“Don’t you want it?” asked Donald.
“No, señor; it is too much.”
“How much do you want?”
“A real is plenty.”
A real is worth in American money about seven cents.
“Oh, take it,” urged Donald in Spanish, “although I think a real is all it’s worth,” he added in English, which the peon could not understand.
Thus urged the man took the coin and bowed low
with many expressions of thanks. The coin also seemed to have loosened his tongue, and he urged the boys to make themselves perfectly at home.
“My poor house is yours,” he declared, “as long as you will honor it with your presence. I will go and give your horses some straw.”
Suiting the action to the word, he hastily left the hut, and, looking through the door, the boys saw him leading the animals to a little corral a short distance from the kitchen.