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 The party, accordingly, went onward through the green and pleasant wood. Every little while they caught new glimpses of the marble palace, which looked more and more beautiful the nearer they approached it. They soon entered a broad pathway which seemed to be very neatly kept, and which went winding along with streaks of sunshine falling across it, and specks of light quivering among the deepest shadows that fell from the lofty trees. It was bordered, too, with a great many sweet-smelling flowers, such as the mariners had never seen before. So rich and beautiful they were, that, if the shrubs grew wild here, and were native in the soil, then this island was surely the flower garden of the whole earth; or, if transplanted from some other clime, it must have been from the Happy Islands that lay towards the golden sunset.

'There has been a great deal of pains foolishly wasted on these flowers,' observed one of the company; and I tell you what he said, that you may keep in mind what gormandisers they were. 'For my part, if I were the owner of the palace, I would bid my gardener cultivate nothing but savoury pot-herbs to make a stuffing for roast meat, or to flavour a stew with.'

'Well said!' cried the others. 'But I'll warrant you there's a kitchen garden in the rear of the palace.'

At one place they came to a crystal spring, and paused to drink at it, for want of liquor which they liked better. Looking into its bosom, they beheld their own faces dimly 124