He was in high glee, as we praised his
skill, and so excited did he become, that he gave up his proposal of the
"Gold, Emerald, Topaz, Sapphire, and Amethyst Association, in ten
thousand shares," and vowed he would cast away his lancet and turn cook
in the service of some _bon vivant_, or go to feed the padres of a
Mexican convent. He boasted that he could cook the toughest old woman,
so as to make the flesh appear as white, soft, and sweet as that of a
spring chicken; but upon my proposing to send him, as a _cordon bleu_,
to the Cayugas, in West Texas, or among the Club Indians, of the
Colorado of the West, he changed his mind again, and formed new plans
for the regeneration of the natives of America.
After our supper, we rode our horses to the lake, to water and bathe
them, which duty being performed, we sought that repose which we were
doomed not to enjoy; for we had scarcely shut our eyes when a tremendous
shower fell upon us, and in a few minutes we were drenched to the skin.
The reader may recollect that, excepting Gabriel, we had all of us left
our blankets on the spot where we had at first descried the prairie was
in flames, so that we were now shivering with cold, and, what was worse,
the violence of the rain was such, that we could not keep our fire
alive.
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