THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 31 



similitude of peace. Here Nature seemed repentant 

 of her outburst ; not so in New Mexico ! 



Spring is closing her open book and it is early 

 May when one Sunday we drive to a neighboring 

 village — to find that in this more primeval settle- 

 ment the world has stood still. The exact date of 

 the (Mexican) settlement of Mesilla is uncertain, 

 occurring probably in the first years of the nine- 

 teenth century, but its era of prosperity did not set 

 in until the Valley came into the possession of the 

 United States by purchase in the fifties. An army 

 post was established, and the dust of sleepy streets 

 was stirred by the passing of mail and freight 

 coaches and wagons. Its day of decadence dawned 

 when it turned with loathing from the offer of a 

 railroad. To this day the village remains much as 

 it was, though shorn to some extent of its pictur- 

 esqueness. 



As we tie the horses to a tree in the plaza, in 

 front of the patched and timeworn church (at this 

 later date too blatantly "restored"), the entire com- 

 munitv appears to be slumbering. Then unex- 

 pectedly double doors are flung wide, color and 

 radiance stream forth, and one of us cries — "O, for 

 a painter's brush!" Within is the patio indigenous 

 to the life of both Mexicos. Above the environing 

 walls burns the blue Mav skv. In the centre of the 

 natio p locust tree waves its fresh, frail leaves and 

 scented Ho^soms, scatterin°" shadows too over a 

 mnd-walled tank, from which soring snires of pink 

 and crimson against the soft and varied browns of 

 the background. On the step beneath the archway 



