208 MARTIN RATTLER.

for domestic purposes. In front of the village there
was an extensive valley, through which a small river
gurgled with a pleasant sound. It was hemmed in
on all sides by wooded mountains, and was so beauti-
fully diversified by scattered clusters of palms, and
irregular patches of undulating grassy plains all
covered with a rich profusion of tropical flowers and
climbing-plants, that it seemed to Martin more like
a magnificent garden than the uncultivated forest—
only far more rich and lovely and picturesque than
any artificial garden could possibly be. When the sun
shone in full splendour on this valley—as it almost
always did—it seemed as if the whole landscape were
on the point of bursting into flames of red and blue,
and green and gold; and when Martin sat under the
shade of a tamarind tree and gazed long upon the
enchanting scene, his memory often reverted to the
Eden of which he used to read in the Bible at
home, and he used to wonder if it were possible
that the sun and flowers and trees could be more
lovely in the time when Adam walked with God in
Paradise.

Martin was young then, and he did not consider,
although he afterwards came to know, that it was not
the beauty of natural chjects, but the presence and
favour of God and the absence of sin, that rendered