Page:Life Amongst the Modocs.djvu/190

 mule.

A poor, crooked, imitative little monkey he looked as lie bent to pluck the grass; at the same time watching Paquita, as if he wished to forget that there was any graver task on hand than to pluck grass and feed the little mules.

Mules are noisy of a morning when they first set out. The utmost care was necessary now to insure silence.

Had the wind blown in our direction, or even a mule brayed below, these mules in the midst of our party would have turned their heads down hill, pointed their opera-glasses sharply for a moment or two at the sounds below, and then, in spite of kicks or clubs, have brayed like trumpets, and betrayed us where we stood.

There was no excitement in the face of the Prince, not much concern. His foot played and patted in the great wooden stirrup, and shook and jingled the bells of steel on his Spanish spur, but he said no thing.

Sometimes the men below would point in this direction and then in that with their long yellow gauntlets, then they would prick and spur their mules till they spun round like tops.

When a man pricks and spurs his mule, you may be sure that he is bothered.

A Yankee would scratct^his head, pull at his ear, or rub his chin ; an Englishman would take snuff; a Missourian would take a chew of tobacco, and perhaps swear ; but a Californian in the m