Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/70

68 merchant will fill his contract within a specified time, — which, indeed, is a small accident, that happens occasionally in better regulated communities. But here uncertainty seems to be the one fixed principle: it is only the unforeseen that ever happens.

During one of the early days of our stay we drove out to an old Carmelite convent, deserted since the action of the Government, twenty or twenty-five years ago, which confiscated all church property to the State. It was the Feast of St. Joseph; and wayside shrines were bright with flowers, laid before the beloved feet of the Virgin by reverent hands. These little nooks, which bring a thought of heaven and heaven's rest into the midst of the busy streets and the hurry of every-day life, seem to me a gracious and beautiful thought. Why would not an occasional one be a good exchange for Coggswell fountains and similar ornaments in the world at home? The celebrated tree of the Noche Triste, under which Cortez passed that "Sad Night" so memorable in the History of the Conquest, was one of the landmarks, with the small church close by, which was among the earliest buildings erected by