AFTER so much sight-seeing it was quite a change to have a day at sea before they reached Puerto de la Luz, the port at which they landed for Las Palmas.
There were no Moorish lighters here with their active-limbed rowers, but craft of various nationalities lay around them, and they went ashore in a steam tug and landed on a wharf. Gertrude was with them to-day, and they were looking forward to a very pleasant outing.
The little party was in charge of Mr. Eddis, and they drove through the long, straggling street leading to the fruit-market in a carriage drawn by two lean horses. If only fruit would have kept good indefinitely they might have brought piles of lovely things home with them, but even as it was they bought oranges and pears and guavas and little baskets to carry them in.
They needed no guide in the Canary Islands, but a tall, dark-skinned youth dressed in a white suit with a mourning badge on his arm, had joined himself to the little procession to act as interpreter, and they were able to do their shopping although none of them knew much Spanish. Cushion covers, shawls and more curios from Morocco, were added to their parcels, and on they went.
The road gradually became uphill, and after a time they came to an hotel with a beautiful garden of tropical and subtropical flowers. One shrub was covered with bright yellow blooms, and Mrs. Eddis was pleased to find ripe seed pods, and had visions of growing them in her garden at home. Elizabeth, too, helped herself to some of them and took one or two cuttings of a beautiful red flower, which some one told her was hibiscus; but, alas! they never rooted, and the seeds did not come up.
Meanwhile a third horse had been added to their vehicle. Mrs. Eddis, Nora, Gertrude and Elizabeth took their seats comfortably inside, while Mr. Eddis sat uncomfortably outside on the box with the driver.
On and on, and up and up, they went for miles. The scenery was very fine and the day was perfect. Every now and then they had a glimpse at the deep blue sea lying far below them. They drove past plantations of sugarcane, bananas and other tropical plants; prickly pears, too, grew in wild profusion, very prickly they looked, and no one felt tempted to stop and taste their reddish-colored fruit.
Entertainment was not lacking by the way, for jolly little boys, as sharp in their way as London street arabs, ran along by the carriage, sometimes on their feet and sometimes on their hands with their feet up in the air.
The drive took so long that they began to be afraid they would find the luncheon at the San Brigida Hotel all eaten up before they arrived. Nothing quite so trying happened, only Mr. Eddis and Elizabeth had to leave their share unfinished in order to start off again with others of the passengers who had managed to hire vehicles to take them to see some famous cave dwellings a mile or so further on.
Oh, that drive! Elizabeth wondered if the horses were running away as they galloped up hill and down dale, and Mr. Eddis put out his arm to prevent any one being shot out with a jerk as they dashed round corners. It really was very exciting and not a little dangerous, but they got there safely.
The view was magnificent, as a vast amphitheater, bounded on all sides by verdure-clad hills, opened before them, and here and there were curious little caves. Some close to them had been roofed in and had fronts built to them, thus making dwellings. In that delightful climate it would be easy to picnic out of doors all day, and just turn in at bedtime.
They were invited to enter one of the dwellings and sit down; and then they were shown specimens of little clay vessels made by the cave-dwellers. But these were not at all pretty, and Elizabeth kept her pennies in her pocket. She would have liked to ask ever so many questions about the caves and the people who lived there among those beautiful hills, but no one seemed able to tell her anything more than she could see for herself.
Then there was the mad drive back again to the hotel, if anything a little faster then they had come.
The three left behind had been exploring the garden and had much to tell of its wonders. They had seen many lovely gardens since leaving England, but this eclipsed them all. It was said that there were four thousand different kinds of plants in it, and the time was all too short for looking and admiring, for it was the sort of place to remind one of the garden which the Lord God planted in Eden, in which He put the man whom He had formed, the garden of which it is written: "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." But it was time for the start back, and soon all were stowed away in the carriage for the return drive.
Part way down the hill Elizabeth, who liked an outside seat, changed places with Mr. Eddis, and sitting up there on the box she had a good view of everything they passed. Presently she saw a sad-looking little procession coming along, but what most interested her was a white box with blue edges, which they were taking with them on a sort of open carriage.
Ah! that explained why the poor people were so sad, for from the shape and size of the box Elizabeth knew that it must contain the body of a little child, which was being taken to its burial. And her thoughts went back to the garden where Adam and Eve never tasted the fair fruit of the tree of life, but instead partook of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And through that act of disobedience sin entered into the world and death by sin, for God had said, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
And then, lest the man should put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, "therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
But that flaming sword which turned every way no longer bars the way, for Jesus, the glorious Head of whom Adam was but a figure, was obedient unto death and offered Himself without spot to God. Divine justice was satisfied when Jesus died, and John, who stood by His cross and saw the blood and the water which came from His pierced side, could write: "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.... And there are three that bear witness... the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”