whatever else you wish." It was not altogether easy to refuse this gift;
finally I replied that we had a long journey ahead and that Castolo
would weary on the road; that he had better wait until some later time.

It was now time for the family to dispose of itself for the night. I was
already in the hammock and Ernst had one of the pole-beds; the man, his
wife, and little Federico occupied the other bed; the little girl and
the three older boys climbed, by a notched log, up to a loft constructed
of poles or canes on which they laid themselves down. After all were
located, the woman barred the door and we were soon asleep.

All rose early. Not only did we wish to make an early start, but the
boys, too, were to make a journey. Our friends had agreed to make us
some coffee and _tortillas_. We had made our preparations for starting
and were waiting for our breakfast, when a shriveled and wrinkled
old woman tottered up to beg the strangers to visit her sick son and
prescribe some _remedio_. On our consenting to go with her, she caught
up a stick of fat pine, lighted it in the fire, and with this blazing
torch to light the way, preceded us to her house. Her son had been a
strong and robust young man, but four months of lying upon his pole-bed
had sadly reduced him. He was thin and pale, coughed sadly, and suffered
with fever, chills, and dreadful headaches. He was taking medicines
brought from Tehuantepec, but these seemed to have no effect and we were
begged to suggest treatment. We advised continuance of the remedy she
had been using, but also prescribed hot water taken in the morning and
at night, hot water applications for the headaches, quinine for the
chills and fever, and a digestive for the stomach trouble, and furnished
these remedies from our own supplies. Having lighted us back to our
lodging-place the old lady asked our charge. When we refused to receive
payment from the poor creature, we noted an increased activity on the