans whom he brought to people the desolate land; and I
fancied the Teuton ancestry was apparent in the small