from the hot summer sun. It was to
be anything but a picnic, for here were nearly seven thousand Americans
of all sorts, who were obtaining their first experiences of what war
might really be, if made in any manner whatever in the sultriest kind of
southern weather. Much more agreeable for them might have been a march
across the central table-lands beyond, at an elevation of four thousand
feet above the sea level and the _tierra caliente_.

That was precisely the kind of pleasant journey that was performed by
Ned Crawford and the imposing Tassara cavalcade on the morrow and during
a couple of wonderful days which followed. There being no railway,
whatever the senora wished to take with her had to be conveyed in wagons
or on pack-mules, and the ladies themselves now preferred the saddle to
any kind of carriage. In fact, Ned shortly discovered that Senorita
Felicia was more at home on horseback than he was, and he more than once
congratulated himself that she had never witnessed his first
performances in mounting his fat pony.

"How she would have laughed at me!" he thought. "But at that time there
wasn't another spare saddle-horse, and she and her mother didn't care a
cent whether I could ride or not. They were thinking of Guerra's
lancers."

The scenery was exceedingly beautiful as well as peaceful. There was
nothing whatever to suggest that a dreadful war was going on. There were
houses of friends to stop at, instead of hotels. There were towns and
villages of some importance to be rapidly investigated by a tourist like
Ned, from New York by way of England, and now a good young Mexican for
the time being. Then there was an exciting evening, when all who were on
horseback rode ahead of the wagons and on into the city, which occupies
the site of the wonderful Tenochtitlan, which was captured by Hernando
Cortes and his daring adventurers ever so long ago. From that time
onward, during a number of busy days, Ned became better and better
satisfied with the fact that his father had sent him across the sea to
learn all that he could of Mexico and the Mexicans.

CHAPTER X.

PICTURES OF THE PAST

"Oh, how I wish we had some news from the war!" exclaimed Ned.

"Well," said Senorita Felicia, doubtfully, "there isn't much, but I
suppose there is some almost ready to come."

"I'm tired of waiting for it," replied Ned, "and if there isn't to be
any war news, I wish I had some books!"

The thought that was in Ned C