Here and there the clean levels were broken by shallow pools of water;
and we were at first much tormented by expanses, almost as great as
these pools, of a certain purple flower, which no curiosity of ours
could prevail with to yield up the secret of its name or nature. It was
one of the anomalies of this desert country that it was apparently
prosperous, if one might guess from the comfortable-looking farmsteads
scattered over it, inclosing house and stables in the courtyard framed
by their white walls. The houses stood at no great distances from one
another, but were nowhere grouped in villages. There were commonly no
towns near the stations, which were not always uncheerful; sometimes
there were flower-beds, unless my memory deceives me. Perhaps there
would be a passenger or two, and certainly a loafer or two, and always
of the sex which in town life does the loafing; in the background or
through the windows the other sex could be seen in its domestic
activities. Only once did we see three girls of such as stay for the
coming and going of trains the world over; they waited arm in arm, and
we were obliged to own they were plain, poor things.
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