Every time Frog had a heavy job on hand, and whimpered like a girl, Malpelo punched him in the back and shouted: ‘Shut up, you baby!’ and if Frog didn’t leave off, then Malpelo lent him a hand, saying with a certain pride: ‘Here, let me do it! I’m stronger than you are.’ Or another time he gave him his half an onion, and chewed his own bread dry, shrugging his shoulders and adding: ‘I’m used to it.’
He was used to everything, he was: knocks on the head, kicks, blows with the mattock-handle, or with the saddle- strap; used to being insulted and played tricks on by everybody, used to sleeping on the stones, with his arms and back feeling broken by fourteen hours’ work on end; even he was used to fasting, when the boss, who owned the pit, punished him by stopping his bread or his soup. He us
