Synopsis

You will often have it said to you, when smarting under a disappointment, “Never mind! it is all for the best!” I dare say you are sometimes inclined to doubt the truth of this maxim; I when I was a child I did, but I have found out in life, that it does very often prove true. And if you like, I will tell you one instance in which this was the case. In the course of one of my rambles in Spain it happened one day that I was tempted by an old longing to make acquaintance with one of her most outof- the-way and primitive villages, to separate from my party at the comfortable hotel at C—— and make my way with only one young companion to a place some five miles west, called Guadaxox, a name which I dare say in your longest geography lesson you have never been called on to pronounce; and you would find it no easy matter to do so, unless I wrote it for you thus: Guadakquoth. Five miles’ walk through the clear bright air of Spain, and the fresh spring breeze charged with all the perfume from the mountains, is a pleasant prospect enough; and as I can usually adapt myself to any quarters which may fall to my lot on a march, I had little fear of not being sufficien...