Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/218

210 I left my friend standing in his coffee grove, surrounded by trees high as his shoulder, far as the eye could reach. He was justly proud of his purchase, and the feeling of envy came as near having a lodgment in my breast as possible. Aside from building a house and superintending the setting out of new trees, he has little to do henceforward but to gather his crops and count the receipts. Five years is not a long time to wait, especially as small crops can be raised in the interval, which will more than pay for the labor. Five years is not long, when every year adds an appreciable height to the plants, and the second year brings spicy flowers, like bunches of arbutus, with fruit glossy as wax. The monotony of the seasons may be varied by studying out arid planting the various vegetables that will grow at different times of the year. One with a taste for botany need never be at a loss, having a vast storehouse all around him in the mountains and valleys, and no winter to destroy such plants as he may collect.

We stood upon the highest part of a coffee-crowned knoll, with hills and valleys all around us, and the mighty peak of snow-crowned Orizaba towering above the clouds behind us, and planned the house, and the avenue, and the observatory that should give at a glance the entire beautiful valley. This is the bright side of the picture, and I hope no other will be presented, either to my new friend, or to any who may follow him.

The train from the coast reaches Cordova as the first rays of morning give the snow cone of Orizaba a soft rose tint. Here the people come out with coffee, fruit, and native decoctions, fondly hoping that the traveller will buy of them and break his fast. Five miles beyond the station, the train runs more slowly, as it is approaching one of the most dangerous passes on the road, and, turning sharply to the right, enters the weird and wonderful barranca of Metlac. Running along the brink of this tremendous ravine for a while, we suddenly dart to the left and cross the bridge which spans it, at a curve of three hundred and twenty-five feet radius, ninety feet above the foaming river below. Five tunnels are in sight on the opposite side before the bridge