pomegranates in her hair, who seemed to him lovelier than all the
rest.

When the feast was over, and the young man returned home, his
manner was so strange that it drew the attention of all his
friends.

Through his work next day the youth continued to see the girl's
face, throwing the ball to her companions, or threading her way
between them as she danced. At night sleep fled from him, and
after tossing for hours on his bed, he would get up and plunge
into a deep pool that lay a little way in the forest.

This state of things went on for some weeks, then at last chance
favoured him. One evening, as he was passing near the house
where she lived, he saw her standing with her back to the wall,
trying to beat off with her fan the attacks of a savage dog that
was leaping at her throat. Alonzo, for such was his name, sprang
forward, and with one blow of his fist stretched the creature
dead upon the road. He then helped the frightened and half-
fainting girl into the large cool verandah where her parents were
sitting, and from that hour he was a welcome guest in the house,
and it was not long before he was the promised husband of Julia.

Every day, when his work was done, he used to go up to the house,
half hidden among flowering plants and brilliant creepers, where
humming-birds darted from bush to bush, and parrots of all
colours, red and green and grey, shrieked in chorus. There he
would find the maiden waiting for him, and they would spend an
hour or two under the stars, which looked so large and bright