A BIT OF USELESSNESS 121 



and some of split bamboo. But they resemble 

 one another in several respects — all are ram- 

 shackle, all lean with the grace of Pisa, all have 

 shutters and doors, so that at night they may be 

 hermetically closed, and all are half -hidden in the 

 folds of a curtain of flowers. The most shiftless, 

 unlovely hovel, poised ready to return to its orig- 

 inal chemical elements, is embowered in a mosaic 

 of color, which in a northern garden would be 

 worth a king's ransom — or to be strictly modern, 

 should I not say a labor foreman's or a comrade's 

 ransom ! 



The deep trench which extends along the front 

 of these sad dwellings is sometimes blue with wa- 

 ter hyacinths ; next the water disappears beneath 

 a maze of tall stalks, topped with a pink mist of 

 lotus; then come floating lilies and more hya- 

 cinths. Wherever there is sufficient clear water, 

 the wonderful curve of a cocoanut palm is etched 

 upon it, reflection meeting palm, to form a den- 

 dritic pattern unequaled in human devising. 



Over a hut of rusty oil-cans, bougainvillia 

 stretches its glowing branches, sometimes cerise, 

 sometimes purple, or allamanders fill the air with 

 a golden haze from their glowing search-lights, 

 either hiding the huts altogether, or softening 



