and not less satisfied with our stew, which was indeed most savoury and
palatable. This done, we took a turn round our little domain, admiring
the many strange and wonderful things that grew there (especially the
figs, which, though yet green, were wondrous pleasant to eat); and I
laying out my plans for the morrow, how to get this wilderness into
order, tear out the worthless herbs, dig the soil, etc., Dawson's
thoughts running on the building of an outhouse for the accommodation of
our wine, tools, and such like, and Moll meditating on dishes to give us
for our repasts. And at length, when these divers subjects were no more
to be discussed, we turned into our dormitories, and fell asleep mighty
tired, but as happy as princes.




CHAPTER XIII.


_A brief summary of those twelve months we spent at Elche._


The surprising activity with which we attacked our domestic business at
Elche lasted about two days and a half,--Dawson labouring at his shed, I
at the cultivation of the garden, and Moll quitting her cooking and
household affairs, as occasion permitted, to lend a helping hand first
to her father and then to me. And as man, when this fever of enterprise
is upon him, must for ever be seeking to add to his cares, we persuaded
Don Sanchez to let us have two she-goats to stall in the shed and
consume our waste herbage, that we might have milk and get butter, which
they do in these parts by shaking the cream in a skin bag (a method that