Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/115

CH. VII.] they are taken off the pommel, and, being stretched upon the ground, form a convenient couch; whilst the pockets of the interior side (the outward is covered with the hair) serve to carry a flasket of liquor, a sandwich box, or any other matter which necessity or convenience may suggest.

The jobs I have alluded to were immediately given to be executed by some cordonniers who belonged to the establishment, but the individuals in question were not altogether shoemakers, for they were now employed in making mule harness and repairing other leathern articles which came within the sphere of their business and ability.

Don Simon was sitting, the greater part of the evening, in deep consultation with our sprightly hostess. She evidently considered him a man in whom she ought to repose the most implicit confidence, as regarded her commercial concerns, and treated him with great attention and respect. His arrival was hailed with delight