But thus it often is; for no man, however learned he may be and able
to read the almanac, can tell what a day will bring forth."
Anselmo was so outrageously prosy, I felt strongly inclined to go to
bed to dream of beautiful Margarita; but politeness forbade, and I was
also somewhat curious to hear what extraordinary thing had happened
to him on that very eventful day.
"It fortunately happened," continued Anselmo, "that I had that morning
saddled the best of my cream-noses; for on that horse I could say
without fear of contradiction, I am on horseback and not on foot. I
called him Chingolo, a name which Manuel, also called the Fox, gave
him, because he was a young horse of promise, able to fly with his
rider. Manuel had nine horses--cream-noses every one--and how from
being Manuel's they came to be mine I will tell you. He, poor man, had
just lost all his money at cards--perhaps the money he lost was not
much, but how he came to have any was a mystery to many. To me, however,
it was no mystery, and when my cattle were slaughtered and had their
hides stripped off by night, perhaps I could have gone to
Justice--feeling like a blind man for something in the wrong place--and
led her in the direction of the offender's house; but when one has it
in his power to speak, knowing at the same time that his words will
fall like a thunderbolt out of a blue sky upon a neighbour's dwelling,
consuming it to ashes and killing all within it, why, sirs, in such
a case the good Christian prefers to hold his peace.
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