as he could only jump up a foot or so, he continued making a series of
abortive little leaps, each futile attempt at reaching his aggressor's
hands adding to the creature's insane rage. When the escuerzo was
beside himself with fury, the pupil would dip his stick into the oily
residue of his pipe, and hold it out to the toad, who would fasten on
to it like a mad creature, only to die in a few seconds of the
nicotine.

The only other venomous reptile was the _Vibora de la Cruz_, the
"Viper with the Cross," much dreaded by the gauchos.

It is an interesting sight seeing wild young horses being broken-in,
and receiving their first instruction in the service of man. The
rough-rider at Espartillar was a younger brother of the manager's, a
short, sturdy, round-faced, grinning Cornish lad of eighteen, a youth
of large appetite, but of few words, universally known as "The Joven,"
which merely means "the lad." "Joven," by the way, is pronounced
"Hoven," with a slight guttural sound before the "H." The Joven,
having met with no serious accidents during the two years he had
officiated as roughrider, had kept his nerve, and was still young
enough to enjoy his hazardous duties most thoroughly.

He always had a large gallery of spectators, for every one on the
estancia who could manage it trooped to the corral to criticise and to
pass judgment. The sun-browned Joven, who preferred riding without
stirrups, would appear, stripped to his drawers and vest, shod with
canvas _alpargates_, with a _revenque_, or short raw-hide whip, in his
hand. A young horse, who had hitherto run wild, would be let in and
lassoed, with a second lasso thrown over his hind legs. Before
tightening the lassoes the men threw a _recado_, or soft leather saddle