TAFIRA,
LAS PALMAS.
_14 February, 1903._
We have been having bad news of sorts from home and this has spoilt
what would otherwise have been a pleasant time, for though we have
had heavy rain--even snow on the hill tops--we keep a really working
sun that is up to a sun's business and converts the most appalling
mud into dust in the space of a few hours. Until just lately I have
been wondrous well. My amusement I have taken in the shape of lessons
in Spanish from the hostess of the village inn. She prides herself on
not talking like the other folk of Tafira--but asked me whether Perez
Galdos wrote _Gil Blas_. P. G. is by birth a Canario and mighty proud
they are of him here. Every little town has a street named after him.
To my mind he is a most unequal storyteller--sometimes very good, at
others dull.