“Pedro De Urdemalas”

Pedro de Urdemalas lives by his wits. In a way he is a liar but, different from Don Cacahuate, Tio Aurelio, and Compadre Doroteo, he does not lie for the glory of lying. His mentiras are a means to an end, and the most desirable end to him is to skin the fellow who is out to get the other man‘s hide. However, he often tricks the innocently gullible. Also, being a man of chance, he is a plaything of fate; one day he is rich and the next, poor.

Once when considerably the worse for his manner of living, and while wandering along a highway tired, hungry, and without money, he came to a hog ranch. It was the first of its kind he had ever seen and, despite his low spirits, he was greatly amused by the great array of swine tails.

"There are many tails" said he, "and wherever there is a tail there is a hog. This gives me an idea, and if it works I shall have money to spend."

He took his knife and cut the tails from the hogs and continued on his way until he came to a resaca, or swamp. There he busied himself sticking the hog-end of the tail stumps in the mud. Then, after tramping around and digging up the earth about each, he sat beneath a willow and began to weep.

Presently a man rode up horseback.

"Why are you weeping?" he asked.

Pedro wept louder than ever and said, "Why shouldn‘t I weep? I have lost a fortune in this bog hole. Those tails you see are all that is left to show for hogs that were."

"Poor fellow," said the stranger, "weep no more. I shall buy your herd and have my servants come and dig them out of this atascadero. How much do you want for them?"

"Senor," said Pedro de Urdelmalas, "it is not my wish to sell them, for life is wrapped up in my hogs, but you see how hopeless things are. Rather than lose them, I will sell them to you for one thousand dollars."