Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/269

Rh number of rude crosses erected at intervals along the route—mementos of unsuspecting wayfarers who have been murdered by ladrones; while on their mountain journey.

Two miserably-clad Indians—one a strongly built, short man; the other a youth about seventeen years of age—were making the best of their way over this road; at noon on a cloudy day. Both were natives of the same remote village, where from infancy they had obtained a scanty livelihood by alternately begging and working in the fields of haciendas; but having been unusually industrious for the last three months they had appropriated a portion of their earnings to take a trip to the city of Mexico; there to establish themselves in the listless occupation of léperos in the hope of living comfortably in future without laborious exertion.

On their arrival in the midst of the Sierra—just where the traveller hopes to obtain a glimpse of the city to which he is bound—the sky was lowering and overcast and some drops of a passing shower were felt; but soon the sun burst forth overhead brilliantly lighting up the road the travellers were takings and spanning with a rainbow the declivity