"It's only a question of getting used to it!"

"Like the donkey that got used to not eating! In our present campaign
the greater part of our losses have been due to wounds on the soles
of the feet. Remember the donkey, madam, remember the donkey!"

"But, my dear sir," retorted the lady, "look how much money is wasted
on shoe-leather. There's enough to pension many widows and orphans
in order to maintain our prestige. Don't smile, for I'm not talking
about myself, and I have my pension, even though a very small one,
insignificant considering the services my husband rendered, but I'm
talking of others who are dragging out miserable lives! It's not
right that after so much persuasion to come and so many hardships in
crossing the sea they should end here by dying of hunger. What you say
about the soldiers may be true, but the fact is that I've been in the
country more than three years, and I haven't seen any soldier limping."

"In that I agree with the lady," said her neighbor. "Why issue them
shoes when they were born without them?"

"And why shirts?"

"And why trousers?"

"Just calculate what we should economize on soldiers clothed only in
their skins!" concluded he who was defending the army.

In another group the conversation was more heated. Ben-Zayb was
talking and declaiming, while Padre Camorra, as usual, was constantly
interrupting him. The friar-journalist, in spite of his respect for