of movement and of adventure than would come in our way in our own
tame country; and this feeling has, I am sure, sent many a young man
roaming. Take any spirited fellow of twenty, and ask him whether he
would like to go to Mexico for the next ten years! Prudence and his
father may ultimately save him from such banishment, but he will not
refuse without a pang of regret.

Alas! it is a mistake. Bread may be earned, and fortunes, perhaps,
made in such countries; and as it is the destiny of our race to
spread itself over the wide face of the globe, it is well that there
should be something to gild and paint the outward face of that lot
which so many are called upon to choose. But for a life of daily
excitement, there is no life like life in England; and the farther
that one goes from England the more stagnant, I think, do the waters
of existence become.

But if it be so for men, it is ten times more so for women. An
Englishman, if he be at Guatemala or Belize, must work for his
bread, and that work will find him in thought and excitement. But
what of his wife? Where will she find excitement? By what pursuit
will she repay herself for all that she has left behind her at her
mother's fireside? She will love her husband. Yes; that at least!
If there be not that, there will be a hell, indeed. Then she will
nurse her children, and talk of her--home. When the time shall come
that her promised return thither is within a year or two of its
accomplishment, her thoughts will all be fixed on that coming
pleasure, as are the thoughts of a young girl on her first ball for
the fortnight before that event comes off.

On the central plain of that portion of Central America which is