"
"You of course tested that," said she.
"Unluckily," said L'Isle, "our party had only one leg of mutton in
store, and were too hungry to risk their dinner in the fountain's
maw."
"You are a bad traveler," said Lady Mabel, "and seem never to have
with you the means of testing the truth of what you are told."
"I take with me a good stock of faith," said L'Isle, "and believe, or
seem to believe, all that I am told. This pleases these people
wonderfully well, and keeping them in good humor is the main point
just now. There is, however, near Estremoz, which place you passed
through coming hither, a curiosity of somewhat a similar kind. It is
a spring which is dry in winter, but pours out a considerable stream
in summer. Its waters are of so petrifying a quality, that the wheels
of the mills it works are said to be soon turned into stone."
"I trust, for your credit as a traveler," said Lady Mabel, "that you
will be able to say that you, for once, proved the truth or falsehood
of what you heard."
"I did, and found them incrusted with stone. But that is not so
curious as the prophetic spring of Xido, which foretells to the
rustics around a fruitful season, by pouring forth but little water,
or a year of scarcity by an abundant flow.
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