The poor beasts limped off with the blood running."
Juan did not see his way clear at the moment to any fitting
rejoinder to this easy assumption, on Alessandro's part, of the
equal superiority of Indians and Mexicans in the sheep-shearing
art; so, much vexed, with another "Humph!" he walked away;
walked away so fast, that he lost the sight of a smile on
Alessandro's face, which would have vexed him still further.
At the sheep-shearing sheds and pens all was stir and bustle. The
shearing shed was a huge caricature of a summerhouse,-- a long,
narrow structure, sixty feet long by twenty or thirty wide, all roof
and pillars; no walls; the supports, slender rough posts, as far apart
as was safe, for the upholding of the roof, which was of rough
planks loosely laid from beam to beam. On three sides of this were
the sheep-pens filled with sheep and lambs.
A few rods away stood the booths in which the shearers' food was
to be cooked and the shearers fed. These were mere temporary
affairs, roofed only by willow boughs with the leaves left on. Near
these, the Indians had already arranged their camp; a hut or two of
green boughs had been built, but for the most part they would
sleep rolled up in their blankets, on the ground.
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