nd me.
Far and near no children were to be seen; the portico of an unfinished
house offered both shade and seclusion. I concealed myself behind a
pillar, and went to work. For half an hour I was happy; then around
black head popped up over a garden-wall, a small brown form crept
towards me, beckoned, and presently a new multitude had assembled. The
noise they made provoked a sound of cursing from the interior of a
stable adjoining the house. They only made a louder tumult in answer;
the voice became more threatening, and at the end of five minutes the
door burst open. An old man, with wrath flashing from his eyes, came
forth. The children took to their heels; I greeted the new-comer
politely, but he hardly returned the salutation. He was a very fountain
of curses, and now hurled stones with them after the fugitives. When
they had all disappeared behind the walls, he went back to his den,
grumbling and muttering. It was not five minutes, however, before the
children were back again, as noisy as before; so, at the first thunder
from the stable, I shut up my book, and returned to the inn.

While the horses were being harnessed, I tried to talk with an old
native, who wore the island costume, and was as grim and grizzly as
Ossawatomie Brown. A party of country people from the plains, who seemed
to have come up to Valdemosa on a pleasure trip, clambered into a
two-wheeled cart drawn by one mule, and drove away. My old friend gave
me the distances of various places, the state of the roads, and the
quality of the wine; but he seemed to have no conception of the world
outside of the island. Indeed, to a native of the village, whose fortune
has simply placed him beyond the reach of want, what is the rest of the
world? Around and before him spread one of its loveliest pictures; he
breathes its purest air; and he may enjoy its best luxuries, if he heeds
or knows how to use them.

Up to this day the proper spice and flavor had been wanting. Palma had
only interested me, but in Valdemosa I found the inspiration, the heat
and play of vivid, keen sensation, which one (often somewhat
unreasonably) expects from a new land. As my carriage descended, winding
around the sides of the magnificent mountain amphitheatre, in the
alternate shadows of palm and ilex, pine and olive, I looked back,
clinging to every marvellous picture, and saying to myself, over and
over again, "I have not come hither in vain." When the last shattered
gate of roc