30 
GUATEMALA. 
freights. Then there were the warning cries of those 
unfortunate men who wanted to make money in a newly 
opened country, but had not the necessary courage and 
endurance for a pioneer. They had not met success, and 
they had not grit enough to seek it. Micawbers far from 
home, they waited for something to turn up. 
The process of finding out about the place was not an 
unpleasant one; it was what we had come for, and we 
began it the first day at breakfast. While we lodged in 
our house on the hill, we took our meals — with the ex¬ 
ception of early coffee and rolls — in the town at the house 
of Senor Castellan; and they were in genuine Hispano- 
American style. Eleven o’clock is the hour for almuerzo, 
or breakfast, and thus the time for ceasing work and 
taking the needed midday rest. Late in the afternoon 
came the coviida, or dinner,—differing from breakfast only 
in the occasional provision of dulces, or sweetmeats. The 
menu was constant; an oily soup, beans black or white, 
beef or chicken stew with chillis, fish, bread, and coffee, 
formed the almost unvarying round. Our waiters were 
two little boys, — one the son of our host, the other his 
ward. With our coffee we generally had fresh milk; but 
when the supply" of this failed, a can of condensed milk 
took its place. Not infrequently the sugar also failed; 
and then one of the boys ran to the nearest store and 
bought half a pound of a coarse brown kind, and replen¬ 
ished the saucer that did duty as sugar-bowl. No supply 
of anything was ever kept in the house. 
Our dining-room was dark, — the only light coming 
from the open doors at either end. There was but the 
earth, hard trodden, for the floor, and the furnishing was 
simple enough, — a rough table and half a dozen rickety 
