and prettier. The burrion is small, canary-like in size, dark-striped, with yellow streaked slightly in. Here is a blue canary, the first I ever saw—canarid azul the hostess calls it. It is as handsome as its yellow kindred, and, for a novelty, prettier. The cardinal bird concludes the circuit, radiant of plumage and crested with scarlet, a haughty representative of his name. So birds and flowers are some consolation, and may even incline us to apologize for the dust, for which the mistress is perhaps no more to blame than is Cincinnati for its coal grime, or Boston for its east winds, or New York for its mosquitoes. For the plains are dry, and the winds high.
Another good point about this place is its situation. Seldom has a better or bigger town an equal location. The mountains come close to it on the west. Superb black sierras they look, after this sunset hour, superb golden purple just before. They are, however, inwardly neither black nor golden, but full of silver. The one nearest, and that rises solitary and splendid out of a vast plain, is the Sierra Catorce, and it is said has yielded a million of dollars in two months. These mountains are offset by the plain which they limit close on this side, but lie low in the eastern horizon, being there thirty miles away.
Last and best, this has the good point that it is nearer home than any previous casa. The mid-ocean is agreeable, if for no other reason, because it is mid-ocean. So in this feature of our dismal house we rejoice, and will rejoice. When the lad said we started away at three, I said "Good;" if he said "at twelve," I should have said, "better;" if "now," "best." Let us while away the interregnum with recording the log of the day. It will make the night less tedious.
We left the town of Chalcos at our usual hour of four, four of us this time, for a rarity, being in the coach. At six we concluded our sleep, and looked each other in the face. My fellow-travelers were two young ladies, of seventeen to twenty, and their little Cinderella, a maid of twelve. They were going to Mattejuala, three postas off. The youngest of the two smoked several cigarettes before the day
