ls.
At one booth a Dutch auction was going on--great attraction of the
evening.

[Illustration: VIEW OF GERONA FROM THE STONE BRIDGE.]

We stood on the bridge and looked quite far down upon the bed of the
river. As our host had said, the water was very low. The stream had
narrowed and half the bed was dry. Here and there huge fires were
burning and flaming, and men danced round them, looking like demons as
the flames now and then burst forth and lighted up their grim faces.
They were roasting chestnuts, and as each batch was finished it was
carried up to the fair to be quickly devoured by the boys and girls
to-night supreme. Every dog has its day, and it was their turn to reign.
They must make the most of it. To-morrow the garlands would fade. When
the clock struck twelve Cinderella went back to her rags and
chimney-corner. Black Monday always comes. Every stall displayed nothing
but toys, from juvenile knives to slice off finger-ends to
seductive-looking purses that were a mortifying reflection upon empty
pockets.

As we stood on the bridge all this light and glare outlined the
wonderful houses that rise up straight from the river so that its waters
wash their foundations--and at very high tides come in at the
ground-floor windows, a visitor more free than welcome. The occurrence
is rare, but has been known. We could just trace the marvellous
outlines; their strangely picturesque, old-world look: and we waited
with patience for the morning and the splendours it should reveal.

Plunging boldly into the crowd, we were swallowed up in the vortex. It
was rather bewildering. All the people seemed to do was to walk up and
down in an endless stream, eat chestnuts and blow penny trumpets.
To-night, at any rate, the stalls were almost neglected. Possibly they
had not had time to digest the glamour, and to-morrow the harvest would
come.

At the end of the long thoroughfare lights and stalls and crowd were
left behind. We reached a quaint corner which cunningly led to another
bridge. This we crossed and soon found ourselves in the wide market
square and a different scene. Here the shows had taken up their abode,
and every effort was being made to excite an unresponsive crowd. It was
the usual thing. The learned pig, the two-headed lady, the gentleman who
drew portraits with his feet, the clairvoyante who told fortunes and
promised wealth and marriage, the lion-tamer who put his head into the
lion's mouth, the enchanting ba