ve been tempered by time, and the glad ones, at
each returning tide, seem tinged with brighter glow. In thy bowers, as
elsewhere, roses must be plucked from thorns; but in memory's mellowed
light I see not the thorns--I behold only the bright and beautiful
roses.

CHAPTER TWO.

A MEXICAN FRONTIER VILLAGE.

A Mexican _pueblita_ on the banks of the Rio Bravo del Norte--a mere
_rancheria_, or hamlet. The quaint old church of Morisco-Italian style,
with its cupola of motley japan, the residence of the _cura_, and the
house of the _alcalde_, are the only stone structures in the place.
These constitute three sides of the piazza, a somewhat spacious square.
The remaining side is taken up with shops or dwellings of the common
people. They are built of large unburnt bricks (_adobes_), some of them
washed with lime, others gaudily coloured like the proscenium of a
theatre, but most of them uniform in their muddy and forbidding brown.
All have heavy jail-like doors, and windows without glass or sash. The
_reja_ of iron bars, set vertically, opposes the burglar, not the
weather.

From the four corners of the piazza, narrow, unpaved, dusty lanes lead
off to the country, for some distance bordered on both sides by the
adobe houses. Still farther out, on the skirts of the village, and
sparsely placed, are dwellings of frailer build, but more picturesque
appearance; they are _ridge-roofed_ structures, of the split trunks of
that gigantic lily, the arborescent yucca. Its branches form the
rafters, its tough fibrous leaves the thatch. In these _ranchitos_
dwell the poor peons, the descendants of the conquered race.

The stone dwellings, and those of mud likewise, are _flat-roofed_, tiled
or cemented--sometimes tastefully japanned--with a parapet breast-high
running round the edge. This flat roof is the _azotea_, characteristic
of Mexican architecture.

When the sun is low and the evening cool, the azotea is a pleasant
lounging-place, especially when the proprietor of the house has a taste
for flowers; then it is converted into an aerial garden, and displays
the rich flora for which the picture-land of Mexico is justly
celebrated. It is just the place to enjoy a cigar, a glass of _pinole_,
or, if you prefer it, _Catalan_. The smoke is wafted away, and the open
air gives a relish to the beverage. Besides, your eye is feasted; you
enjoy the privacy of a drawing-room, while you command what is passing
in the street. T