What is that slender little bundle over there ?" "That is the report of the lessee of the opal mines.

He has paid the four thousand florins rent in precious stones, which we could have bought in the market for a thousand florins, if we had paid cash for them." "But what is the poor man to do?
He must live.

I know he has children to support." "But there was a merchant here from Galicia a little time ago who looked at the mine and offered twenty thousand florins rent for it straight off." "What?
Would you have me give the mine to a man from Galicia--to a foreigner?
Not if he paid me for it with the stars of heaven! Let us stick by the old agreement.

What is that other bundle ?" "That is the account of the Talpadi Forest." "The Talpadi Forest! Why, it is now twelve years since I have seen any accounts at all from that quarter.

Don't you recollect how you and I were out coursing a little time ago, and the rain overtook us?
It doesn't matter, said I.We must be near my Talpadi forest; let us gallop thither and shelter till the storm has blown over.