Monte was out of all this trouble, for he had
been consigned to the security of the galpon to avoid trouble concerning
rights of way which would assuredly have arisen between himself and Bear
(the big bulldog of the estancia) had they met. Bear amused the company
by presenting a truly comical sight, some minutes later, when he decided
to have a drink after his fight; he walked with majestic mien up to the
water spout, which jutted out from the house a few feet from the ground,
and, poking out his heavy under-jaw, collected the flow of water in his
mouth in a most satisfying way, for a few seconds. Of course, The
Instigator started off pacing and measuring the room's verandah, etc.,
in order to devise a scheme for the best improvements for the estancia,
and before long he and The Delineator had made out a plan which would
drive any member of the R.I.B.A. to desperation, but caused its authors
enormous joy. The Jehu and The Chaperon were occupied for some time in
seeing to the comfort of their men and animals, and trying to dry the
tents, clothes, etc., by the huge fire in the galpon in which the peons
were housed for the day. We are told that one Tacuruer tried to employ
the morning remuneratively by opening a temporary barber's shop on the
verandah, and advertising "hair-cutting and shaving"; possibly he might
have built up a successful business in time, but unfortunately for him
his first customer's beard was too unyielding for the ordinary scissors
and the customer objected to the way in which the horse clippers were
used on the hirsute growth of his chin, and talked of his treatment
afterwards in a way that did not inspire confidence in the other
might-have-been customers, who were observed to slink away one by one
from the barber's chair as if it were infected.
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