dress, as to
make her at different times, the emblematic representation of every
bright and beautiful spirit, that was supposed to people their celestial
paradise, or to hover, on wings of love and gentle care, about the path
of those whom the gods delighted to favor.

It was the daily custom for Karee to carry the young princess into the
apartment of the Emperor, as soon as he rose from his siesta, to receive
the affectionate caresses which her royal father was so fond of
lavishing upon her. At such times, Tecuichpo would often take with her
some rich chaplets of flowers which Karee had woven for her, and amuse
herself and her father, by arranging them in a coronet on his brow, or
twining them, in every fantastic form, about his person, to make, as
she said, a flower-god of _him_, who was a sun to all the flowers of her
earthly paradise.

One day, when the young princess was sleeping in her little arbor, the
ever watchful nurse observed a viper among the flowers, which she had
strown about her pillow, just ready to dart its venomous fang into the
bosom of her darling. Quick as lightning she seized the reptile in her
hand, and, before he had time to turn upon her, flung him upon the
floor, and crushed him under her sandalled heel. Passionately embracing
her dear charge, she hastened with her to the apartments of the queen,
and related the story of her narrow escape, with so much of the
eloquence of gratitude for being the favored instrument of her
deliverance from so cruel a death, that it deeply affected the heart of
the queen. She embraced her child and Karee, as if both were, for the
moment, equally dear to her; and then, in return for the faithful
service, rendered at the hazard of her own life, she promised to bestow
upon the slave whatever she chose to ask. "Give me, O give me freedom,
and a chinampa, and I ask no more," was the eager reply of Karee to this
unexpected offer of the queen. The request was immediately granted; and
the first sorrow that ever clouded the heart of the lovely Tecuichpo,
was that of parting with her faithful and loving Karee.

A _chinampa_ was a floating island in the lake of Tezcuco, upon whose
very bosom the imperial city was built. They were very numerous, and
some of them were large, and extremely beautiful. They were formed by
the alluvial deposit in the waters of the lake, and by occasional masses
of earth detached from the shores, held together by the fibrous roots,
with which t