to several papers. When the day of payment came, they could liquidate
their debts by renewing their obligations. They simply signed a new
set of similar papers with the interest compounded and added to the
original debt. Surely Don Guillermo was conceded to stand highest in
popular estimation of any set of men who had ever come to the Rio
Grande. Had he not shown the people how to do business in a
convenient and easy manner? Under such a system nobody worried or
labored very much and life was like a pleasant dream. But alas! there
has always been a beginning and an ending to everything under the
sun, good or evil. The awakening from an easy life's dream was
occasioned by a crushing blow. It fell on the day of final reckoning,
when Don Guillermo, my good uncle, thought the time was propitious to
realize something tangible on sundry duly signed, sealed, and
witnessed instruments. There was a rumpus; neither earthquake nor
cyclone would have caused a greater commotion in the community. What,
then, did this lying gringo mean by resorting to the trickery of the
United States law courts and the power and services of the county
sheriff? Why did he wrest their property from them? Had this gringo
not always accepted their signatures as a legal tender for the
payment of their debts? Had he not told them time and again that
their handwriting was better than gold? If uncle had fallen into the
clutches of these furious people, he would undoubtedly have been
lynched. But he had wisely disposed of all his property in the
country and had left with his family for the States. I remained in
the service of the buyer of and successor to his business.

Soon after I began to feel lonesome, restless and dissatisfied, and
that life among the natives was not as pleasant and satisfactory as
formerly may be easily imagined. In fact, the gringos were now
cordially hated and envied by a certain class, the element of