CHAPTER IV 



OASIS AND DESERT 



JUADALAJAEA is surrounded by a most 

 barren country, but as every desert has 

 its oasis, so this charming Mexican city 

 has, almost within its limits, a little 

 " watered wood " to which a lover of Nature will re- 

 turn again and again. It is reached by a short ride 

 on a mule-car, this alone always promising excitement. 

 If the flattened rails, in the uncertainty as to whether 

 they will squeeze the wheels until they shriek, or 

 whether they will allow the car to ramble gutterward 

 at will, are bewildering, the switches are positively 

 uncanny in the remarkable actions which they cause a 

 car to perform. Rarely the car succeeds in proceeding 

 upon the track intended. Sometimes it fails altogether, 

 and there ensues a bewildering mixup of six mules, 

 the two cars running together as closely as the kick- 

 ing animals will jjermit. Again, the front truck will 

 obediently follow the tugs of the mules, while the rear 

 wheels endeavour to side-track themselves, as a result 

 swinging the car crosswise in the street. But no one 

 ever loses temper, or hurries, so difficulties unwind in 

 due season. 



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