José — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4§ JOSE. half of pain, at the speaker; then gazed moodily down at his saddle and said: “T have no secrets, but I supposed I had the right to go where and do what I pleased before we started. Ido not wish to sleep ina hot room with twenty others; Ido not care to spend the day ina bar-room drinking whisky and smoking tobacco. I employed my time making friends with eight of our animals for our wagon—here they are, as well be- haved as if they had been in harness a week, while back of us the men are still cursing and whipping like mad.” Bill snapped his whip in the air, to give vent to some vexing emotion, with so much energy that’ three of the leaders were startled out of their steady gait and began to paw the air on their hind legs; but a few strange guttural exclamations from the Mexican quickly allayed their fear and soon brought them back to their gait. “What is your name, my boy?” asked Green, after a pause, in which he studied the little fellow’s appearance from head to foot. “Jose Maria, sir!” the latter replied, eravely, without raising his eyes. “Well, Jose, i think Bill ought to be satisfied with your explanation, and I hope we shall become better acquainted in the course of the journey.” He wheeled his horse about and looked back, and again his eye encountered the little fellow’s earnest look, which he suddenly averted in an opposite direction when Green turned his head. Slowly the caravan advanced, ever and anon brought to a halt by the stubbornness of the teams. “Y think you might have told that story about your cultivating the acquaintance of the mules, to Eomicbooks co