To Be Sure, That Was Work Which They Did Not
Share With Men Any More Than The Men Shared The Labor Of The Fields With
Them.
It was still afternoon, well before sunset, when we arrived at
Valladolid, where one of the quaintest of our Spanish surprises awaited
us.
We knew that the omnibus of the hotel we had chosen would be the
shabbiest omnibus at the station, and we saw without great alarm our
Chilian friends drive off in an indefinitely finer vehicle. But what we
were not prepared for was the fact of _octroi_ at Valladolid, and for
the strange behavior of the local customs officer who stopped us on our
way into the town. He looked a very amiable young man as he put his face
in at the omnibus door, and he received without explicit question our
declaration that we had nothing taxable in our trunks. Then, however, he
mounted to the top of the omnibus and thumped our trunks about as if to
test them for contraband by the sound. The investigation continued on
these strange terms until the officer had satisfied himself of our good
faith, when he got down and with a friendly smile at the window bowed us
into Valladolid.
In its way nothing could have been more charming; and we rather liked
being left by the omnibus about a block from our hotel, on the border of
a sort of promenade where no vehicles were allowed. We had been halted
near a public fountain, where already the mothers and daughters of the
neighborhood were gathered with earthen jars for the night's supply of
water.
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