The women are all very pretty or extremely ugly, and never simply plain.  The girls of the better class are brought up from babyhood under a constant surveillance that knows no laxity until after marriage, and does not altogether cease even then.  The growing bud is taught to play the piano or guitar, to embroider, to sing a little, to dance a little less, to speak and read French, to powder her face with art, and to walk like a very queen.  She is usually married before she is seventeen, especially if her father has money; and, until the day of her death, she never sees a modern newspaper, never goes slumming, and never soils her gentle hands with work of any degree.  She is apt to love her husband devotedly, and does not think her career fitly rounded until she is a mother.

[Illustration:  Positions occupied by Spanish Soldiers in the Skirmish at Hormigueros.]

The men of the same social footing are not so interesting—­to me; but, nevertheless, they possess many characteristics which claim attention and deserve applause.  They are never drunkards or wife-beaters; they don’t drag their business to the dinner-table and bed; they are not given to profane speech; and they show greater interest in a sonnet than in the price of pork.

Life for both sexes and all grades in Puerto Rico is a rose, a kiss, and a cigarette; song, laughter, and manana.  The island is, unequivocally, a Paradise; and, if I remember rightly, dwellers in Paradise are not expected to labor.  These people amply fulfill the expectation.

If you are sick of the worry and fret and jar of contemporaneous life here at home, if you care for wide, sweet blue sky, eternal flowers, crystal fountains, and gypsy music, then there is no better place for you to go than to Puerto Rico.  Take a bicycle and ride from Ponce around the island or straight across to San Juan.  You will find the roads, when there are roads, superlatively excellent—­particularly, if you do not mind an occasional hill or sharp and sudden shower of rain.  The larger cities all have comfortable hotels; and, if you can afford to stay a month in Ponce, Mayaguez, and San Juan, you will bring back fragrant memories that will last you many years, or else you will send for your household gods and not come back at all.  And, if you don’t ride a bicycle, you will be able to get just as much pleasure from the toy railroad or wee horses when you travel about from place to place, while the expense in either case will be marvellously small.

[Illustration:  Railroad from Mayaguez to Aguadilla.]

CHAPTER IV

The Second Day Begins

We march to San German—­Removal of the sick from the ambulances—­An approaching Spanish force—­Our scouts and their leader—­Concerning Senor Fijardo—­Visible effects of imminent battle—­Something about the town of San German.