It had been very pleasant lying there "under the greenwood
tree," while those veracious stories of hags, lampalaguas, and
apparitions had proved highly entertaining; but a long spell, a whole
month perhaps, of that kind of life was not to be thought of; and if
I did not get to Rocha now, before the rural police were set to catch
runaway rebels, it would perhaps be impossible to do so later on. I
determined, therefore, to go my own way, and, after drinking bitter
_mate_, I caught and saddled the dun horse. I really had not
deserved the severe censure Lechuza had passed on me the previous
evening in reference to horse-stealing, for I had taken the dun with
very little more compunction than one is accustomed to feel in England
when "borrowing" an umbrella on a rainy day. To all people in all parts
of the world, a time comes when to appropriate their neighbour's goods
is held not only justifiable, but even meritorious; to Israelites in
Egypt, Englishmen under a cloud in their own moist island, and to
Orientals running away after a fight. By keeping the dun over thirty
hours in my possession I had acquired a kind of prescriptive right to
it, and now began to look on it as my very own; subsequent experience
of his endurance and other good qualities enables me to endorse the
Oriental saying that a "stolen horse carries you well."
Bidding farewell to my companions in defeat, who had certainly not
been frightened out of their imaginations, I rode forth just when it
was beginning to grow light.
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