e racetrack
was adjacent to the gardens, and the public buildings faced these
reservations. The magnificent old churches, with their picturesque
bell towers; the white convent walls, with niches for the statuettes
of saints; the colleges and convents,--give to the provincial capital
an air of dignity.

The boarding-house, kept by a crusty but good-hearted Englishman,
stood opposite the row of porches roofed with heavy tiles, that made
_Calle Colon_ a colonnade. Across the street was a window in the wall,
where the brown-eyed Lucretia used to sell ginger-ale and sarsaparilla
to the soldiers. With her waving pompadour, her olive cheeks, and
sultry eyes, Lucretia was the belle of all the town. There wasn't a
soldier in the whole command who wouldn't have laid down his life for
her. And in this land where nothing seemed to be worth while, Lucretia,
with her pretty manners and her gentle ways, had a good influence
upon the tawny musketeers who dropped in to play a game of dominos
or drink a glass of soda with her; and she treated all of them alike.

A monkey chattered on the balcony, sliding up and down the bamboo-pole,
or reaching for pieces of bananas which the boarders passed him
from the dinner-table. "Have you chowed yet?" asked a grating voice,
which, on a negative reply, ordered a place to be made ready for me
at the table. Barefooted _muchachos_ placed the thumb-marked dishes
on the dirty table-cloth. I might add that a napkin had been spread
to cover the spot where the tomato catsup had been spilled, and that
the chicken-soup, in which a slice of bread was soaked, slopped over
the untidy thumb that carried it. But I omitted this course, as the
red ants floating on the surface of the broth rendered the dish a
questionable delicacy. The boarders had adjourned to the parlor,
and were busy reading "Diamond Dick," "Nick Carter," and the other
five and ten cent favorites. A heavy rain had set in, as I drew my
chair up to the light and tried to lose myself in the adventures of
the boy detective.

But the mosquitoes of Cebu! The rainy season had produced them by
the wholesale, and full-blooded ones at that. These were the strange
bed-fellows that made misery that night, as they discovered openings
in the mosquito-bar that, I believe, they actually made themselves! The
parlor (where the bed was situated) was a very interesting room. There
was a rickety walnut cabinet containing an assortment of cobwebby
Venus's fingers,