But
Occasionally Some Poor Gaucho With Only A Few Animals Would Refuse To
Part With A Piebald Mare, Either Out
Of pride, or "cussedness" as an
American would say, or because he was attached to it, and this would
stir
Gandara's soul to its deepest depth and bring up all the
blackness in him to the surface. "What do you want, then?" he would
shout, sitting on his horse and making violent gestures with his right
hand and arm, barking out his words. "Have I not offered you enough?
Listen! What is a white mare to you - to you, a poor man - more than a
mare of any other colour? If your riding-horses must be of one colour,
tell me the colour you want. Black or brown or bay or chestnut, or
what? Look! you shall have two young unbroken geldings of two years in
exchange for the mare. Could you make a better exchange? Were you ever
treated more generously? If you refuse it will be out of spite, and I
shall know how to treat you. When you lose your animals and are
broken, when your children are sick with fever, when your wife is
starving, you shall not come to me for a horse to ride on, nor for
money, nor meat, nor medicine, since you will have me for an enemy
instead of a friend."
That, they say, was how he raged and bullied when he met with a
repulse from a poor neighbour. So fond was Don Gregorio of his
piebalds that he spent the greater part of every day on horseback with
his different herds of mares, each led by its own proud piebald
stallion.
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