la_, and then over the mountain on mule-back.

One friend in vain tried to move me by drawing dreadful pictures of life
with a ruined complexion; another assured me I was going to bury myself
among barbarians; a third pointed out the miseries of sea-sickness and
the certainty of death from some fever which would be sure to attack me
at once, and so _ad infinitum_.

I bore it all as meekly as possible and with outward patience, but
inward raging. I told them I cared more for the complexion of my life
than the amount of sun-kissed pigment my skin contained; I would
civilize all the barbarians I found; and since others had endured
sea-sickness so could I.

However, at last a teasing cousin did hit upon a fact, and a stubborn
one, which had tormented me considerably--that mule I was to ride. He
assured me that had I ever attempted to ride a wheel I would have some
idea of what was in store for me. With a sinking heart but unabashed
countenance, I smiled a superior sort of smile and replied that I had
learned to ride a wheel.

"Well, a mule is worse," was the reply that somewhat staggered me.

Then I did not believe him, but now I think he must be divinely gifted
with the spirit of prophecy.

Sailing day came, and with all the assurance and independence of a
typical American young woman, I stood on the deck of a steamer alone,
and watched the familiar faces of friends fade into the distance.

Sixteen days later, as I was about to go ashore in _Honduras_, I audibly
wondered why any one should find the journey anything but delightful.
Every moment had been an enjoyable one, and I had entirely escaped one
of the foretold horrors. Imagine the shadow that crept across the
sunshine of my mental vision, when the Captain of the ship I was leaving
so regretfully remarked, with a wise and mysterious shake of his head:

"Perhaps you will see why, when you have been for six days on the
hurricane deck of a mule."

A youth, considerably my junior, whom I had known well as a schoolboy in
the States, had come with two men-servants and six mules to meet me. As
I stood on shore and watched the vessel steam out of the harbor, I did
almost feel as if I had had my final contact with civilization.

We went at once to the hotel, which I thought the dirtiest place I had
ever seen. Since then I have learned to discriminate nicely between
different degrees of filth.

Here we were obliged to remain for two days, for _Amapala_ is on an
isl