20 Our Araby 



quality, the average. The average with us is auto- 

 matically raised by the total absence of any 

 hooligan element, such as is sometimes in evidence 

 on the sands of the sea-shore. To that class the 

 sands of Our Araby do not appeal. On the other 

 hand, the scientists, writers, painters, musicians, — 

 in fact, all kinds of people who love quiet, thought- 

 ful things and whose work or enjoyment lies in 

 natural instead of artificial fields, come and share 

 with us the wholesome pleasures and interests that 

 are inherent in a clean, new, unspoiled bit of this 

 wonderful old world. 



So much for the people. The village itself is a 

 place of two or three score of unpretentious cottages 

 scattered along half a dozen palm- and pepper- 

 shaded streets. We don't run much to lawns and 

 formal gardens: we live in the desert because we 

 like it, hence we don't care to shut ourselves away 

 in little citified enclosures. But the two or three 

 old places which formed the nucleus of the settle- 

 ment are bowers of bloom and umbrageous green- 

 ery. Gray old fig-trees lean out over the sidewalk, 

 while oranges, dates, grape-fruit, lemons, and trees 

 of other sorts for fruit or ornament flourish in 

 tribute to the memory of that wise old Scotsman and 

 pioneer, Doctor Welwood Murray, who had the 

 courage to plant and the patience to rear them in 

 the teeth of horticultural disabilities. 



There remain to be mentioned our stores, inns, 

 school, and church. Of these it is enough to say 

 that they are well up to what would be expected in 



