"Xochimilco or place of flowers. How lovely," Nan spoke softly in the presence of the beauty before her.
Adair MacKenzie in his desire to introduce the girls to something that would make them forget the bullfight had brought them to one of the prettiest places in all Mexico. Now, he was looking exceedingly pleased with himself.
"Oh, daddy," Alice too was thrilled at the spectacle before them. "Many, many times I've heard of the floating gardens of Mexico and I've always wanted to see them."
"Well, there they are," Adair said as off-handedly as possible under the circumstances. "Now you see them."
"If you will allow me," Walker Jamieson who had deserted the party immediately after the car had been parked, now brought a canoe he had rented and paddled up one of the many canals before them to a stop at their feet. He stood up and held out his arm to Alice.
"Fair lady, you come first." He said as he helped her in and assisted her to a seat opposite him. "And now, Nan." So one after the other he helped the members of the party to places in the large canoe.
"H-h-hm," Adair MacKenzie cleared his throat as he seated his bulk. "Now, I'd say this is more in keeping with what young ladies should like. How about it?" He addressed his question to Grace who was beaming beside him.
Everyone was completely happy as Walker pushed the canoe off. So the rest of the afternoon was whiled away in paddling lazily through the flower-bordered canals.
"Why are they called floating gardens?" Nan addressed her question to Walker who seemed a fountainhead of information about all sorts of things.
"Simply because they float," Walker answered as he disentangled his paddle from some lily stems along the side.
"But you can't actually see them move," Nan said as she peered earnestly at one of the many islands.
"No, you can't, now," Walker agreed. "But there was a time, Miss Curiosity, ages ago when these beautiful gardens actually did float from place to place, a time when you didn't know from one day to the next just where you'd wake up and find a certain particularly beautiful one."
"Why?" The subject was an intriguing one and Nan wanted to know all about it.
"Oh, they say," Walker continued quietly, "that the earth of the gardens lies on interlacing twigs. Naturally before the water filled in as it is now, these twigs moved with the current and carried their burden of earth and flowers along with them.