But when the train had puffed away, Arturo sat down and wrathfully looked at his quarter of a dollar.
"He had altos pesos!" Arturo muttered; "ought give four bit." According to Arturo's belief, every American had in his possession "altos pesos," which is Spanish for "high" or "enormous" "dollars," or, as Americans say, "a pile of money." Therefore Arturo felt sure that the old gentleman ought to have given half a dollar for the horned toad.
Arturo was now not at all inclined to give tia Marta the twenty-five cents.

He wanted the money himself.

Tia Marta was going to wash for somebody to-day, and would get her pay.
What should he buy?
Twenty-five cents must not be spent lightly.

It was not so often that a horned toad was found or sold.
Arturo did not muse long alone.

Another boy had heard Arturo's shouted advice to the old gentleman, and had told two or three comrades.