Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/103

CH. VI.] Parker, and Mr. Aylwin. They had most of them been in Peru, Chile, and other parts of the continent, and were here engaged both in the coasting trade of the country, and in shipping to England cochineal, hides, indigo and other articles peculiar to the place.

I willingly accepted of their polite attentions, and took my meals with them in a large house occupied by the young married couple. The bride was a small, shy, little girl about fifteen years of age, but plump and healthy, with a pair of bright black eyes which made up, by the force and variety of their expression, for the silence and reserve of her general manner. The high tables, of which I have before spoken, render eating exceedingly awkward, even to a tall person, but with regard to one so short as was our amiable little hostess, it seemed to be a matter of the utmost convenience; for, laying her chin down on the edge of the plate, with her elbows poised on the table on each side of it, her hands moved