A Story of Life On the Isthmus

fts enough to make to get along any way, and we therefore enjoyed ourselves extremely. The first night of our stay in camp had been a rainy one, and we immediately found out that our Arab tents were not the requisite style of dormitories for that country. We had, accordingly, the next day purchased in town some panel houses, and tarred canvas for covering them. By this arrangement we had plenty of lodging-room. Our cooking was done in the rear, the stove being set up beneath a roof of tarred canvas supported on sticks. We eat out of doors, in pleasant weather, squatting upon the grass in Arab fashion, and during the showers, anywhere that promised shelter. It didn't, however, matter so much where we slept, as that we slept at all; or in what place we eat, provided we had any thing to eat, and cooked in such a manner as to render it palatable. As for sleeping, we had to do it whenever we could. There was no particular time set apart and consecrated to it?I mean among the multitude then at Chagres.Their ideas on this subject were very loose. People who had hroken away from the conventionalities of life in other respects, were not expected to conform to this very negative one of observing a particular hour for retiring to rest; and the result was, that we were often favored with company at a time when we were quite unprepared for their reception. Parties in quest of better accommodation than they had been able to find in Chagres proper, deluded by our lights in...