CHAPTER III 



WALKS IN THE CACTUS COUNTRY 



ARLY on New Year's Day Ave were awak- 

 ened by the song of birds — not the morn- 

 ino- carols of those we were so eager to see 

 and hear, but an ahiiost continuous series 

 of clarion tones from hundreds of roosters. Far and 

 near they flapped and crowed and crowed again, and 

 our patio rang with the sound. Before the last few 

 lingering crows died away, dozens of church bells 

 began to toll, some sonorous and slow and others Avith 

 frantic clangs. Succeeding these, more or less expert 

 buglers chimed in, scores from the various barracks 

 blowing loudly if not well. Apparently the reveUle 

 was the object of most of their efforts, certain individ- 

 uals sounding taps, which made up in vigour of blast 

 what was lacking in appropriateness. 



Our Guadalajara home was well on the outskirts of 

 the city, in easy walking distance of the fransvia, 

 which, behind three galloping mules, shrieked along 

 the uneven rails and afforded rapid transit to the plaza. 

 Several minutes' walk in the opposite direction, and 

 the narrow street frayed out into a few straggling, 

 thatched huts, beyond which stretched the level sun- 



«4 37 ^ 



