THE PENITENT WAG
Francisco Teixeira de Souza Pontes, bastard scion of a Souza Pontes family, rich planters of Barreiros and owners of thirty thousand "arrobas"[1] of coffee, at thirty-two years of age began to take life seriously.
A wag by nature, up to that time he had lived off his comic strain and thereby reaped board, lodging, clothing and all else. His currency consisted of grimaces, jokes, anecdotes about Englishmen and everything that tickles the facial muscles of the animal that laughs, commonly called man, provoking hilarity or raising hearty guffaws.
He knew So-and-So's "Encyclopedia of Laughter and Mirth" by heart—the most mirthless creature God ever made, but such was Pontes ability that he could turn the most feeble jokes into excellent witticisms, to the delight of his hearers.
He had a knack for imitating man and beast. The entire gamut of a dog's voice, from the baying of the hound chasing the wild pig, to howling at the moon and all other sounds, growling or barking, were imitated by him to such perfection as to deceive both dogs and moon.
He also grunted like a pig, cackled like a hen, croaked like a toad, scolded like an old woman, whimpered like a baby, enjoined silence like a Representative or speechified like a patriot at
- ↑ An arroba equals 32 pounds.
