A Summer in a Canyon......................................................................................................................................1

Kate Douglas Wiggin ...............................................................................................................................1

CHAPTER I: PREPARATION AND DEPARTURE ...........................................................................1

CHAPTER II: THE JOURNEY ...........................................................................................................11

CHAPTER III: LIFE IN THE CANYONTHE HEIR APPARENT LOSES HIMSELF ................18

CHAPTER IV: RHYME AND REASON ...........................................................................................34

CHAPTER V: THE FOREST OF ARDENGOOD NEWS ............................................................44

CHAPTER VI: QUEEN ELSIE VISITS THE COURT ......................................................................56

MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. .................................................................................................64

HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. ...............................................................................................................69

CHAPTER IX: ROUND THE CAMPFIRE ......................................................................................78

CHAPTER X: MORE CAMPFIRE STORIES .................................................................................83

CHAPTER XI: BREAKING CAMP ...................................................................................................88

It was nine o'clock one sunny California morning, and Geoffrey Strong stood under the liveoak trees in Las

Flores Canyon, with a pot of black paint in one hand and a huge brush in the other. He could have handled

these implements to better purpose and with better grace had not his arms been firmly held by three laughing

girls, who pulled not wisely, but too well. He was further incommoded by the presence of a small urchin who

lay on the dusty ground beneath his feet, fastening an upward clutch on the legs of his trousers.

There were three large canvas tents directly in front of them, yet no one of these seemed to be the object of

dissension, but rather a redwood board, some three feet in length, which was nailed on a tree near by.

'Camp Frolic! Please let us name it Camp Frolic!' cried Bell Winship, with a persuasive twitch of her cousin's

'No, no; not Camp Frolic,' pleaded Polly Oliver. 'Pray, pray let us have Camp HaHa; my heart is set upon it.'

'As you are Strong, be merciful,' quoted Margery Noble, coaxingly; 'take my advice and call it Harmony

At this juncture, a lovely woman, whose sweet face and smile made you love her at once, came up the hill

from the brookside. 'What, what! still quarrelling, children?' she asked, laughingly. 'Let me be peacemaker.

I've just asked the Doctor for a name, and he suggests Camp Chaparral. What do you say?'

Bell released one coattail. 'That isn't wholly bad,' she said, critically, while the other girls clapped their

hands with approval; for anything that Aunt Truth suggested was sure to be quite right.

'Wait a minute, good people,' cried Jack Howard, flinging his fishingtackle under a tree and sauntering

toward the scene of action. 'Suppose we have a referee, a wise and noble judge. Call Hop Yet, and let him

His name being sung and shouted in various keys by the assembled company, Hop Yet appeared at the door

of the brush kitchen, a broad grin on his countenance, a plucked fowl in his hand.

Geoffrey took the floor. 'Now, Hop Yet, you know I got name, you got name, everybody got name. We want

name this camp: you sabe? Miss Bell, she say Camp Frolic. Frolic all same heap good time' (here he executed

a sort of wardance which was intended to express wild joy). 'Miss Pauline, she say Camp HaHa, big laugh:

sabe? Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!' (chorus joined in by all to fully illustrate the subject). 'Miss Madge, she say

Camp Harmony. Harmony all same heap quiet time, plenty eat, plenty drink, plenty sleep, no fight, no too

muchee talk. Mrs. Winship, she say Camp Chaparral: you sabe? Chaparral, Hop Yet. Now what you say?'

Hop Yet seemed to regard the question with mingled embarrassment and amusement, but being a sharp and

talkative Chinaman gave his answer promptly: 'Me say Camp Chaplal heap good name; plenty chaplal all

lound; me hang um dishcloth, tow'l, little boy's stockin', on chap lal; all same clo'seline velly good. Miss

And so Camp Chaparral it was; the redwood board flaunted the assertion before the eyes of the public (which

was a rather limited one, to be sure) in less than half an hour, and the artist, after painting the words in rustic

letters a foot long, cut branches of the stiff, ungracious bushes and nailed them to the tree in confirmation and

illustration of the fact. He then carefully deposited the paint pot in a secret place, where it might be out of

sight and touch of a certain searching eye and mischievous hand well known and feared of him; but before

the setting sun had dropped below the line of purple mountain tops, a small boy, who will be known in these

annals as Dicky Winship, might have been seen sitting on the empty paintpot, while from a dingy pool upon

the ground he was attempting to paint a copy of the aforesaid inscription upon the side of a too patient goat,

And now I must tell you the way in which all this began. You may not realise it, dear young folks, but this

method of telling a story is very much the fashion with grownup people, and of course I am not to blame,

The plan is this: You must first write a chapter showing all your people, men, women, children, dogs, and

cats, in a certain place, doing certain things. Then you must go back a year or two and explain how they all

happen to be there. Perhaps you may have to drag your readers twentyfive years into the regions of the past,

and show them the first tooth of your oldest character; but that doesn't matter a bit,the further the better.

Then, when everybody has forgotten what came to pass in the first chapter, you are ready to take it up again,

as if there had never been any parenthesis. However, I shall not introduce you to the cradles, cribs, or

trundle beds of my merry young campers, but merely ask you to retrace your steps one week, and look upon

On one of the pleasantest streets of a certain little California town stood, and still stands for aught I know, a

pretty brown cottage, with its verandahs covered with passionvine and a brilliant rose garden in front. It is

picturesque enough to attract the attention of any passerby, and if you had chosen to peep through the

crevices in the thick vines and look in at the open window, you might have thought it lovelier within than

It was a bright day, and the gracious June sunshine flooded the room with yellow light. Three young girls,

perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old, were seated in different parts of the large room, plying industrious

crochet needles and tatting shuttles. Three pairs of bright eyes were dancing with fun and gladness; and

another pair, the softest and clearest of all, looked out from a broad white bed in the corner,tired eyes, and

oh, so patient, for the healthgiving breezes wafted in from the blue ocean and carried over mountain tops

and vinecovered slopes had so far failed to bring back Elsie Howard's strength and vigour.

The graceful, brownhaired girl with the bright, laughterloving face, was Bell Winship. She of the dancing

blue eyes, pink cheeks, and reckless little sunbonnet was Pauline, otherwise Polly Oliver. Did you ever

know a Polly without some one of these things? Well, my Polly had them all, and, besides, a saucy freckled

nose, a crown of fluffy, reddishyellow hair, and a shower of coaxing little pitfalls called dimples round her

pretty mouth. She made you think of a sunbeam, a morning songbird, a dancing butterfly, or an impetuous

little crocus just out after the first spring shower. Dislike her? You couldn't. Approve of her? You wouldn't

To be sure, if you prefer a quiet life, and do not want to be led into exploits of all kinds, invariably beginning

with risk, attended with danger, and culminating in despair, you had better not engage in an intimate

friendship with Miss Pauline Oliver, but fix your affections on the quiet, thoughtful, but not less lovable girl

who sits by the bedside stroking Elsie Howard's thin white hand. Nevertheless, I am obliged to state that

Margery Noble herself, earnest, demure, and given to reflection, was Polly's willing slave and victim.

However, I've forgotten to tell you that Polly was as open and frank as the daylight, at once torrid and

constant in her affections, brave, selfforgetting as well as selfwilled; and that though she did have a tongue

just the least bit saucy, she used it valiantly in the defence of others. 'She'll come out all right,' said a dear

oldfashioned grandfather of hers whom she had left way back in a Vermont farmhouse. 'She's got to be

Pretty, wise, tender Margery Noble, with her sleek brown braids, her innocent, questioning eyes, her soft

voice, willing hands, and shy, quiet manners! 'She will either end as the matron of an orphan asylum or as

headnurse in a hospital.' So Bell Winship often used to say; but then she was chiefly celebrated for talking

nonsense, and nobody ever paid much attention to her. But if you should crave a breath of fresh air, or want

to believe that the spring has come, just call Bell Winship in, as she walks with her breezy step down the

street. Her very hair seems instinct with life, with its flying tendrils of bronze brightness and the riotous little

curls on her brow and temples. Then, too, she has a particularly jaunty way of putting on her jacket, or

wearing a flower or a ribbon; and as for her ringing peal of laughter, it is like a chime of silver bells.

Elsie Howard, the invalid friend of the girls, was as dear to them as they were to each other. She kept the

secrets of the 'firm'; mourned over their griefs and smiled over their joys; was proud of their talents and

tenderly blind to their faults. The little wicker rockingchair by the bedside was often made a sort of

confessional, at which she presided, the tenderest and most sympathetic little priestess in the universe; and

every afternoon the piazza, with its lattice of green vines, served as a mimic throneroom, where she was

wont to hold high court, surrounded by her devoted subjects. Here Geoffrey Strong used often to read to the

assembled company David Copperfield, Alice in Wonderland, or snatches from the magazines, while Jack

Howard lazily stretched himself under the orangetrees and braided lariats, a favourite occupation with

California boys. About four o'clock Philip Noble would ride up from his father's fruit ranch, some three miles

out on the San Marcos road, and, hitching his little sorrel mare Chispa at the gate, stay an hour before going

This particular afternoon, however, was not one of Elsie's bright ones, and there was no sign of court or

invalid queen on the piazza. The voices of the girls floated out from Elsie's bedroom, while the boys, too,

seemed to be somewhere in the vicinity, for there was a constant stirring about as of lively preparation,

'If you were only going, Elsie, our cup of happiness would be full,' sighed Bell.

'Not only would it be full, Bell, but it would be running over, and we should positively stand in the slop,' said

Polly. 'No, you needn't frown at me, miss; that expression is borrowed from no less a person than Sydney

'Don't think any more about me,' smiled Elsie. 'Perhaps I can come down in the course of the summer. I know

it will be the happiest time in the world, but I don't envy you a bit; in fact, I'm very glad you're going, because

'When we come back, indeed!' exclaimed Bell. 'Why, we shall write long roundrobin letters every few days,

and send them by the team. Papa says Pancho will have to go over to the stage station at least once a week for

'Oh, won't that be delightful,almost as good as being there myself! And, Margery dear, you must make

them tell me every least little thing that happens. You know they are such flyaways that they'll only write

me when they learn to swim, or shoot a wildcat, or get lost in the woods. I want to know all the stupid bits:

what you have for dinner, how and where you sleep, how your camp looks, what you do from morning till

'I can tell you that beforehand,' said Bell, dolefully. 'Jack will shoot him by mistake on Thursday; he will be

kicked by the horses Friday, and bitten by tarantulas and rattlesnakes Saturday; he will eat poison oak on

Sunday, get lost in the canyon Monday, be eaten by a bear Tuesday, and drowned in the pool Wednesday.

These incidents will complete his first week; and if they produce no effect on his naturally strong

constitution, he will treat us to another week, containing just as many mishaps, but no duplicates.'

By the time this dismal prophecy was ended the other girls were in a breathless fit of laughter, though all

'I went over the campingground last summer,' said Margery. 'You know it is quite near papa's sheep ranch,

and it is certainly the most beautiful place in California. The tents will be pitched at the mouth of the canyon,

where there is a view of the ocean, and just at the back will be a lovely grove of wild oaks and

'Oh, won't it be delicious!' sighed Elsie. 'I feel as if I could sniff the air this minute. But there! I won't pretend

that I'm dying for fresh air, with the breath of the sea coming in at my south window, and a whiff of jasmine

and honeysuckle from the piazza. That would be nonsense. Are your trunks packed?'

'Trunks!' exclaimed Polly. 'Would you believe it, our clothes are packed in gunnysacks! We start in our

campingdresses, with ulsters for the steamer and dusters for the long drive. Then we each have let me see

what we have: a short, tough ridingskirt with a jersey, a bathingdress, and some gingham morninggowns

'And flannel gowns for the night, and two pairs of boots, and a ridingcap and one hat apiece,' added

'But oh, Elsie, my dear, you should see Dicky in his campingsuits,' laughed Bell. 'They are a triumph of

invention on mamma's part. Just imagine! one is of some enamelled cloth that was left over from the new

carriage cushions; it is very shiny and elegant; and the other, truly, is of soft tanned leather, and just as pretty

as it can be. Then he has hobnailed, coppertoed boots, and a hat that ties under his chin. Poor little man, he

Mrs. Howard came in the door while Bell was speaking, and laughed heartily at the description of Dicky's

curious outfit. 'What time do you start?' she asked, as she laid a bunch of mignonette on Elsie's table.

'At eleven tomorrow morning,' Bell answered. 'Everything is packed. We are to start in the steamer, and

when we come to our old landing, about forty miles down the coast, we are to get off and take a three seated

thoroughbrace wagon, and drive over to Las Flores Canyon. Pancho has hired a funny little pack mule; he

says we shall need one in going up the mountain, and that the boys can take him when they go out

'If I can bring Elsie down, as I hope, we must come by land,' said Mrs. Howard. 'I thought we could take two

days for the journey, sleeping at the Burtons' ranch on the way. The doctor says that if she can get strength

enough to bear the ride, the openair life will do her good, even if she does nothing but lie in the hammock.'

'Not a bit of it,' said Margery. 'Hop Yet is a splendid cook, if he has anything to cook, and we'll feed her on

broiled titbits of baby venison, goat's milk, wild bees' honey, and cunning little mourning doves, roasted on a

'Good gracious,' cried Bell, 'what angels' food! only I would as soon devour a pet canary as a mourning dove.

But to think that I've been trying to diet for a week in order to get intimate with suffering and privation! Polly

came to stay with me one night, and we slept on the floor, with only a blanket under us, and no pillow; it was

perfectly horrid. Polly dreamed that her grandfather ate up her grandmother, and I that Dicky stabbed the

'Horrors!' ejaculated Margery; 'that's a pleasant prospect for your future bedfellows. I hope the gophers won't

make you nervous, gnawing and scratching in the straw; I got used to them last summer. But we really must

'Well, I suppose you ought,' she answered. 'But remember you are to start from this gate; Aunt Truth has

The girls went out at a side door, and joined the boys, who were busily at work cleaning their guns on the

'Oh, finely,' answered Jack, who always constituted himself chief spokesman, unless driven from the rostrum

by some one possessed of a nimbler tongue. 'I only hope your feminine togs are in half as good order.'

'We take no baggage to speak of,' said Bell, loftily. 'Papa has cut us down to the very last notch, and says the

'The less the better,' quoth Geoff, cheerily; 'then you'll have to polish up your mental jewels.'

'Perish the thought!' cried Jack. 'But, speaking of mental jewels, you should see the arrangements Geoff has

made for polishing his. He has actually stuck in six large volumes, any one of which would be a remedy for

'Now, Jack, let us decide at once whether you intend to be respectful or not. I don't propose to expose myself

'Why, that wasn't disrespectful. It is my newest word, and it simply means having many titles. I'm sure you

'Very well, then! I'll overlook the irreverence this time, and announce that I shall not take anything whatever

'That may last for the first week,' said Bell, slyly, 'but what will you do afterward?'

'I'll reflect upon what you don't know,' retorted Polly. 'That will easily occupy me two months.'

Fortunately, at the very moment this stinging remark was made, Phil Noble dashed up to the front gate, flung

'Hail, chief of the commissary department!' cried Geoffrey, with mock salute. 'Have you despatched the

'Yes; everything is all right,' said Phil, breathlessly, delivering himself of his information in spasmodic bursts

of words. 'Such a lot of work it was! here's the list. Pancho will dump them on the ground and let us settle

them when we get there. Such a load! You should have seen it! Hardly room for him to sit up in front with

the Chinaman. Just hear this,' and he drew a large document from what Polly called 'a backstairs pocket.'

'Forty cans corned beef, four guns, three Dutch cheeses, pickles, fishingtackle, flour, bacon, three bushels

onions, crate of dishes, Jack's banjo, potatoes, Short History of the English People, cooking utensils, three

hair pillows, box of gingersnaps, four hammocks, coffee, cartridges, sugar, Macaulay's Essays, Pond's

extract, sixteen hams, Bell's guitar, popcorn, molasses, salt, St. Jacob's Oil, Conquest of Mexico, sack of

'In precisely that order, Miss Oliver,' returned Phil, urbanely. 'Any one who feels that said packing might be

improved upon has only to mount the fleet Arabian yonder' (the animal alluded to seized this moment to

stand on three legs, hang his head, and look dejected), 'and, giving him the rein, speed o'er the trackless plain

which leads to San Miguel, o'ertake the team, and repack the contents according to her own satisfaction.'

'Not at all,' quoth Jack. 'Polly will gracefully dispose a horse blanket about her shoulders, to shield her from

the chill dews of the early morn, mount the pack mule exactly at cockcrow everyday, and ride to a

neighbouring ranch where there are tons of the aforesaid articles awaiting our consumption.'

'Can you see me doing it, girls? Does it seem entirely natural?' asked Polly, with great gravity.

'Now hear my report as chairman of the committee of arrangements,' said Geoffrey Strong, seating himself

with dignity on a barrel of nails. 'The tents, ropes, toolboxes, bedsacks, blankets, furniture, etc., all went

down on Monday's steamer, and I have a telegram from Larry's Landing saying that they arrived in good

order, and that a Mexican gentleman who owns a mammoth woodcart will take them up tomorrow when

we go ourselves. The procession will move at one P.M., wind and weather permitting, in the following

'3. Main conveyance or triumphal chariot, driven by AidedeCamp John Howard, and carrying Dr. and Mrs.

Winship, our most worshipful and benignant host and hostess; Master Dick Winship, the heir apparent;

three other young persons not worth mentioning; and four cans of best leaf lard, which I omitted to put with

'4. Woodcart containing baggage, driven by Senor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega from Dead Wood

'Oh, Geoff, Geoff, pray do stop! it's too much!' cried the girls in a fit of laughter.

'Hurrah!' shouted Jack, tossing his hat into a tall eucalyptustree in his excitement, 'Tent life for ever!'

'Goodbye, ye pomps and vanities!' chanted Bell, kissing her hand in imaginary farewell. 'Verily the noisy

'And the city will not be as noisy WHEN you depart,' murmured Jack, with an impudence that luckily passed

Wednesday morning dawned as bright and beautiful as all mornings are wont to dawn in Southern California.

A light mist hung over the old adobe mission church, through which, with its snowwhite towers and cold,

clearcut lines, it rose like a frozen fairy castle. Bell opened her sleepy eyes with the very earliest birds, and

running to the little oval window, framed with whiterose vines, looked out at the new day just creeping up

'Oh dear and beautiful home of mine, how charming, how charming you are! I wonder if you are not really

Paradise!' she said, dreamily; and the marvel is that the rising sun did not stop a moment in sheer surprise at

the sight of this radiant morning vision; for the oval window opening to the east was a pretty frame, with its

outline marked by the dewy rosevine covered with hundreds of pure, half opened buds and swaying

tendrils, and she stood there in it, a fair image of the morning in her innocent white gown. Her luminous eyes

still mirrored the shadowy visions of dreamland, mingled with dancing lights of hope and joyful anticipation;

while on her fresh cheeks, which had not yet lost the roundness of childhood, there glowed, as in the eastern

The town is yet asleep, and in truth it is never apt to be fairly wide awake. The air is soft and balmy; the

lovely Pacific, a quivering, sparkling sheet of blue and grey and green flecked with white foam, stretches far

out until it is lost in the rosy sky; and the mountains, all purple and pink and faint crimson and grey, stand

like sentinels along the shore. The scent of the roses, violets, and mignonette mingled with the cloying

fragrance of the datura is heavy in the still air. The bending, willowy peppertrees show myriad bunches of

yellow blossoms, crimson seedberries, and fresh green leaves, whose surface, not rainwashed for months,

is as full of colour as ever. The palmtrees rise without a branch, tall, slender, and graceful, from the warmly

generous earth, and spread at last, as if tired of their straightness, into beautiful crowns of fans, which sway

toward each other with every breath of air. Innumerable butterflies and hummingbirds, in the hot, dazzling

sunshine of noonday, will be hovering over the beds of sweet purple heliotrope and finding their way into the

hearts of the passionflowers, but as yet not the faintest whirr of wings can be heard. Looking eastward or

westward, you see either brown foothills, or, a little later on, emerald slopes whose vines hang heavy with

And hark! A silvery note strikes on the dewy stillness. It is the mission bell ringing for morning mass; and if

you look yonder you may see the Franciscan friars going to prayers, with their loose grey gowns, their girdle

of rope, their sandaled feet, and their jingling rosaries; and perhaps a Spanish senorita, with her trailing dress,

and black shawl loosely thrown over her head, from out the folds of which her two dark eyes burn like

gleaming fires. A solitary Mexican gallops by, with gayly decorated saddle and heavily laden saddlebags

hanging from it; perhaps he is taking home provisions to his wife and darkeyed babies who live up in a little

dimple of the mountain side, almost hidden from sight by the olivetrees. And then a patient, hardy little

mustang lopes along the street, bearing on his back three laughing boys, one behind the other, on a morning

The mist had floated away from the old mission now, the sun has climbed a little higher, and Bell has come

'Oh, Polly, I don't see how anybody can be wicked in such a beautiful, beautiful world.'

'Humph!' said Polly, dipping her curly head deep into the waterbowl, and coming up looking like a little

drowned kitten. 'When you want to be hateful, you don't stop to think whether you're looking at a cactus or a

'Very true,' sighed Bell, quite silenced by this practical illustration. 'Now I'll try the effect of the landscape on

my temper by dressing Dicky, while he dances about the room and plays with his tan terrier.'

But it happened that Dicky was on his very best behaviour, and stood as still as a signpost while being

dressed. It is true he ate a couple of matches and tumbled downstairs twice before breakfast, so that after

that hurried meal Bell tied him to one of the verandah posts, that he might not commit any act vicious enough

to keep them at home. As he had a huge pocket full of apricots he was in perfect goodhumour, not taking his

confinement at all to heart, inasmuch as it commanded a full view of the scene of action. His amiability was

further increased, moreover, by the possession of a bright new policeman's whistle, which was carefully tied

to his buttonhole by a neat little silk cord, and which his fond parents intended that he should blow if he

chanced to fall into danger during his rambles about the camp. We might as well state here, however, that this

precaution proved fruitless, for he blew it at all times and seasons; and everybody became so hardened to its

melodious shriek that they paid no attention to it whatever,history, or fable, thus again repeating itself.

Mr. and Mrs. Noble had driven Margery and Phil into town from the fruit ranch, and were waiting to see the

Mrs. Oliver was to live in the Winship house during the absence of the family, and was aiding them to do

those numberless little things that are always found undone at the last moment. She had given her impetuous

daughter a dozen fond embraces, smothering in each a gentle warning, and stood now with Mrs. Winship at

'I hope Pauline won't give you any trouble,' she said. 'She is so apt to be too impulsive and thoughtless.'

'I shall enjoy her,' said sweet Aunt Truth, with that bright, cordial smile of hers that was like a blessing. 'She

has a very loving heart, and is easily led. How pretty the girls look, and how different they are! Polly is like a

thistledown or a firefly, Margery like one of our home Mayflowers, and I can't help thinking my Bell like a

The girls did look very pretty; for their mothers had fashioned their campingdresses with much care and

taste, taking great pains to make them picturesque and appropriate to their summer life 'under the greenwood

Over a plain full skirt of heavy crimson serge Bell wore a hunting jacket and drapery of dark leafgreen, like

a bit of forest against a sunset. Her hair, which fell in a waving mass of burnished brightness to her waist, was

caught by a silver arrow, and crowned by a wide soft hat of crimson felt encircled with a bird's breast.

Margery wore a soft grey flannel, the colour of a dove's throat, adorned with rows upon rows of silver braid

and sparkling silver buttons; while her big grey hat had nothing but a silver cord and tassel tied round it in

Polly was all in sailor blue, with a distractingly natty little doublebreasted coat and great white rolling

collar. Her hat swung in her hand, as usual, showing her boyish head of sunny auburn curls, and she carried

on a neat chatelaine a silver cup and little clasp knife, as was the custom in the party.

'It's very difficult,' Polly often exclaimed, 'to get a dress that will tone down your hair and a hat that will tone

up your nose, when the first is red and the last a snub! My nose is the root of all evil; it makes people think

I'm saucy before I say a word; and as for my hair, they think I must be peppery, no matter if I were really as

meek as Moses. Now there's Margery, the dear, darling mouse! People look at her two sleek braids, every

hair doing just what it ought to do and lying straight and smooth, and ask, "Who is that sweet girl?" There's

something wrong somewhere. I ought not to suffer because of one small, simple, turnedup nose and a head

'Here they come!' shouted Jack from the group on the Howards' piazza. 'Christopher Columbus, what

gorgeousness! The Flamingo, the Dove, and the Bluejay! Goodmorning, young ladies; may we be allowed

'You needn't be troubled,' laughed Bell. 'We shall not disclose these glories until we reach the camp. But you

'Why, the fact is,' answered Geoffrey, 'our courage failed us at the last moment. We donned our uniforms, and

looked like brigands, highway robbers, cowboys, firemen,anything but modest young men; and as it was

too warm for ulsters, we took refuge in civilised raiment for today. When we arrive, you shall behold our

dashing sombreros fixed up with peacock feathers, and our refulgent shirts, which are of the most original

'Aboriginal, in fact,' said Jack. 'We have broad belts of alligator skin, pouches, pistols, bowieknives, and

tancoloured shoes; but we dislike to flaunt them before the eyes of a city public.'

'Here they are!' cried Geoffrey, from the gate. 'Uncle, and aunt, and Dicky, andgood gracious! Is he really

'Won't go without him,' said Bell, briefly. 'There are cases where it is better to submit than to fight.'

So the last goodbyes were said, and Elsie bore up bravely; better, indeed, than the others, who shed many a

furtive tear at leaving her. 'Make haste and get well, darling,' whispered the girls, lovingly.

'Pray, pray, dear Mrs. Howard, bring her down to us as soon as possible. We'll take such good care of her,'

'Come, girls and boys,' said kind Dr. Paul, 'the steamer has blown her first whistle, and we must be off.'

Oh, how clear and beautiful a day it was, and how charmingly gracious Dame Ocean looked in her white caps

and blue ruffles! Even the combination steamboat smell of dinner, oil, and close air was obliterated by the

The good ship Orizaba ploughed her way through the sparkling, sunlit waves, traversing quickly the

distance which lay between the young people and their destination. They watched the long white furrow that

stretched in her wake, the cloud of black smoke which floated like a dark shadow above the laughing crests

of the waves, and the flocks of seagulls sailing overhead, with wild shrill screams ever and anon swooping

down for some bit of food flung from the ship, and then floating for miles on the waves.

How they sung 'Life on the Ocean Wave,' 'Bounding Billow,' and 'Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep!' How

'I wish I were a fish, With a great long tail; A tiny little tittlebat, A wiggle or a whale, In the middle of the

'Oh, how I long to be there!' exclaimed Philip, 'to throw aside all the formal customs of a wicked world I

'Oh, yes; you're mistaken. I've been obliged to eat most of my meals in the house, and sleep there; but I don't

approve of it, and it's a trial to be borne with meekness only when there's no remedy for it.'

'Besides,' said Jack, 'even when we are outofdoors we are shelling the reluctant almond, poisoning the

voracious gopher, pruning grape vines, and "sich." Now I am only going to shoot to eat, and eat to shoot!'

'Hope you've improved since last year, or you'll have a low diet,' murmured Phil, in an undertone.

'The man of genius must expect to be the butt of ridicule,' sighed Jack, meekly.

'But you'll not repine, although your heartstrings break, will you?' said Polly, sympathisingly; 'especially in

'How glad I am that I'm too nearsighted to shoot,' said Geoffrey, taking off the eyeglasses that made him

look so wise and dignified. 'I shall lounge under the trees, read Macaulay, and order the meals.'

'I shall need an assistant about the camp,' said Aunt Truth, smilingly; 'but I hardly think he'll have much time

'And, furthermore, I declare by the nose of the great Tam o' Shanter that I will cut down every tree in the

'Softly, my boy. Hill's bluegum forest is not so very far away. You'll have your hands full,' laughed Dr.

'Papa,' said Bell, excitedly, 'we certainly are nearing the place. Do you see that bend in the shore, and don't

'Bell's bump of locality is immense. There are nineteen bends in the shore exactly like that one before we

reach the landing. How many knots an hour do you suppose this ship travels, my fair cousin?' asked

'I could tell better,' replied Bell calmly, 'if I could ever remember how many knots made a mile, or how many

'Oh, see! There's a porpoise!' cried Jack. 'Polly, why is a porpoise like a waterlily?'

But before he could say 'Guess,' Phil, Geoff, and the girls had drawn themselves into a line, and, with a

whispered 'One, two, three,' to secure a good start, replied in concert, 'Wegiveitup!'

'What a deafening shout!' cried Aunt Truth, coming out of the cabin. 'What's the matter, pray?'

'Nothing, aunty,' laughed Polly. 'But we have formed a society for suppressing Jack's conundrums, and this is

Aunt Truth smiled. 'It was very audible,' she said. 'Yours is evidently not a secret society.'

'I wish I could find out who originated this plan,' quoth Jack, murderously. 'But I suppose it's one of you girls,

and I can't revenge myself. Oh, when will this barrier between the sexes be removed!'

'I trust not in your lifetime,' shuddered Polly, 'or we might as well begin to "stand round our dying beds" at

Whatever the distance was in reality, the steamer had consumed more time than usual, and it was quite two

o'clock, instead of halfpast twelve, as they had expected, before they were landed on the old and almost

After counting over their bags and packages to see if anything had been forgotten, they looked about them.

There was a dirty little settlement, a mile or two to the south, consisting of a collection of tumbledown

adobe houses which looked like a blotch on the brown hillside; a few cattle were browsing near by, and the

locality seemed to be well supplied with lizards, which darted over the dusty ground in all directions. But the

startling point of the landscape was that it showed no sign of human life, and Pancho's orders had been to

have Senor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega and his woodcart on hand promptly at halfpast twelve.

'Can Senor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega have grown tired of waiting and gone off?'

'Has Senor Don Manuel Felipe Hilario Noriega been drinking too much aguardiente and so forgotten to

'Has Pancho been murdered by highway robbers, and served up into stew for their evening meal?'

'With Hop Yet for dessert! Oh, horrible!' These were some of the questions and exclamations that greeted the

ears of the lizards, and caused them to fly over the ground in a more excited fashion than ever.

'One thing is certain. If Pancho has been stupid enough to lose his way coming fifty miles down the coast, I'll

'Of course. But really, mamma, this looks discouraging; I am afraid we can't get into camp this evening. Shall

we go up to the nearest ranch house for the night, and see what can be done tomorrow?'

'Never,' echoed Philip separately. 'I have vowed that a bed shall not know me for three months, and I'll keep

'What do you say to this, Uncle Doc?' said Geoffrey. 'Suppose you go up to the storehouse and office,it's

about a mile,and see if the goods are there all right, and whether the men saw Pancho on his way up to the

canyon. Meanwhile, Phil and I will ride over here somewhere to get a team, or look up Senor Don Manuel

Felipe Hilario Noriega. Jack can stay with Aunt Truth and the girls, to watch developments.'

'I don't see how. We are behindhand already; and if we get started within an hour we can't reach the ground I

selected before dark and we can't choose any nearer one, because if Pancho is anywhere in creation he is on

'But, Dr. Paul, I'll tell you what we could do,' suggested Jack. 'If we get any kind of a start, we can't fail to

reach camp by seven or eight o'clock at latest. Now it's bright moonlight, and if we find Pancho, he'll have the

baggage unloaded, and Hop Yet will have a fire lighted. What's to prevent our swinging the hammocks for

the ladies? And we'll just roll up in our blankets by the fire, for tonight. Then we'll get to housekeeping in

'Very well,' replied the Doctor. 'If you are all agreed, I suppose we may as well begin roughing it now as at

You may have noticed sometimes, after having fortified yourself against a terrible misfortune which seemed

in store for you, that it didn't come, after all. Well, it was so in this case; for just as Dr. Winship and the boys

started out over the hillside at a brisk pace, an immense cloud of dust, some distance up the road, attracted

The girls held their breath in anxious expectation, and at length gave an irrepressible shout of joy and relief

when there issued from the dense grey cloud the familiar fourhorse team, with Daisy, Tule Molly, Villikins,

and Dinah, looking as fresh as if they had not been driven a mile, tough little mustangs that they were.

A long conversation in Spanish ensued, which, being translated by Dr. Winship, furnished all necessary

S. D. M. F. H. N. stated that Pancho was neither faithless nor stupid, but was waiting for them on the

campingground, and that as the goods were already packed in his woodcart he would follow them

immediately. So the whole party started without more delay; Dr. and Mrs. Winship, Master Paul, Jack

Howard, and the three girls riding in the wagon, while Geoffrey and Philip galloped ahead on horseback.

It was a long, dusty, tiresome ride; and Dicky, who had been as good all day as any saint ever carved in

marble and set in a niche, grew rather warm, cross, and hungry, although he had been consuming

gingersnaps and apricots since early morning. After asking plaintively for the fiftieth time how long it

would be before dinner, he finally succumbed to his weariness, and dropping his yellow head, that was like a

But the young people, whose eyes were not blinded by hunger and sleep, found more than enough to interest

them on this dusty California road, winding as it did through grand old growths of trees, acres and acres of

waving grain, and endless stretches of gorgeous yellow mustard, the stalks of which were five or six feet

high, almost hiding from view the boys who dashed into the golden forest from time to time.

At the foot of the hill they passed an old adobe hut, with a crowd of pretty, swarthy, frowzy Mexican children

playing in the sunshine, while their mother, blackhaired and ample of figure, occupied herself in hanging

great quantities of jerked beef on a sort of clothesline running between the eucalyptustrees.

The father, a wildlooking individual in a red shirt and enormous hat, came from behind the hut, unhitched

the stout little broncho tied to the fence, gave the poor animal a desperately tight 'cinch,' threw himself into

the saddle without touching his foot to the lumbering wooden stirrups, and, digging his spurs well into the

horse's sides, was out of sight in an instant, leaving only a huge cloud of dust to cover his disappearance.

'How those fellows do ride!' exclaimed Dr. Winship, savagely. 'I wish they were all obliged to walk until they

'Then they'd walk straight into the millennium,' said Jack, sagely, 'for their cruelty seems to be an instinct.'

'But how beautifully they ride, too!' said Polly. 'Mamma and I were sitting on the hotel piazza the other day,

watching two young Spaniards who were performing feats of horsemanship. They dropped fourbit pieces on

the dusty road, and riding up to them at full speed clutched them from the ground in some mysterious way

that was perfectly wonderful. Then Nick Gutierrez mounted a bucking horse, and actually rolled and lighted a

'See that cunning, cunning muchachita, mamma!' cried Bell; for, as they stopped at the top of the hill to let

the horses breathe, one of the little Mexican children ran after them, holding out a handful of glowing yellow

She was distractingly pretty, with a beauty that is shortlived with the people of her race. The afternoon sun

shone down fiercely on her waving coalblack locks, and brought a rich colour to her nutbrown cheek; she

had one little flimsy, ragged garment, neither long, broad, nor thick, which hung about her picturesquely; and,

with her soft, dark, sleepy eyes, the rows of little white teeth behind her laughing red mouth, and the vivid

'Como te llamas, muchachita?' (What is your name, little one?) asked Bell, airing her Spanish, which was

'Teresita,' she answered, with a pretty accent, as she scratched a set of five grimy little toes to and fro in the

'Throw her a bit, papa,' whispered Bell; and, as he did so, Teresita caught the piece of silver very deftly, and

'How intense everything is in California! Do you know what I mean, mamma?' said Bell. 'The fruit is so

immense, the canyons so deep, the trees so big, the hills so high, the rain so wet, and the drought so dry.'

'The fleas so many, the fleas so spry,' chanted Jack, who had perceived that Bell was talking in rhyme without

knowing it. 'California is just the place for you, Bell; it gives you a chance for innumerable adjectives heaped

'I don't always heap up adjectives,' replied Bell, with dignity. 'When I wish to describe you, for instance, I

'I'd like to paint a picture of Teresita,' said Margery, who had a pretty talent for sketching, 'and call it The

Summer Child, or some such thing. I should think the famous old colour artists might have loved to paint this

'Not poppy,eschscholtzia,' corrected Jack, coming rapidly to the surface again, after Bell's rebuke, and

'I'm not writing a botany,' retorted Margery; 'and I can never remember that word, much less spell it. I don't

see how it grows under such an abominable Russian name. It's worse than ichthyosaurus. Do you remember

"I is for ichthyosaurus, Who lived when the world was all porous; But he fainted with shame When he first

'The Spaniards are more poetic,' said Aunt Truth, 'for they call it la copa de oro, the golden cup. Oh, see them

The sight would have driven a royal florist mad with joy: a hillside that was a swaying mass of radiant

bloom, a joyous carnival of vivid colour, in which the thousand golden goblets, turned upward to the sun,

were dancing, and glowing, and shaming out of countenance the purple and blue and pink masses which

'You know Professor Pinnie told us that every wellinformed young girl should know at least the flora of her

'Well, one thing is certain: Professor Pinnie never knew the STATE of his own flora, or at least he kept his

wife sorting and arranging his specimens all the time; and I think he's a regular old frump,' said Polly,

irreverently, but meeting Aunt Truth's reproving glance, which brought a blush and a whispered 'Excuse me,'

she went on, 'Well, what I mean is, he doesn't know any more than other people, after all; for he cares for

nothing but bushes and herbs and seeds and shrubs and roots and stamens and pistils; and he can't tell

whether a flower is lovely or not, he is so crazy to find out where it belongs and tie a tag round it.'

'I must agree with Polly,' laughed Jack. 'Why, I went to ride with him one day in the Cathedral Oaks, and he

made me get off my horse every five minutes to dig up roots and tie them to the pommel of his old saddle, so

that we came into town looking like moving herbariums. The stableman lifted him on to his horse when he

started, I suppose, and he would have been there yet if he hadn't been helped off. Bah!' For Jack had a

By this time they had turned off the main thoroughfare, and were travelling over a bit of old stage road which

was anything but easy riding. There they met some men who were driving an enormous band of sheep to a

distant ranch for pasture, which gave saucy Polly the chance to ask Dr. Winship, innocently, why white sheep

He fell into the trap at once, and answered unsuspectingly, in a surprised tone, 'Why, do they?' giving her the

longedfor opportunity to respond, 'Yes, of course, because there are so many more of 'em; don't you see?'

'You are behind the times, Dr. Paul,' said Jack. 'That's an ancient joke. Just look at those sheep, sir. How

'Even more, I should think,a thousand, certainly; and rather thin they look, too.'

'I should imagine they might,' said Bell, sympathetically. 'When I first came to California I never could see

how the poor creatures found anything to eat on these bare, brown hillsides, until the farmers showed me the

prickly little burr clover balls that cover the ground. But see, mamma! there are some tiny lambs, poor, tired,

'Which reminds me,' said Jack, giving Villikins a touch of the whip, 'that nothing is so calculated to disturb

your faith in and love for lambs as life on a sheep ranch. Innocent! Good gracious! I never saw

'Gasping, staggering, stuttering, stammering tomfools,' interposed Bell. 'That's what Carlyle called ONE

Lamb,dear Mr. "Roast Pig" Charles; and a mean old thing he was, too, for doing it.'

'Well, it is just strong enough to apply to the actual lamb; not the lamb of romance, but the lamb of reality.

You can't get him anywhere; he doesn't know enough. He won't drive, he can't follow; he's too stupid. Why, I

went out for a couple of 'em once, that were lost in the canyon. I found them,that was comparatively easy;

but when I tried to get them home, I couldn't. At last, after infinite trouble, I managed to drive them up on to

the trail, which was so narrow there was but one thing for a rational creature to do, and that was to go ahead.

Then, if you'll believe me, those idiots kept bleating and getting under the horse's forefeet; finally, one of

them, the champion simpleton, tumbled over into the canyon, and I tied the legs of the other one together, and

'They are innocent, any way,' insisted Margery. 'I won't believe they're not. I can't bear these people who

interfere with all your cherished ideas, and say that Columbus didn't discover America, and Shakespeare

'Nevertheless, I claim that the lamb is not half so much an emblem of innocence as he is of utter and profound

stupidity. There is that charming old lyric about Mary's little lamb; I can explain that. After he came to school

(which was an error of judgment at the very beginning), he made the rumpus, you know

"And then the teacher turned him out, But still he lingered neear, And waited patiently about Till Mary did

"And then he ran to her and laid His head upon her arrum, As if to say, 'I'm not afraid; You'll keep me from

"'What makes the lamb love Mary so? The eager children cry; 'Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know,' The

And might have added that as Mary fed the lamb three times a day and twice on Sundays, he probably not

only knew on which side his daily bread was buttered, but also who buttered it.'

'Dreadful boy!' laughed Bell. 'Polly, pray lower the umbrella; we are going to meet some respectable people,

'They must be equally dusty,' said Polly, sagely. 'Why, it is the Burtons, from Tacitas ranch!'

The Burton ranch wagon was drawn up, as its driver recognised Dr. Winship, and he proceeded to cheer the

spirits of the party by telling them that he had passed Pancho two hours before, and that he was busily

clearing rubbish from the campingground. This was six o'clock, and by a little after eight the weary, happy

party were seated on saddleblankets and carriagecushions round a cheery camp fire, eating a frugal meal,

The boys expressed their intention of spending the night in unpacking their baggage and getting to rights

generally, but Dr. Winship placed a prompt and decisive veto on this proposition, and they submitted

Getting to bed was an exciting occupation for everybody. Dicky was first tucked up in a warm nest of rugs

and blankets, under a tree, and sank into a profound slumber at once, with the happy unconsciousness of

childhood. His father completed the preparations for his comfort by opening a huge umbrella and arranging it

firmly over his head, so that no falling leaf might frighten him and no sudden gust of air blow upon his face.

Bell stood before her hammock, and meditated. 'Well,' she said, 'going to bed is a simple matter after all,

when you have shorn it of all useless formalities. Let me see: I generally walk to and fro in the room, eating a

bunch of grapes or an orange, look out of the window five or ten minutes, brush my hair, read my chapter in

the Bible, take my book and study Spanish five minutes, on the principle of that abnormal woman who

learned ninetysix languages while she was waiting for the kettle to boil in the morning'

'Must have been a slow boiler,' interrupted Polly, wickedly. 'Seems to me it would have been economy to sell

'Oh, Polly! you are so wilfully stupid! The kettle isn't the point but the languages. Besides, she didn't learn

'Now observe me,' said Bell. 'I have made the getting into a hammock a study. I first open it very wide at the

top with both hands; then, holding it in that position, I gracefully revolve my body from left to right as upon

an imaginary swivel; meantime I raise my right foot considerably from mother earth, with a view to passing it

over the hammock's edge. Every move is calculated, you perceive, and produces its own share of the perfect

result; the method is the same that Rachel used in rehearsing her wonderful tragic poses. I am now seated in

the hammock, you observe, with both hands extending the net from side to side and the right foot well in

position; I now raise the left foot with a swift but admirably steady movement, and I am Help! Help!!

'In short, you are not in, but out,' cried Polly, in a burst of laughter; for Bell had leaned too far to the right,

and on bringing the other foot in, with its 'swift but admirably steady' motion, she gave a sudden lurch, pulled

the hammock entirely over herself and fell out head first on the other side, leaving her feet tangled in its

meshes. 'Shall we help her out, Meg? She doesn't deserve it, after that pompous oration and attempt to show

off her superior abilities. Nevertheless, she always accepts mercy more gracefully than justice. Heave ahoy,

'We are much obliged for the lesson,' said Margery, 'but the method is open to criticism; so I think we'll

manage in our ordinary savage way. We may not be graceful or scientific, but we get in, which is the main

The hammocks did not prove the easiest of nests, as the girls had imagined. In fact, to be perfectly candid

about the matter, the wicked flea of California, which man pursueth but seldom catcheth, is apt, on many a

summer night, to interfere shamelessly with slumber. On this particular night he was fairly rampant, perhaps

'Goodnight, girls!' called Jack, when matters seemed to be finally settled for sleep. 'Bell, you must keep one

eye open, for the coyotes will be stealing down the mountain in a jiffy, and yours is the first hammock in the

'Of course,' moaned Bell,'that's why the girls gave me this one; they knew very well that one victim always

slakes the animals' thirst for blood. Well, let them come on. I shiver with terror, but my only hope is that I

'There was a young party named Bell, Who slept out of doors for a spell; When asked how she fared, She said

'How's that?' asked Jack. 'I shall be able to drive Bell off her own field, with a little practice.'

'Go to sleep!' roared Dr. Paul. 'In your present condition of mind and body you are not fit for poetry!'

'That's just the point, sir,' retorted Jack, slyly, 'for, you remember, poets are not FIT, but nascitur,don't you

But quiet seemed to be impossible: there were all sorts of strange sounds; and the moon, too, was so splendid

that they almost felt as if they were lying beneath the radiance of a calcium light; while in the dark places,

midst the branches of thick foliage, the owls hooted gloomily. If you had happened to be an owl in that

vicinity, you might have heard not only the feverish tossing to and fro of the girls in the hammocks, but many

dismal sighs and groans from Dr. Winship and the boys; for the bare ground is, after all, more rheumatic than

But at midnight quiet slumber had descended upon them, and they presented a funny spectacle enough to one

openeyed watcher. A long slender sycamore log was extended before the fire, and constituted their pillow;

on this their heads reposed, each decorated with a tightly fitting silk handkerchief; then came a compact,

papooselike roll of grey blanket, terminated by a pair of erect feet, whose generous proportions soared to

At midnight you might have seen a quaintly despondent little figure, whose curly head issued from a hooded

cloak, staggering hopelessly from a hammock, and seating herself on a mossy stump. From the limpness of

her attitude and the pathetic expression of her eyes, I fear Polly was reviewing former happy nights spent on

springbeds; and at this particular moment the realities of campingout hardly equalled her anticipations.

Whatever may have been her feelings, however, they were promptly stifled when a certain insolent head

reared itself from its blanketroll, and a hoarse voice cackled, 'Pretty Polly! Polly want a canyon?' At this

insult Miss Oliver wrapped her drapery about her and strode to her hammock with the air of a tragedy queen.

On the next morning, as we have seen, they named their summer home Camp Chaparral, and for a week or

more they were the very busiest colony of people under the sun; for it takes a deal of hard work and ingenuity

The best way of showing you how they accomplished this is to describe the camp after it was nearly finished.

The two largest bedroom tents were made of bright awning cloth, one of red and white, the other of blue and

white, both gaily decorated with braid. They were pitched under the same giant oak, and yet were nearly forty

feet apart; that of the girls having a canvas floor. They were not quite willing to sleep on the ground, so they

had brought empty bedsacks with them, and Pancho's first duty after his arrival had been to drive to a

In a glorious tree near by was a 'sky parlour,' arranged by a few boards nailed high up in the leafy branches,

and reached from below by a primitive ladder. This was the favourite sittingroom of the girls by day, and

served for Pancho's bedroom at night. It was beautiful enough to be fit shelter for all the woodland nymphs,

with its festoons of mistletoe and wild grapevines; but Pancho was rather an unappreciative tenant, even

Just beyond was a cardroom,imagine itin which a square board, nailed on a low stump, served for a

table, where Dr. Paul and the boys played many a game of crib, backgammon, and checkers. Here, too, all

Elsie's letters were written and Bell's nonsense verses, and here was the identical spot where Jack Howard,

that mischievous knight of the brush, perpetrated those modern travesties on the 'William Henry pictures,' for

The dressingroom was reached by a path cut through bushes to a charming little pool. Here were

unmistakable evidences of feminine art: lookingglasses hanging to trees, snowy washcloths, each bearing

its owner's initials, adorning the shrubs, while numerous towels waved in the breeze. Between two trees a thin

board was nailed, which appeared to be used, as nearly as the woodpeckers could make out, as a toothbrush

rack. In this, Philip, the skilful carpenter, had bored the necessary number of holes, and each one contained a

In this secluded spot Bell was wont to marshal every morning the entire force of 'the toothbrush brigade'; and,

conducting the drill with much ingenuity, she would take her victims through a long series of military

manoeuvres arranged for the toothbrush. Oh, the gaspings, the chokings and stranglings, which occurred

when she mounted a rock by the edge of the pool, and after calling in tones of thunder,

ordered her unwilling privates to polish their innocent molars to the tune of 'Hail, Columbia,' or 'Auld Lang

Syne'! And if they became mutinous, it was Geoffrey who reduced them to submission, and ordered them to

brush for three mornings to the tune of 'Bluebells of Scotland' as a sign of loyalty to their commander.

As for the furnishing of the camp, there were impromptu stools and tables made of packingboxes and

trunks, all covered with bright Turkeyred cotton; there were no less than three rustic lounges and two

armchairs made from manzanita branches, and a Queen Anne bedstead was being slowly constructed, day

One corner of each tent was curtained off for a bathroom, another for a clothespress, and there were a

dozen devices for comfort, as Dr. Winship was opposed to any more inconvenience than was strictly

necessary. Dr. and Mrs. Winship and little Dicky occupied one tent, the boys another, and the girls a third.

When Bell, Polly, and Margery emerged from their tent on the second morning, they were disagreeably

surprised to see a large placard over the front entrance, bearing the insolent inscription, 'Tent Chatter.' They

said nothing; but on the night after, a committee of two stole out and glued a companion placard, 'Tent

Clatter,' over the door of their masculine neighbours. And to tell the truth, one was as well deserved as the

other; for if there was generally a subdued hum of conversation in the one, there never failed to be a perfect

Under a great sycamoretree stood the diningtable, which consisted of two long, wide boards placed

together upon a couple of barrels; and not far away was the brush kitchen, which should have been a work of

art, for it represented the combined genius of American, Mexican, and Chinese carpenters, Dr. Winship,

Pancho, and Hop Yet having laboured in its erection. It really answered the purpose admirably, and looked

quite like a conventional California kitchen; that is, it was ten feet square, and contained a table, a stove, and

The young people, by the way, had fought bitterly against the stove, protesting with all their might against

taking it. Polly and Jack declared that they would starve sooner than eat anything that hadn't been cooked

over a campfire. Bell and Philip said that they should stand in front of it all the time, for fear somebody

would ride through the canyon and catch them camping out with a stove. Imagine such a situation; it made

them blush. Margery said she wished people weren't quite so practical, and wouldn't ruin nature by

introducing such ugly and unnecessary things. She intended to point the moral by drawing a picture of Adam

and Eve in the garden of Eden,Eve bending over a cookstove and Adam peeling apples with a machine.

Geoffrey scoffed at Margery's sentimentalism, put on his most trying air, and declared that if he had his pork

and onions served up 'hot and reg'lar,' he didn't care how she had her victuals cooked.

They were all somewhat appeased, however, when they found that Dr. Winship was as anxious as they for an

evening campfire, and merely insisted upon the stove because it simplified the cookery. Furthermore, being

an eminently just man, he yielded so far as to give them permission to prepare their own meals on a private

camp fire whenever they desired; and this effectually stopped the argument, for no one was willing to pay

The hammocks, made of gailycoloured cords, were slung in various directions a short distance from the

square tent, which, being the family sittingroom, was the centre of attraction. It was arranged with a gay

canopy, twenty feet square. Three sides were made by hanging full curtains of awning cloth from redwood

rods by means of huge brass rings. These curtains were looped back during the day and dropped after dark,

making a cosy and warm interior from which to watch the campfire on cool evenings.

As for the Canyon de Las Flores itself, this little valley of the flowers, it was beautiful enough in every part to

inspire an artist's pencil or a poet's pen; so quiet and romantic it was, too, it might almost have been under a

spell,the home of some sleepy, enchanted princess waiting the magic kiss of a princely lover. It reached

from the ocean to the mountains, and held a thousand different pictures on which to feast the eye; for Dame

Nature deals out beauty with a lavish hand in this land of perpetual summer, song, and sunshine. There were

many noble oaktrees, some hung profusely with mistletoe, and others with the long, Spanish greybeard

moss, that droops from the branches in silvery lines, like water spray. Sometimes, in the moonlight, it winds

about the oak like a shroud, and then again like a filmy bridal veil, or drippings of mist from a frozen tree.

Here and there were open tracts of ground between the clumps of trees, like that in which the tents were

pitched,sunny places, where the earth was warm and dry, and the lizards blinked sleepily under the stones.

Farther up the canyon were superb baytrees, with their glossy leaves and aromatic odour, and the madrono,

which, with its bloodred skin, is one of the most beautiful of California trees, having an open growth, like a

maple, bright green lustrous leaves, and a brilliant red bark, which peels off at regular seasons, giving place

There were no birches with pure white skin, or graceful elms, or fluffy pussy willows, but so many beautiful

foreign things that it would seem ungrateful to mourn those left behind in the dear New England woods; and

as for flowers, there are no yellow and purple violets, fragile anemones, or blushing Mayflowers, but in

March the hillsides are covered with red, in April flushed with pink and blue, in May brilliant with yellow

blossoms; and in the canyons, where the earth is moist, there are flowers all the year.

And then the girls would never forgive me if I should forget the superb yucca, or Spanish bayonet, which is

as beautiful as a tropical queen. Its tall, slender stalk has no twigs or branches, but its leaves hang down from

the top like bayonetblades; and oh, there rises from the centre of them such a stately princess of a flower,

The boys often climbed the hillsides and brought home these splendid treasures, which were placed in pails

of water at the tent doors, to shed their luxuriant beauty and sweetness in the air for days together. They

brought home quantities of Spanish moss, and wild clematis, and manzanita berries too, with which to

decorate the beloved camp; and even Dicky trotted back with his arms full of gorgeous blossoms and grasses,

which he arranged with great taste and skill in mugs, bottles, and cans on the diningtable.

Can't you see what a charming place it was? And I have not begun to tell you the half yet; for there was

always a soft wind stirring the leaves in dreamy music, and above and through this whispered sound you

heard the brook splashing over its pebbly bed,splashing and splashing and laughing all it possibly could,

knowing it would speedily be dried up by the thirsty August sun. Every few yards part of the stream settled

down contentedly into a placid little pool, while the most inquisitive and restless little drops flowed noisily

down to see what was going on below. The banks were fringed with graceful alders and poisonoak bushes,

vivid in crimson and yellow leaves, while delicate maidenhair ferns grew in miniature forests between the

crevices of the rocks; yet, with the practicality of Chinese human nature, Hop Yet used all this beauty for a

Now, confess that, after having seen exactly how it looks, you would like to rub a magic lamp, like Aladdin,

and wish yourself there with our merry young sextette. For California is a lovely land and a strange one, even

at this late day, when her character has been nearly ruined by dreadful stories, or made ridiculous by foolish

When you were all babies in long clothes, some people used to believe that there were nuggets of gold to be

picked up in the streets, and that in the flowery valleys, flowing with milk and honey, there grew groves of

beettrees, and forests of cabbages, and shady bowers of squashvines; and they thought that through these

fertile valleys strode men of curious mien, wild bandits and highway robbers, with red flannel shirts and

many pockets filled with playingcards and revolvers and bowieknives; and that when you met these

frightful persons and courteously asked the time of day, they were apt to turn and stab you to the heart by

Now, some of these things were true, and some were not, and some will never happen again; for the towns

and cities no longer conduct themselves like headstrong young tomboys out on a lark, but have grown into

Perhaps California isn't really so interesting since she began to learn manners; but she is a land of wonders

still, with her sublime mountains and valleys; her precious metals; her vineyards and orchards of lemons and

oranges, figs, limes, and nuts; her mammoth vegetables, each big enough for a newspaper story; her

celebrated trees, on the stumps of which dancingparties are given; her vultures; her grizzly bears; and her

people, drawn from every nook and corner of the mappink, yellow, blue, red, and green countries. And

though the story of California is not written, in all its romantic details, in the schoolbooks of today, it is a

part of the poetry of our late American history, full of strange and thrilling scenes, glowing with interest and

I know a little girl who crossed the plains in that great ungeneraled army of fifteen or twenty thousand people

that made the long and weary journey to the land of gold in 1849. She tells her children now of the strange,

long days and months in the oxteam, passing through the heat and dust of alkali deserts, fording rivers, and

toiling over steep mountains. She tells them how at night she often used to lie awake, curled up in her grey

blanket, and hear the men talking together of the gold treasures they were to dig from the groundtreasures,

it seemed to her childish mind, more precious than those of which she read in The Arabian Nights. And from

a little hole in the canvas cover of the old emigrant wagon she used to see the tired fathers and brothers, worn

and footsore from their hard day's tramp, some sleeping restlessly, and others guarding the cattle or watching

for Indians, who were always expected, and often came; and the last thing at night, when her eyes were heavy

with sleep, she peered dreamily out into the darkness to see the hundreds of gleaming campfires, which

You will have noticed that this first week of camplife was a quiet one, spent mostly by the young people in

getting their openair home comfortably arranged, making conveniences of all kinds, becoming acquainted

with the canyon so far as they could, and riding once or twice to neighbouring ranches for hay or provisions.

Dr. Winship believed in a good beginning; and, as this was not a week's holiday, but a summer campaign, he

wanted his young people to get fully used to the situation before undertaking any of the exciting excursions in

prospect. So, before the week was over, they began to enjoy sound, dreamless sleep on their hard straw beds,

to eat the plain fare with decided relish, to grow a little hardy and brown, and quite strong and tough enough

After a religious devotion to cold cream for a few nights, Polly had signified her terrible intention of 'letting

her nose go.' 'I disown it!' she cried, peeping in her tiny mirror, and lighting up her too rosy tints with a tallow

candle. 'Hideous objick, I defy thee! Spot and speckle, yea, burn to a crisp, and shed thy skin afterwards! I

care not. Indeed, I shall be well rid of thee, thouh'mthou well, leopard, for instance.'

One beautiful day followed another, each the exact counterpart of the one that had preceded it; for California

boys and girls never have to say 'wind and weather permitting' from March or April until November. They

always know what the weather is going to do; and whether this is an advantage or not is a difficult matter to

New England boys affirm that they wouldn't live in a country where it couldn't rain any day it felt like it, and

California lads retort that they are glad their dispositions are not ruined by the freaks of New England

weather. At all events, it is a paradise for wouldbe campers, and any one who should assert the contrary

Bell returned one day from a walk which she had taken by herself, while the other girls were off on some

errand with the Doctor. After luncheon she drew them mysteriously into the square tent, and lowered the

'What is it?' Polly whispered, with an anxious expression of countenance. 'Have you lost your gold thimble

'I have found,' she answered mysteriously, 'the most beautifully secret place you ever beheld. It will be just

the spot for us to write and study in when we want to be alone; or it will even do for a theatre; and it is

'As I was walking along by the brookside, I saw a snake making its way through the bushes, and'

'Goose! Just wait a minute. I looked at it, and followed at a distance; it was a harmless little thing; and I

thought, for the fun of it, I would just push blindly on and see what I should find, because we are for ever

'A bad instinct,' remarked Madge, 'and one which will get you into trouble, so you should crush it in its

'Well, I took up my dress and ploughed through the chaparral, until I came, in about three minutes of

scratching and fighting, to an open circular place about as large as this tent. It was exactly round, which is the

curious part of it; and in the centre was one stump, covered with moss and surrounded by great white

toadstools. How any one happened to go in there and cut down a single tree I can't understand, nor yet how

they managed to bring out the tree through the tangled brush. It is so strange that it seems as if there must be

'Certainly,' said Margery promptly. 'A tragedy of the darkest kind! Some cruel wretch has cut down, in the

pride and pomp of it beauty, one sycamoretree; its innocent lifeblood has stained the ground, and given

birth to the white toadstools which mark the spot and testify to the purity of the victim.'

'Well,' continued Bell, impressively, 'I knew I could never find it again; and I wanted so much you should see

it that I took the ball of twine we always carry, unrolled it, and dropped the thread all the way along to the

'Or Artesia, or Polynesia, or Euthanasia,' interrupted Polly. 'I think the lady you mean is Ariadne.'

'Exactly. Now we'll take papa to see it, and then we'll fit it up as a retreat. Won't it be charming? We'll call it

'Oh, I like that; it makes me shiver!' cried Polly. 'I'm going to write an ode to it at once. Ahem! It shall

'O lonely tree, What cruel "he" Did lay thee low? Tell us the facts; Did cruel axe Abuse thee so?'

'Or did a gopher, The wicked loafer, Gnaw at thy base, And, doing so, Contrive to go, And leave no trace?'

'O toadstools white, Pray give us light Upon the question. Did gopher gnaw, And live in awe Of indigestion?'

'Or did a man Malicious plan The good tree's ruin, And leave it so Convenient low, A seat for Bruin?

For travelling grizzlies, you know. We may go there and see a hungry creature making a stumpspeech,

while an admiring audience of grasshoppers and tarantulas seat themselves in a circle on the toadstools.'

'Charming prospect!' said Madge. 'I don't think I care to visit the Lone Stump or pass my mornings there.'

'Nonsense, dear child; it is just like every other part of the canyon, only a little more lonely. It is not half a

mile from camp, and hardly a dozen steps from the place where the boys go so often to shoot quail.'

'Very well,' said the girls. 'We must go there tomorrow morning; and perhaps we'd better not tell the

boys,they are so peculiar. Jack will certainly interfere with us in some way, if he hears about it.'

'Now let us take our books and run down by the pool for an hour or two,' said Bell. 'Papa and the boys are all

off shooting, and mamma is lying down. We can have a cool, quiet time; the sunshine is so hot here by the

Accordingly, they departed, as they often did, for one of the prolonged chats in which schoolgirls are wont

These young people, however, had been fortunate in having the wisest and most loving guardianship, so that

all their happy young lives had been spent to good purpose. They had not shirked study, and so their minds

were stocked with useful information; they had read carefully and digested thoroughly whatever they had

read, so that they possessed a good deal of general knowledge. The girls were bright, sensible, industrious

little women, who tried to be good, too, in the oldfashioned sense of the word; and full of fun, nonsense, and

chatter as they were among themselves, they never forgot to be modest and unassuming.

The boys were pretty well in earnest about life, too, with good ambitions and generous aspirations. They had

all been studying with Dr. Winship for nearly two years; and that means a great deal, for he was a real

teacher, entering into the lives of his pupils, sympathising with them in every way, and leading them, through

the study of nature, of human beings, and of God, to see the beauty and meaning of life.

Geoffrey Strong, of course, was older than the rest, having completed his junior year at college; but Dr.

Winship, who was his guardian, thought it wiser for him to rest a year and come to him in California, as his

ambition and energy had already led him into greater exertions than his age or strength warranted. He was

now studying medicine with the good Doctor, but would go back to the 'land of perpetual pie' in the fall and

A splendid fellow he was,so earnest, thoughtful, and wise; so gravely tender in all his ways to Aunt Truth,

who was the only mother he had ever known; so devoted to Dr. Winship, who loved him as his own elder

What will Geoffrey Strong be as a man? The twig is bent, and it is safe to predict how the tree will incline.

His word will be as good as his bond; he will be a good physician, for his eye is quick to see suffering, and

his hand ready to relieve it; little children with feverish cheeks and tired eyes will love to clasp his cool,

strong sand; he will be gentle as a woman, yet thoroughly manly, as he is now, for he has made the most of

his golden youth, and every lad who does that will have a golden manhood and a glorious old age.

As for Philip Noble, he was a dear, good, trustworthy lad too; kindly, generous, practical, and industrious; a

trifle slow and reserved, perhaps, but full of common sense,the kind of sense which, after all, is most

Bell once said: 'This is the difference between Philip and Geoffrey,one does, and the other is. Geoff is the

real Simonpure ideal which we praise Philip for trying to be,'a very good description for a little maiden

And now we come to Jack Howard, who never kept still long enough for any one to write a description of

him. To explain how he differed from Philip or Geoffrey would be like bringing the Equator and the Tropic

If there were a horseback ride, Jack rode the wildest colt, was oftenest thrown and least often hurt; if a

fishingparty, Jack it was who caught all the fish, though he made more noise than any one else, and

He was very often in trouble; but his misdemeanours were those of pure mischief, and were generally atoned

for when it was possible. He excelled in all outofdoor sports. And indeed, if his prudence had at all kept

pace with his ability, he might have done remarkable things in almost any direction; but he constantly

overshot the mark, and people looked to him for the dazzling brilliancy and uncertainty of a meteor, but never

Just now, Jack was a good deal sobered, and appeared at his very best. The teaching of Dr. Paul and the

companionship of Geoffrey had done much for him, while the illness of his sister Elsie, who was the darling

of his heart, acted constantly as a sort of curb upon him; for he loved her with all the ardour and passion

which he gave to everything else. You might be fearful of Jack's high spirits and riotous mirth, of his reckless

actions and heedless jokes, but you could scarcely keep from admiring the boy; for he was brave and

handsome and winsome enough to charm the very birds off the bush, as Aunt Truth acknowledged, after

The three girls made their way a short distance up the canyon to a place which they called Prospect Pool,

'Dear old Geoff!' said Bell, throwing her shawl over a rock and opening her volume of Carlyle. 'He has gone

all through this for me, and written nice little remarks on the margin,explanations and things, and

interrogations where he thinks I won't know what is meant and had better find out,bless his heart! What

have you brought, Margery? By the way, you must move your seat away from that clump of poisonoak

bushes; we can't afford to have any accidents which will interfere with our fun. We have all sorts of new

'It's the softest seat here, too,' grumbled Margery. 'We must get the boys to cut these bushes down. Why, you

haven't any book, you lazy Polly. Are you going to sleep, or shall you chatter and prevent our reading?'

'Neither,' she answered. 'Here is a doughnut which I propose to send down the red pathway of fate; and here a

pencil and paper with which I am going to begin our roundrobin letter to Elsie.'

'That's good! She has only had notes from Jack and one letter from us, which, if I remember right, had

'Stop quarrelling, girls! This is my plan: I will begin in my usual rockety style, sometimes maliciously called

the Pollyoliver method; Margery will take up the thread sedately; Bell will plunge in with a burst of

enthusiasm and seventeen adjectives, followed by a verse of poor poetry; Geoff will do the sportive or

instructive, just as he happens to feel; and Phil will wind up the letter by some practical details which will

serve as a key to all the rest. Won't it be a box of literary bonbons for her to read in bed, poor darling! Let me

see! I represent the cayenne lozenges, sharp but impressive; Margery will do for jujube paste, which I

'Not at all, my dear. Bell stands for the peppermints; Jack for chocolates, "the ladies' delight"; Geoffrey for a

winedrop, altogether good, but sweetest in its heart; Phillet me see! Phil is likewhat is he like?'

'He is candid,' suggested Bell. 'Let us call him rockcandy, pure, healthful, and far from soft.'

'Thanks, gentle creatures,' said a voice from the bushes on the other side of the pool, and Phil stalked out

'Ever since lunch; but I only waked from a sound sleep some twenty minutes ago. I've heard a most

instructive conversationnever been more amused in my life; don't know whether I prefer being a cold

'You haven't any choice,' snapped Polly, a trifle embarrassed at having been overheard.

'I'm glad it was my own sister who called me a c. b. p. (the most loathsome thing in existence, by the way),

'I didn't call you a c. b. p.,' remonstrated Margery. 'I said you were no more like candy than a c. b. p. There is

'Are you writing a copybook, Miss Oliver? I didn't want to listen; it was very painful to my feelings, but I

'And now our afternoon is gone, and we have not read a word,' sighed little Margery. 'I never met two such

'Exactly,' said Philip, dryly, 'Come, I'll take the books and shawls. It's nearly five o'clock, and we shall hear

'Clasp hands over the bloody chasm,' said Bell, 'and let us smoke the pipe of peace at dinner.'

Philip and Bell came through the trees, and, as they neared the camp, saw Aunt Truth sitting at the door of

Tent Chatter, looking the very picture of comfort, as she drew her darningneedle in and out of an unseemly

rent in one of Dicky's stockings. Margery and Polly came up just behind, and dropped into her lap some

'Yes, indeed, dear auntie. Now, just hold your head perfectly still, while we decorate you for dinner. We will

make Uncle Doc's eyes fairly pop with admiration. Have you been lonely without us?'

'Oh, not a bit. You see there has been a good deal of noise about here, and I felt as if I were not alone. Hop

Yet has been pounding soaproot in the kitchen, and I hear the sound of Pancho's axe in the distance,the

Doctor asked him to chop wood for the campfire. Was Dicky any trouble? Where is he?'

'Why, darling mother, are you crazy?' asked Bell. 'If you think a moment, he was in the hammock and you

'Why, I certainly thought I heard him ask to go with you,' said Mrs. Winship, in rather an alarmed tone.

'I didn't hear that; in fact, I was half asleep; I was not feeling well. Ask Hop Yet; he has been in the kitchen

Hop Yet replied, with discouraging tranquillity, 'Oh, I no know. I no sabe Dicky; he allee time lun loun camp;

I no look; too muchee work. I chop hashDicky come in kitch'make heap workno good. I tell him go

longhe go; bimeby you catchum; you see.' Whereupon he gracefully skinned an onion, and burst into a

'Perhaps he is with Pancho; I'll run and see!' cried Polly, dashing swiftly in the direction of the skyparlour.

But after a few minutes she ran back, with a serious face. 'He's not there; Pancho has not seen him since

'Well, I've just happened to think,' said pale Aunt Truth, 'that papa came into the tent for some cartridges,

after you left, and of course he took Dick with him. I don't suppose it is any use to worry. He always does

come out right; and I have told him so many times never on any account to go away from the camp alone that

he surely would not do it. Papa and the boys will be home soon, now. It is nearly six o'clock, and I told them

that I would blow the horn at six, as usual. If they are too far away to hear it, they will know the time by the

'Well,' said Bell, anxiously, 'I hope it is all right. Papa is so strict that he won't be late himself. Did all the

'Oh, then Dicky must be with them,' said Margery, consolingly. 'Geoffrey always takes him wherever he can.'

So the girls went into the tent to begin their dinner toilet, which consisted in carefully brushing burrs and dust

from their pretty dresses, and donning fresh collars and stockings, with low ties of russet leather, which Polly

declared belonged only to the stage conception of a camping costume; then, with smoothly brushed hair and

bright flowerknots at collar and belt, they looked charming enough to grace any drawingroom in the land.

The horn was blown again at six o'clock, Aunt Truth standing at the entrance of the path which led up the

'Here they come!' she cried, joyously, as the welcome party appeared in sight, guns over shoulder, full

gamebags, and Jack and Geoff with a few rabbits and quail hanging over their arms.

The girls rushed out of the tent. Bell took in the whole group with one swift glance, and then turned to her

mother, who, like most mothers, believed the worst at once, and grew paler as she asked:

'Of course I am. Good heavens! Doesn't any one know where the child is?' looking at the frightened group.

'You know, uncle,' said Geoffrey, 'we started out at three o'clock. I noticed Dicky playing with his blocks in

our tent, and said good bye to him. Did you see him when you came back for the cartridges?'

'Certainly I did; he called me to look at his dog making believe go to sleep in the hammock.'

'We girls went down to the pool soon after that,' said Bell, tearfully. 'He asked to go with us, and I told him it

was too far, and that he'd better stay with mamma, who would be all alone. He said "Yes" so sweetly I

couldn't mistrust him. Oh, was it my fault, papa? Please don't say it was!' and she burst into a passion of sobs.

'No, no, my child, of course it was not. Don't cry; we shall find him. Go and look about the camp, Geoff,

'If there is any fault, it is mine, for going to sleep,' said poor Aunt Truth; 'but I never dreamed he would dare

Hop Yet just at this moment issued from his kitchen with an immense platter of muttonstew and dumplings,

which he deposited on the table. On being questioned again, he answered as before, with the greatest serenity,

intimating that Dicky would come home 'heap bime by' when he got 'plenty hungly.' He seemed to think a

lost boy or two in a family rather a trifle than otherwise, and wound up his unfeeling remarks with the

practical one, 'Dinner all leady; you no eat mutton, he get cold! Misser Wins', I no find pickle; you catchum!'

'I don't believe he would care if we all died right before his eyes,' muttered Polly, angrily. 'I should just like to

see a Chinaman's heart once, and find out whether it was made of resin, or cuttle fish, or what.'

'Well,' said Phil, as Dr. Winship came through the trees from the cardroom, 'we must start out this instant,

and of course we can find him somehow, somewhere; he hasn't been gone over two hours, and he couldn't

walk far, that's certain. Now, Uncle Doc, shall we all go different ways, and leave the girls here to see if he

'Oh, papa,' cried Bell, do not leave us at home! We can hunt as well as any one; we know every foot of the

'Very well. Now, mamma, Pancho and I will go down to the main road, and you wait patiently here. Make all

the noise you can, children; and the one who finds him must come back to the camp and blow the horn. Hop

'Dinner!' shouted Jack. 'Confound your impudence! If you say dinner again, I'll cut the queue off your stupid

'I know, dear auntie; but the callous old heathen makes me so mad I can't contain myself. Come, Margery,

let's be off. Get your shawl; and hurrah for the one who comes back to blow the horn first! I'll wager you ten

to one I'll have Dick in auntie's lap inside the hour!'at which Aunt Truth's eyes brightened, and she began

to take heart again. But as he tore past the brush kitchen and out into the woods, dragging Madge after him at

a breathless pace, he shut his lips together rather grimly, saying, 'I'd give five hundred dollars (s'posin' I had a

'Tell me one thing, Jack,' said Margery, her teeth chattering with nervousness; 'are there any animals in this

'Oh, of course it is possible that a California lion or a wildcat might come down to the brook to drinkthey

have been killed hereaboutsbut I hardly believe it is likely; and neither do I believe they would be apt to

hurt him, any way, for he would never attack them, you know. What I am afraid of is that he has tumbled

over the rocks somewhere in climbing, or tangled himself up in the chaparral. He couldn't have made off with

Presently the canyon began to echo with strange sounds, which I have no doubt sent the owls, birds, and

rabbits into fits of terror; for the boys had whistles and pistols, while Polly had taken a tin pan and a hammer.

She had gone with Phil out behind the thicket of manzanita bushes, and they both stood motionless,

'Oh, Phil, I can't help it; I must cry, I am so frightened. Let me sit down a second. Yes, I know it's an anthill,

and I shouldn't care if it were a hornets' nestI deserve to be stung. What do you think I said to Margery this

morning? That Dicky was a perfect little marplot, and spoiled all our fun, and I wished he were in the bottom

of the Red Sea; and then I called him a kkkilljoy!' and Polly buried her head in her blue Tam, and cried

'There, chirk up, poor little soul, and don't you fret over a careless speech, that meant nothing at all. I've

wished him in the Red Sea more than once, but I'm blessed if I ever do it again. Come, let's go over yonder,

where we caught the young owl; Dicky may have wanted to try that little game again.'

So they went on, calling, listening, then struggling on again, more anxious every moment, but not so

thoroughly dazed as Bell, who had rocked her babybrother in his cradle, and to whom he was the

'I might have known this would happen,' she said, miserably. 'He is so careless that, if we ever find him again,

'Take care of your steps, dear,' said Geoff, 'and munch this cracker, or you won't have strength enough to go

on with me. I wish it were not getting so dark; the moment the sun gets behind these mountain tops the light

'Think of the poor darling out in this darknesshungry, frightened, and alone,' sighed Bell. 'It's past his

'You must not blame the place, dear; we thought it the happiest in the world this morning. Here we are by the

'I've been here before today,' said Bell; 'we might follow the trail I made. But where is my string? Light a

'Why, I found a beautiful spot this morning, and, fearing I shouldn't remember the way again, I took out my

ball of twine and dropped a white line all the way back, like Ariadne; but I don't see it. Where can it have

But a bright idea had popped into Bell's head. 'I want to go that way, Geoff, dear; it's as good as any other,

and there are flowers just the other side, in an open, sunny place; perhaps he found them.'

'The trouble is, I don't know which way to go. Here is the rock; I remember it was a spotted one, with tall

ferns growing beside it. Now I wentlet me seethis way,' and they both plunged into the thick brush.

'Bell, Bell, this is utter nonsense!' cried Geoff. 'No child could crawl through this tangle.'

'Dicky could crawl through anything in this universe, if it was the wrong thing; he isn't afraid of beast, bird,

Meanwhile, what had become of this small hero, and what was he doing? He was last seen in the hammock,

playing with the longsuffering terrier, Lubin, who was making believe go to sleep. It proved to be entirely a

makebelieve; for, at the first loosening of Dicky's strangling hold upon his throat, he tumbled out of the

hammock and darted into the woods. Dicky followed, but Lubin was fleet of foot, and it was a desperate and

At length, as Lubin heard his little master's gleeful laugh, he realised that his anger was a thing of the past;

consequently, he wheeled about and ran into Dicky's outstretched arms, licking his face and hands

By this time the voice of conscience in Dicky's souland it was a very, very still, small one on all

occasionswas entirely silenced. He strayed into a sunny spot, and picked flowers enough to trim his little

sailor hat, probably divining that this was what lost children in Sundayschool books always did, and it

would be dishonourable not to keep up the superstition. Then he built a fine, strong dam of stones across the

brook, wading to and fro without the bother of taking off his shoes and stockings, and filled his hat with rocks

and sunk it to the bottom for a wharf, keeping his hatband to tie an unhappy frog to a bit of bark, and setting

him afloat as the captain of a slaveship. When, at length, the struggling creature freed himself from his

bonds and leaped into the pool, Dicky played that he was a drowning child, and threw Lubin into the water to

In these merry antics the hours flew by unnoticed; he had never been happier in his life, and it flashed

through his mind that if he were left entirely to himself he should always be good.

'Here I've been a whole day offul good by my lone self; haven't said one notty word or did one notty fing, nor

gotted scolded a singul wunst, did I, Lubin? I guess we better live here; bettent we, Lubin? And ven we wunt

git stuck inter bed fur wettin' our feets little teenty mites of wet ev'ry singul night all the livelong days, will

But this was a long period of reflection for Master Dicky, and he capered on, farther and farther, the water

sozzling frightfully in his little coppertoed boots. At length he sat down on a stone to rest himself, and,

glancing aimlessly about, his eyes fell on a white string, which he grasped with alacrity, pulling its end from

'Luby Winship, the anjulls gaved me this string fur ter make an offul splendid tight harness for you, little

Lubin looked doubtful, and wagged his tail dissentingly, as much as to say that his ideas of angel

But there was no end to the string! How very, very curious! Dicky wound and wound and crept and crept

along, until he was thoroughly tired but thoroughly determined to see it through; and Lubin, meanwhile, had

seized the first convenient moment, after the mention of the harness, to retire to the camp.

At length, oh joy! the tired and torn little man, following carefully the leadingstring, issued from the

scratching bushes into a clean, beautiful, round place, with a great restfullooking stump in the centre, and

round its base a small forest of snowy toadstools. What could be a lovelier surprise! Dicky clapped his hands

in glee as he looked at them, and thought of a little verse of poetry which Bell had taught him:

'Some fairy umbrellas came up today Under the elmtree, just over the way, And as we have had a shower

of rain, The reason they came is made very plain: Tonight is the woodland fairies' ball, And drops from the

elmtree might on them fall, So little umbrellas wait for them here, And under their shelter they'll dance

without fear. Take care where you step, nor crush them, I pray, For fear you will frighten the fairies away.'

'Oh!' thought Dicky, in a trance of delight, 'now I shall go to the fairies' ball, and see 'em dance under the

cunning little teenty umberells; and wunt they be mad at home when nobuddy can't see 'em but just only me!

And then if that potry is a big whopper, like that there uvver one'laddinlamp story of Bell'sI'll just pick

evry white toadstool for my papa's Sunday dinner, and she sha'n't never see a singul fairy dance.'

But he waited very patiently for a long, long time that seemed like years, for Lubin had disappeared; and all

at once it grew so dark in this thicklywooded place that Dicky's courage oozed out in a single moment,

without any previous warnings as to its intention. The toadstools looked like the ghosts of little

pastandgone fairy umbrellas in the darkness, and not a single fairy couple came to waltz under their snowy

Dicky thought the situation exceedingly gloomy, and, without knowing it, followed the example of many

older people, who, on being deserted by man, experienced their first desire to find favour with God. He was

not in the least degree a saintly child, but he felt instinctively that this was the proper time for prayer; and not

knowing anything appropriate to the occasion, he repeated over and over again the timeworn plaint of

'Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord

Like older mortals of feeble faith, he looked for an immediate and practical answer, in the shape, perhaps, of

'My sakes alive!' he grumbled between his sobs, 'they're the meanest fings I ever saw. How long do they

s'pose I'm goin' to wait for 'em in this dark? When the bears have et me up in teenty snips, then they'll be

saterfied, I guess, and wisht they'd tookened gooder care of mea little speck of a boy, lefted out in this

dark, beary place, all by his lone self. Ooooooh!' and he wound up with a murderous yell, which

His former prayer seeming to be in vain, he found a soft place, brushed it as clean as possible, and with

difficulty bending his little stiff, scratched body into a kneeling position, he prayed his nightly postscript to

'Now I lay me': 'God bless papa, 'n' mamma, 'n' Bell, 'n' Jack, 'n' Madge, 'n' Polly, 'n' Phil, 'n' Geoff, 'n' Elsie.'

Then, realizing that he was in a perilous position, and it behoved him to be as pious as possible, he added:

'And please bless Pancho, 'n' Hop Yet, 'n' Lubin, 'n' the goatnot the wild goat up on the hill, but my goat,

What a dreadful calamity, to be sure, if the wrong goat had been blessed by mistake! His whole duty

performed, he picked the toadstools for his papa's Sunday dinner, and, leaning his head against the lone

But relief was near, though he little suspected it as he lay in the sound, dreamless sleep which comes only to

the truly good. There was a crashing sound in the still darkness, and Bell plunged through the thick

'He is here! Dear, dear Geoff, he is all here! I knew it, I knew it! Hurrah!no, I meanthank God!' she said

'But what a looking creature!' exclaimed Geoff, as he stooped over the recovered treasure. 'See, Bell, his curls

are glistening with pitch, his dress is torn into ribbons, and his handsugh, how dirty!'

'Poor little darling, he is thoroughly used up,' whispered Bell, wiping tears of joy from her brown eyes. 'Now,

I'll run home like lightning to blow the horn; and you carry Dicky, for he is too sleepy and stiff to walk; and,

Geoff'(here she laid an embarrassed hand on his shoulder)'I'm afraid he'll be awfully cross, but you'll

'Not I,' laughed Geoff, as he dropped a brotherly kiss on Bell's pale cheek. 'But I've no idea of letting you go

alone; you're tired to death, and you'll miss the path. I wish I could carry you both.'

'Tiredafraid!' cried Bell, with a ringing laugh, while Dicky woke with a stare, and nestled on Geoffrey's

shoulder as if nothing had happened. 'Why, now that this weight is lifted off my heart, I could see a path in an

untravelled forest! Goodbye, you dear, darling, cruel boy! I must run, for every moment is precious to

mamma.' And with one strangling hug, which made Dicky's ribs crack, she dashed off.

Oh how joyously, how sweetly and tunefully, the furious blast of the old cracked dinnerhorn fell on the

anxious ears in that canyon. It seemed clearer and more musical than a chime of silver bells.

In a trice the wandering couples had gathered jubilantly round the campfire, all embracing Bell, who was

the heroine of the hour entirely by chance, and not though superior vision or courage, as she confessed.

It was hardly fifteen minutes when Geoff strode into the ring with his sorrylooking burden, which he laid

'Oh my darling!' she cried, embracing him fondly. 'To think you are really not dead, after all!'

'No, he is about as alive as any chap I ever saw.' And while the happy parents caressed their restored darling,

Geoff gathered the girls and boys around the dinnertable, and repeated some of Dicky's remarks on the

It seems that he considered himself the injured party, and with great ingenuity laid all the blame of the

'Nobuddy takes care of me, anyhow,' he grumbled. 'If my papa wasn't a mean fing I'd orter to have a black

nurse with a white cap and apurn, like Billy Thomas, 'n' then I couldn't git losted so offul easy. An' you all

never cared a cent about it either, or you'd a founded me quicker 'n this'n' I've been hungry fur nineteen

hours, 'n' I guess I've been gone till December, by the feelin', but you was too lazy to found me 'f I freezed to

def'n' there ain't but one singul boy of me round the whole camp, 'n' 't would serveded you right if I had got

losted for ever; then I bet you wouldn't had much fun Fourth of July 'thout my two bits 'n' my firecrackers!'

It was an hour or two before peace and quiet were restored to the camp. The longdelayed dinner had to be

eaten; and to Hop Yet's calm delight, it was a very bad one. Dicky's small wounds were dressed with sweet

oil, and after being fed and bathed he was tucked lovingly into bed, with a hundred kisses or more from the

A little rest and attention had entirely restored his goodhumour; and when Dr. Paul went into the tent to see

that all was safe for the night, he found him sitting up in bed with a gleeful countenance, prattling like a little

'We had an offul funny time 'bout my gittin' losted, didn't we, mamma?' chuckled he, with his gurgling little

laugh. 'Next time I'm goin' to get losted in annover bran'new place where nobuddy can find me! I fink it

was the nicest time 'cept Fourth of July, don't you, mamma?' And he patted his mother's cheek and imprinted

'Truth,' said the Doctor, with mild severity, 'I know you don't believe in applying the slipper, but I do think

we should arrange some plan for giving that child an idea of the solemnity of life. So far as I can judge, he

'My sentiments exactly!' cried Bell, energetically. 'I can't stand many more of these trying scenes; I am worn

Dicky tucked his head under his mother's arm, with a sigh of relief that there was one person, at least, whose

Our friend Polly was seated in a secluded spot whence all but her had fled; her grave demeanour, her

discarded sunbonnet, her corrugated brow, all bespoke more than common fixedness of purpose, the cause

The countess is discovered at her ommerlu {1a} writingtable. A light zephyr {1b} plays with her golden

locks {1c} and caresses her Grecian {1d} nosea nose that carries on its surface a few trifling freckles,

which serve but to call attention to its exquisite purity of outline and the height of its ambition. Her eyes

reflect the changing shadows of moonlight, and her mouth is one fit for sweet sounds; {1e} yet this only

gives you a faint idea of the beauteous creature whose fortunes we shall follow in our next number. {1f}

I have given that style a fair trial, my dear darling, but I cannot stand it another minute, not being familiar

with the language of what our cook used to call the 'fuddal aristocracy' (feudal, you know).

I, your faithful Polly, am seated in the cardroom, writing with a dreadful pen which Phil gave me yesterday.

Its internal organs are filled with ink, which it disgorges when PRESSED to do so, but just now it is 'too full

We have decided not to make this a real roundrobin letter, like the last, because we want to write what we

I have been badgered to death over my part of the communication sent to you last week, for the young

persons connected with this camp have a faculty of making mountains out of molehills, as you know, and I

have to suffer for every careless little speech. However, as we didn't wish to bore you with six duplicate

letters, we invented a plan for keeping off each other's ground, and appointed Geoff a committee of one to

settle our line of march. It is to be a collective letter, made up of individual notes; and these are Geoff's sealed

No. 1 (Polly) is to amuse! No. 2 (Phil) ... inform! No. 3 (Geoff) ... edify!! No. 4 (Madge) ... gossip. No. 5

So, my dear, if you get any 'information' or happen to be 'edified' by what I write, don't mention it for worlds!

(I just screamed my fears about this matter to Jack, and he says 'I needn't fret.' I shall certainly slap that boy

I could just tell you a lovely story about Dicky's getting lost in the woods the day before yesterday, and our

terrible fright about him, and how we all joined in the boyhunt, until Geoff and Bell found him at the Lone

Stump; but I suppose the chronicle belongs to Phil's province, so I desist. But what can I say? Suppose I tell

you that Uncle Doc and the boys have been shooting innocent, TAME sheep, skinning and cutting them up

on the way home, and making us believe for two days that we were eating venison; and we never should have

discovered the imposition had not Dicky dragged home four sheep skins from the upper pool, and told us

that he saw the boys 'PEELING THEM OFF A VENISON.' Perhaps Phil may call this information, and

Margery will vow that it is gossip and belongs to her; any way, they consider it a splendid joke, and chuckle

themselves to sleep over it every night; but I think the whole affair is perfectly maddening, and it makes me

boil with rage to be taken in so easily. Such a todo as they make over the matter you never saw; you would

think it was the first successful joke since the Deluge. (That wasn't a DRY joke, was it? Ha, ha!)

This is the way they twang on their harp of a thousand strings. At breakfast, this morning, when Jack passed

me the cornbread, I said innocently, 'Why, what have we here?' 'It is manna that fell in the night,' answered

Jack, with an exasperating snicker. 'You didn't know mutton, but I thought, being a Sundayschool teacher,

you would know something about manna.' (N.B.He alludes to that time I took the infant class for Miss

Jones, and they all ran out to see a military funeral procession.) 'I wish you knew something about manners,'

snapped I; and then Aunt Truth had to warn us both, as usual. Oh dear! it's a weary world. I'd just like to get

[Next paragraph crossed out] We climbed Pico Negro yesterday. Bell, Geoff, Phil, and I had quite an

(Goodness me! what have I written? Oh, Elsie, pray excuse those HORIZONTAL EVIDENCES of my

forgetfulness and disobedience. I have bumped my head against the table three times, as penance, and will

now try to turn my thoughts into right channels. This letter is a blackandwhite evidence that _I_ have not a

frivolous order of mind, and have always been misunderstood from my birth up to this date.)

We have had beautiful weather sincebut no, of course Phil will tell you about the weather, for that is

scarcely an amusing topic. I do want to be as prudent as possible, for Uncle Doc is going to read all the letters

(not, of course, aloud) and see whether we have fulfilled our specific obligations.

(I just asked Bell whether 'specific' had a 'c' or an's in the middle, and she answered '"c," of course,' with such

an air, you should have heard her! I had to remind her of the time she spelled 'Tophet' with an 'f' in the

(I just read this last paragraph to Madge, to see if she called it gossip, as I was going to take it out if it

belonged to her topic, but she said No, she didn't call it gossip at allthat she should call it slander!)

You don't know how we all long to see you, dear darling that you are. We live in the hope of having you with

us very soon, and meanwhile the beautiful bedstead is almost finished, and a perfect success. (I wish to

Dear, dear! Geoffrey calls 'Time up,' and I've scarcely said anything I should. Never, never again will I

submit to this method of correspondence; it is absolutely petrifying to one's genius. When I am once forced to

But when I lie in the green kirkyard, With the mould upon my breast, Say not that 'She did well or ill,' Only,

Now, do you think that will interfere with Bell, when it's only a quotation? Any way, it's so appropriate that

Uncle Doc will never have the heart to strike it out. The trouble is that Geoff thinks all the poetry in the

universe is locked up in Bell's head, and if she once allows it to escape, Felicia Hemans and the rest will be

too discouraged ever to try again! (I can't remember whether F. H. is alive or not, and am afraid to ask, but

Laura, Anne, and Scott Burton were here for the play, and Laura is coming down again to spend the week. I

The flame of my genius blazes high just now, but Geoff has spoken, and it must be snuffed. So goodbye!

My dear Elsie,I believe I am to inform you concerning the daily doings of our party, not on any account,

however, permitting myself to degenerate into 'gossip' or 'frivolous amusement.'

They evidently consider me a quiet, stupid fellow, who will fulfil such a task with no special feeling of

They call me the 'solid man' of the camp, which may not be very high praise, to be sure, as Geoffrey carries

his head in the clouds, and Jack iswell, Jack is Jack! So, as the light of a tallow dip is valuable in the

We fellows have had very little play so far, for the furnishing of the camp has proved an immense

undertaking, although we have plenty of the right sort of wood and excellent tools.

We think the work will pay, however, as Dr. Paul has about decided to stay until October, or until the first

rain. He writes two or three hours a day, and thinks that he gets on with his book better here than at home. As

for the rest of us, when we get fairly to rights we shall have regular study hours and lose no time in preparing

I suppose you know that you have a full bedroom set in process of construction. I say 'suppose you know,'

because it is a profound secret, and the girls could never have kept it to themselves as long as this.

The loungingchair is my allotted portion, and although it is a complicated bit of work, I accepted it gladly,

feeling sure that you would use it oftener than any of the other pieces of furniture. I shall make it so

deliciously easy that you will make me 'Knight of the Chair,' and perhaps permit me to play a sort of devoted

John Brown to your Victoria. You will need one dull and prosy squire to arrange your pillows, so that you

can laugh at Jack's jokes without weariness, and doze quietly while Geoff and Uncle Doc are talking

Of course the most exciting event of the week was the mysterious disappearance and subsequent restoration

of the HeirApparent; but I feel sure somebody else will describe the event, because it is uppermost in all our

Bell, for instance, would dress it up in fine style. She is no historian, but in poetry and fiction none of us can

touch her; though, by the way, Polly's abilities in that direction are a good deal underrated. It's as good as a

play to get her after Jack when he is in one of his teasing moods. They are like flint and steel, and if Aunt

Truth didn't separate them the sparks would fly. With a girl like Polly, you have either to lie awake nights,

thinking how you'll get the better of her, or else put on a demeanour of gentleness and patience, which serves

as a sort of lightningrod round which the fire of her fun will play all day and never strike. Polly is a good

deal of a girl. She seems at first to have a pretty sharp tongue, but I tell you she has a heart in which there is

swimmingroom for everybody. This may not be 'information' to you, whom we look upon as our

Uncle Doc, Bell, Geoff, Polly, Meg, and I started for the top of Pico Negro the other morning. Bell rode

Villikins, and Polly took a mule, because she thought the animal would be especially surefooted. He was; in

fact, he was so surefooted that he didn't care to move at all, and we had to take turns in beating him up to the

It is only five or six miles from the old Mountain Mill (a picture of which Jack will send you), and the ascent

is pretty stiff climbing, though nothing terrific. We lost the trail once, and floundered about in the chaparral

for half an hour, till Bell began to make a poem on the occasion, when we became desperate, and dashed

through a thicket of brush, tearing ourselves to bits, but stumbling on the trail at last. The view from the top is

simply superb. The valleys below are all yellow with grainfields and green with vineyards, with here and

there the roofs of a straggling little settlement. The depression in the side of the mountain (you will observe it

in the picture) Polly says has evidently been 'bitten out' by a prehistoric animal, and it turns out to be the

We have had one novel experiencethat of seeing a tarantula fight; and not between two, but five,

tarantulas. We were about twenty miles from camp, loping along a stretch of hot, dusty road. Jack got off to

cinch his saddle, and so we all stopped a moment to let our horses breathe. As I was looking about, at nothing

in particular, I noticed a black ball in the deep dust at the side of the road. It suddenly rolled over on itself and

I called to the boys to watch the fun. We got off, hitched our horses, and approached cautiously, for I had

seen a battle of the same kind before. There they werefive huge, hairy, dirty, black creatures, as large as

the palm of Dicky's hand, all locked in deadly combat. They writhed and struggled and embraced, their long,

curling legs fastening on each other with a sound that was actually like the cracking of bones. It takes a little

courage to stand and watch such a proceeding, for you feel as if the hideous fellows might turn and jump for

you; but they were doubtless absorbed in their own battle, and we wanted to see the affair to the end, so we

took the risk, if there was any. At last they showed signs of weariness, but we prodded them up with our

ridingwhips, preferring that they should kill each other, rather than do the thing ourselves. Finally, four of

them lay in the dust, doubled up and harmless, slain, I suppose, by their own poison. One, the conquering

hero, remained, and we dexterously scooped him into a tomatocan that Jack had tied to his saddle for a

drinkingcup, covered him up with a handkerchief, and drew lots as to who should carry him home to Dr.

Knowing that the little beasts were gregarious, we hunted about for a nest, which we might send to you after

ousting its disagreeable occupant. After much searching, we found a group of themquite a tarantula

village, in fact. Their wonderful little houses are closed on the outside by a circular, manywebbed mesh, two

or three inches across, and this web betrays the spider's den to the person who knows the tricks of the trade.

Directly underneath it you come upon the tiny circular trapdoor, which you will notice in the nest we send

with these letters. You will see how wonderfully it is made, with its silken weaving inside, and its bits of bark

and leaves outside; and I know you will admire the hinge, which the tarantula must have invented, and which

is as pretty a bit of workmanship as the most accomplished mechanic could turn out. We tore away the web

and the door from one of the nests, and then poured water down the hole. The spider was at home, came out

as fact as his clumsy legs would carry him, and clutched the end of the stick Jack held out to him. Then we

tumbled him into the tomatocan just as he appeared to be making for us. The two didn't agree at all. One of

them despatched the other on the way homethe same hero who had killed the other four; but, on hearing

his bloody record, Aunt Truth refused to have him about the camp; so we gave him an alcohol bath, and you

shall see his lordship when you come. As Dr. Paul says, they have been known to clear fourteen feet at a

jump, perhaps you will feel happier to know that he is in alcohol, though their bite is not necessarily fatal if it

The girls have been patronising the landscape by naming every peak, valley, grove, and stream in the

We carry about with us a collection of strong, flat stakes, which have various names painted on them in neat

black letters. Jack likes that kind of work, and spends most of his time at it; for now that Dr. Paul has bought

Geoff has named the mountain Pico Negro, as I told you, and the little canyon on its side is called the Giant's

Mirror Pool, The Lone Stump, Field of the ClothofGold, Cosy Nook, The Imp's WashBowl, DunceCap

Hill, The Saint's Rest, and Il Penseroso Fall (in honour of Dicky, who was nearly drowned there).

If anybody fails to call these localities by their proper names he has to pay a fine of five cents, which goes

towards beautifying the place. Dr. Paul has had to pay two fines for Bell, three for Aunt Truth, and seven for

Our encampment is supposed to be in the Forest of Arden, and Jack has begun nailing verses of poetry on the

trees, like a second Orlando, save that they are not lovepoems at all, but appropriate quotations from

Wordsworth or Bryant. And this brings me to our thrilling rendition of the play 'As You Like It,' last evening;

One thing, however, I must tell you, as the girls will not write it of themselvesthat, although Bell carried

off first honours and fairly captivated the actors as well as the audience, all three of them looked bewitching

Of course we didn't give the entire play, and we had to 'double up' on some of the characters in the most

ridiculous fashion; but the Burtons helped out wonderfully, Scott playing Oliver, and Laura doing Audrey.

They were so delighted with the camp that Aunt Truth has invited them to come again on Saturday and stay a

At the risk of being called conceited I will also state that we boys consider that the stage management was a

triumph of inventive art; we worked like beavers for two days, and the results were marvellous, 'if I do say so

Just consider we were 'six miles from a lemon,' as Sydney Smith would say, and yet we transformed all out of

doors, first into an elegant interior, and then into a conventional stage forest.

A great deal of work is available for other performances, and so we do not regret it a bit; we propose doing

'As You Like It' again when you are down here, and meanwhile we give diversified entertainments which

Jack calls variety shows, but which in reality are very chaste and elegant occasions.

The other night we had a minstrel show, wearing masks of black cambric, with red mouths painted on them;

you should have seen us, all in a dusky semicircle, seated on boards supported by nailkegs: it was a scene

better imagined than described. This is certainly the ideal way to live in summertime, and we should be

perfectly happy and content if you could only shake off your troublesome cough and come to share our

pleasure. We feel incomplete without you; and no matter how large our party may grow as the summer

progresses, there will always be a vacant niche that none can fill save the dear little Saint who is always

enshrined therein by all her loyal worshippers, and by none more reverently than her friend,

This paper is writ unto her most Royal Highness, our beloved Gold Elsie, Queen of our thoughts and Empress

You must know, most noble Lady, that one who is your next of kin and high in the royal favour has laid upon

In our capacity as Director of the Court Games, we humbly suggested the subjects for the weekly bulletin

which your Highness commanded to be written; but, alas, with indifferent success; for the Courtiers growled

On soliciting our own subjects from the Privy Councillor and Knight of the Brush, Lord John Howard, he

revengefully ordered me to 'edify' your Majesty with wise utterances; as if such poor, rude words as mine

could please the ear that should only listen to the singing of birds, the babbling of brooks, or the silvery

When may your devoted subjects hope to see their gracious Sovereign again in their midst?

The court is fast drifting into dangerous informalities of conduct. The Princess BellPepper partakes of the

odoriferous onion at each noonday meal, so that a royal salute would be impossible; the hands of the

Countess Paulina look as if you might have chosen one of your attendants from 'Afric's sunny fountains, or

India's coral strand'; and as for the Court Chaplain, Rev. JackinthePulpit, he has woefully forsaken the

manners of the 'cloth,' and insists upon retaining his ancient title of Knight of the Brush; the Duchess of

Sweet Marjoram alone continues circumspect in walk and mien, for blood will tell, and she is more Noble

In our capacity of Court Physician we have thrice relieved your youthful page, Sir Dicky Winship, of

indigestion, caused by too generous indulgence in the flowing bowlof milk and cherries; we have also

prescribed for his grace the Duke of Noble, whose ducal ear was poisoned by the insidious oak leaf.

Your private box awaits you in the Princess' Theatre, and your Majesty's special interpreters of the drama will

The health of our dearly beloved Sovereign engages the constant thought of all her loyal and adoring

subjects; they hope ere long to cull a wreath of laurel with their own hands and place it on a brow which

needs naught but its golden crown of hair to affirm its queenly dignity. And as for crown jewels, has not our

Empress of Hearts a full store?two dazzling sapphires, her eyes; a string of pearls, her teeth; her lips two

Come! and let the sight of thy royal charms gladden the eyes of thy waiting people! Issued under the hand of

My own dear Elsie,Your weekly chronicle is almost ready for Monday's stage, and I am allowed to come

in at the close with as many pages of 'gossip' as I choose; which means that I may run on to my heart's

content and tell you all the little things that happen in the chinks between the great ones, for Uncle Doc has

First for some commissions: Aunt Truth asks if your mother will kindly select goods and engage Mrs. Perkins

to make us each a couple of Scotch gingham dresses. She has our measures, and we wish them simple,

fullskirted gowns, like the last; everybody thinks them so pretty and becoming. Bell's two must be buff and

pink, Polly's grey and green, and mine blue and brown. We find that we haven't clothes enough for a three

months' stay; and the outofdoor life is so hard upon our 'forest suits' that we have asked Mrs. Perkins to

We have had a very busy and exciting week since Polly began this letter, for there have been various

First, there was our mountain climb to the top of Pico Negro; Phil says he has written you about that, but I

hardly believe he mentioned that he and the other boys worried us sadly by hanging on to the tails of our

horses as they climbed up the steepest places. To be sure they were so awfully tired that I couldn't help

pitying them; but Uncle Doc had tried to persuade them not to walk, so that it was their own fault after all.

You cannot imagine what a dreadful feeling it gives one to be climbing a slippery, rocky path, and know that

a great heavy boy is pulling your horse backwards by the tail. Polly insisted that she heard her mule's tail

break loose from its moorings, and on measuring it when she got back to camp she found it three inches

The mule acted like original sin all day, and Polly was so completely wornout that she went to bed at five

o'clock; Jack was a good deal the worse for wear too, so that they got on beautifully all day. It is queer that

they irritate each other so, for I am sure that there is no lack of real friendship between them; but Jack is a

confirmed tease, and he seems to keep all his mischief bottled up for especial use with Polly. I have tried to

keep him out of trouble, as you asked me; and although it gives me plenty to do, I am succeeding tolerably

well, except in his dealings with Polly. I lecture him continually, but 'every time he opens his mouth he puts

Polly was under a cloud the first of the week. Villikins was sick, and Dr. Winship sent her to Aunt Truth for a

bottle of sweet oil. Aunt Truth was not in sight, so Polly went to the box of stores and emptied a whole quart

bottle of salad oil into a pail, and Villikins had to take it, WHEEL OR WHOA (Jack's joke!). Auntie went to

make the salad dressing at dinnertime, and discovered her loss and Polly's mistake. It was the last bottle; and

as we can't get any more for a week, the situation was serious, and she was very much tried. Poor Polly had a

good cry over her carelessness, and came to the dinnertable in a very sensitive frame of mind. Then what

should Jack do but tell Dicky to take Villikins a head of lettuce for his supper, and ask Polly why she didn't

change his name from Villikins to Saladin! Polly burst into tears, and left the table, while Dr. Paul gave Jack

a scolding, which I really think he deserved, though it was a good joke. The next morning, the young

gentleman put on a pair of old white cotton gloves and his best hat, gathered her a bouquet of wild flowers,

and made her a handsome apology before the whole party; so she forgave him, and they are friendsuntil

On the night before the play, Laura and Scott Burton arrived on horseback, and the next morning the rest of

the family appeared on the scene. We had sent over to see if Laura would play Audrey on so short notice, and

bring over some odds and ends for costumes. We actually had an audience of sixteen persons, and we had no

There were three of the Burtons, Pancho, Hop Yet, the people from the dairy farm, and a university professor

from Berkeley, with eight students. They were on a walking tour, and were just camping for the night when

Scott and Jack met them, and invited them over to the performance. Geoffrey and Phil were acquainted with

Laura, Anne, and Scott went home the next morning, but came back in two days for their week's visit. The

boys like Scott very much; he falls right into the camp ways, and doesn't disturb the even current of our life;

and Anne, who is a sweet little girl of twelve, has quite taken Dicky under her wing, much to our relief.

With Laura's advent, however, a change came over the spirit of our dreams, and, to tell the truth, we are not

over and above pleased with it. By the way, she spent last summer at the hotel, and you must have seen her,

did you not? Anyway, Mrs. Burton and Aunt Truth were old school friends, and Bell has known Laura for

two years, but they will never follow in their mothers' footsteps. Laura is so different from her mother that I

should never think they were relations; and she has managed to change all our arrangements in some

mysterious way which we can't understand. I get on very well with her; she positively showers favours upon

me, and I more than half suspect it is because she thinks I don't amount to much. As for the others, she rubs

You see, she is several months older than the rest of us, and has spent two winters in San Francisco, where

she went out a great deal to parties and theatres, so that her ideas are entirely different from ours.

She wants every single bit of attentionone boy to help her over the brooks, one to cut walkingsticks for

her, another to peel her oranges, and another to read Spanish with her, and so on. Now, you know very well

that she will never get all this so long as Bell Winship is in camp, for the boys think that Bell drags up the sun

when she's ready for him in the morning, and pushes him down at night when she happens to feel sleepy.

We, who have known Bell always, cannot realise that any one can help loving her, but there is something in

Laura which makes it impossible for her to see the right side of people. She told me this morning that she

thought Bell had grown so vain and airy and selfconscious that it was painful to see her. I could not help

being hurt; for you know what Bell isbrimful of nonsense and sparkle and bright speeches, but just as open

as the day and as warm as the sunshine. If she could have been spoiled, we should have turned her head long

ago; but she hasn't a bit of silly vanity, and I never met any one before who didn't see the pretty charm of her

And yet, somehow, Laura sticks needles into her every time she speaks. She feels them, too, but it only

makes her quiet, for she is too proud and sensitive to resent it. I can see that she is different in her ways, as if

she felt she was being criticised. Polly is quite the reverse. If anybody hurts her feelings she makes creation

Aunt Truth doesn't know anything about all this, for Laura is a different girl when she is with her or Dr. Paul;

not that she is deceitful, but that she is honestly anxious for their good opinion. You remember Aunt Truth's

hobby that we should never defend ourselves by attacking any one else, and none of us would ever complain,

Laura was miffed at having to play Audrey, but we didn't know that she could come until the last moment,

'I don't believe you appreciate my generosity in taking this thankless part,' she said to Bell, when we were

rehearsing. 'Nobody would ever catch you playing second fiddle, my dear. All leading parts reserved for Miss

'Indeed, Laura,' Bell said, 'if we had known you were coming we would have offered you the best part, but I

'You've trained the girls wellhasn't she, Geoffrey?' asked Laura, with a queer kind of laugh.

But I will leave the unpleasant subject. I should not have spoken of it at all except that she has made me so

uncomfortable today that it is fresh in my mind. Bell and Polly and I have talked the matter all over, and are

going to try and make her like us, whether she wants to or not. We have agreed to be just as polite and

generous as we possibly can, and see if she won't 'come round,' for she is perfectly delighted with the camp,

Polly says she is going to sing 'Home Sweet Home' to her every night, and drop double doses of the

homoeopathic cure for homesickness into her tea, with a view of creating the disease.

My darling,I have a thousand things to tell you, but I cannot possibly say them in rhyme, merely because

the committee insists upon it. I send you herewith all the poetry which has been written in camp since last

I have given them to papa, and he says that the best of my own, which are all bad enough, is the following

Tofro, Dreamily, slow, Under the trees; Swingswing, Drowsily sing The birds and the bees;

Sleeprest, Slumber is best, Wakefulness sad; Restsleep, Forget how to weep, Dream and be glad!

Papa says it is all nonsense to say that slumber is best and wakefulness sad; and that it is possible to tell the

truth in poetry. Perhaps it is, but why don't they do it oftener, then? And how was he to know that Polly and

Jack had just gone through a terrible battle of words in which I was peacemaker, and that Dicky had been as

naughty asNeroall day? These two circumstances made me look at the world through blue glasses, and

I send you also Geoff's verses, written to mamma, and slipped into the box when we were playing Machine

I know a woman fair and calm, Whose shining tender eyes Make, when I meet their earnest gaze, Sweet

And if all silver were her hair, Or faded were her face, She would not look to me less fair, Nor lack a single

And if I were a little child, With childhood's timid trust, I think my heart would fly to her, And

And if I were an earnest man, With empty heart and life, I think(but I might change my mind) She'd be

Isn't that pretty? Oh, Elsie! I hope I shall grow old as beautifully as mamma does, so that people can write

poetry to me if they feel like it! Here is Jack's, for Polly's birthday; he says he got the idea from a real poem

A pollywog from a wayside brook Is a goodly gift for thee; But a milkwhite steed, or a venison sheep, Will

For you a quivering asphodel (Two ducks and a good fat hen), For me a withering hollyhock (For seven and

Rosered locks and a pug for thee (The falling dew is chill), A dove, a rope, and a rose for me (Oh,

For you a greenery, yallery gown (Hath one tomb room for four?), Dig me a narrow gravelet here (Oh, red is

I told Jack I thought it extremely unhitched, but he says that's the chief beauty of the imitation.

I give you also some verses intended for Polly's birthday, which we shall celebrate, when the day arrives, by a

You remember how we tease her about her love for tea, which she cannot conceal, but which she is ashamed

Well! I have printed the poem on a card, and on the other side Margery has drawn the picture of a cross old

maid, surrounded by seven cats, all frying to get a drink out of her teacup. Then Geoff is going to get a live

cat from the milk ranch near here, and box it up for me to give to her when she receives her presents at the

She camps among the untrodden ways Forninst the 'Mountain Mill'; A maid whom there are few to praise

She lives unknown, and few could know What Pauline is to me; As dear a joy as are to her Her frequent cups

A birthday this dear creature had, Full many a year ago; She says she is but just fifteen, Of course she ought

But still this gift I bring to her, Appropriate to her age, Regardless of her stifled scorn, Or well concealed

She smiles upon these tender lines, As you all plainly see, But when she meets me all alone, How different it

There was a young maiden whose thought Was so airy it couldn't be caught; So what do you think? We gave

There's a pert little poppet called Polly, Who frequently falls into folly! She's a terrible tongue For a 'creetur'

I'd rather be deaf, Master Jack, For if only one sense I must lack, To be rid of your voice I should always

And now goodnight and goodbye until I am allowed to write you my own particular kind of letter.

The girls and boys are singing round the campfire, and I must go out and join them in one song before we

P. SOur 'Happy Hexagon' has become a sort of 'Obstreperous Octagon.' Laura and Scott Burton are staying

with us. Scott is a good deal of a bookworm, and uses very long words; his favourite name for me at present

is Calliope; I thought it was a sort of steam whistle, but Margery thinks it was some one who was connected

Dear Little Sis,The enclosed sketches speak for themselves, or at least I hope they do. Keep them in your

private portfolio, and when I am famous you can produce them to show the public at what an early age my

At first I thought I'd make them real 'William Henry' pictures, but concluded to give you a variety.

Can't stop to write another line; and if you missed your regular letter this week you must not growl, for the

P.S.Polly says you need not expect to recognise that deer by his portrait, should you ever meet him, as no

one could expect to get a STRIKING likeness at a distance of a halfmile. But, honestly, we have been closer

The grand performance of 'As You Like It' must have a more extended notice than it has yet received,

The reason of this somewhat ambitious selection lay in the fact that our young people had studied it in Dr.

Winship's Shakespeare class the preceding winter, but they were actually dumb with astonishment when Bell

'I tell you,' she argued, 'there are not many pieces which would be effective when played out of doors by dim

candlelight, but this will be just as romantic and lovely as can be. You see it can be played just "as you like

Philip and Aunt Truth wanted a matinee performance, but the girls resisted this plan very strongly, feeling

that the garish light of day would be bad for the makeshift costumes, and would be likely to rob them of what

'We give the decoration of the theatre entirely into your hands, boys,' Polly had said on the day before the

performance. 'You have some of the hardest work done already, and can just devote yourselves to the

ornamental part; but don't expect any more ideas from us, for you will certainly be disappointed.'

'I should think not, indeed!' cried Bell, energetically. 'Here we have the wall decorations for the first scene,

and all the costumes besides; and the trouble is, that three or four of them will have to be made tomorrow,

after Laura comes with the trappings of war. I hope she will get here for dinner tonight; then we can decide

'Well, girls!' shouted Jack, from the theatre, 'come and have one consultation, and then we'll let you off. Phil

'Oh, nonsense!' cried Madge, as the three girls ran towards the scene of action. 'It's the only suitable place

'I think it will be simply perfect, when you have done a little more cutting,' said Bell. 'Just see our advantages:

First, we have that rising knoll opposite the stage, which is exactly the thing for audience seats; then we have

a semicircular background of trees and a flat place for the stage, which is perfectly invaluable; last of all, just

gaze upon that madronotree in the centre, and the oak on the left; why, they are worth a thousand dollars for

'Especially in the first sceneducal interior, or whatever it is,' said Phil, disconsolately.

'Not at all,' said Polly, briskly. 'There is plenty of room to set the interior in front of those trees. It can be all

'That's true,' said Geoff, thoughtfully. 'But we can't have any Adam's cottage. We talked it over last night, and

'Did you indeed!' exclaimed Bell, sarcastically. 'Then allow me to remark that you three boys represent a very

'Thanks, most acid Rosalind!' murmured Geoff, meekly. 'Could you deign, as spokesman of the very acute

'Certainly. There is the rear of the brush kitchen in plain sight, to convey the idea of a rustic hut. To be sure,

it's a good distance to the left, but let the audience screw round in their seats when they hear the voices, and

Adam, Oliver, and Orlando can walk out carelessly, and go through their scene right there.'

'What an inspiration that was to bring those Chinese lanterns for the Fourth of July; they have just saved us

'Yes, the effect is going to be perfectly gorgeous!' exclaimed Polly, clasping her hands in anticipation. 'How

'As many as we care to use,' Phil answered, from the top of the ladder where he was at work. 'And look at my

'By the way,' said Bell, 'don't forget the mossy banks under those trees, for stage seats; and make me some

kind of a thing on the left side, to swoon on when I sniff Orlando's gory handkerchief.'

'Not exactly,' replied the critical Rosalind, with great dignity. 'I am black and blue already from practising my

'St. Jacob's Oil relieves stiffened joints, smooths the wrinkles from the brow of care, soothes lacerated

feelings, and 'ushes the 'owl of hinfancy,' remarked Geoffrey serenely, as he prepared to build the required

'My dear cousin (there are times when I am glad it is only second cousin), have you a secret contract to

'And, Jack,' suggested Polly, 'you don't seem to be doing anything; fix a stump for me to sit on while Orlando

'All right, countess. I'd like to see you stumped once in my life. Shall we have the canvases brought for stage

'We say no,' cried Rosalind, firmly. 'We shall be a thousand times more awkward stumbling over stiff billows

of carpet. Let's sweep the ground as clean and smooth as possible, and let it go for all the scenes.'

'Yes, we shall then be well GROUNDED in our parts,' remarked Phil, hiding his head behind a bunch of

'Or be requested by the audience to get up and dust,' cried the irrepressible Jack, whose wit was very apt to be

'Bell and I have it all settled,' said Geoffrey, promptly. 'The background is to be made of three sheets hung

over a line, and the two sides will be formed of canvas carpets; the walls will have Japanese fans, parasols,

'Jupiter!' exclaimed Jack, who, as knight of the brush, felt compelled to be artistic. 'Imagine a ducal palace, in

the year so many hundred and something, decorated with Japanese bricabrac! I blush for you.'

'Now, Jack, we might as well drop the whole play as begin to think of the 'nakkeronisms,' or whatever the

word is. I have got to wear an old white wrapper to the wrestlingmatch, but I don't complain,' said Polly.

'I have secured Pancho for Charles the Wrestler. Oh, he was fearfully obstinate! but when I told him he would

only be on the stage two minutes, and would not have to speak a word, but just let Geoff throw him, he

'It will have to be just as we suggested,' answered Margery. 'Fans, parasols, flowers, and leaves, with the

'A few venison rugs, I presume you mean,' said Geoffrey, slyly. 'Say, Polly, omit the cold cream for once,

'Thank you,' she replied. 'I will endeavour to take care of my own complexion, if you will allow me. As for

'Come, come, girls,' said industrious Margery, 'let us go to the tent and sew. It is nothing but nonsense here,

So they wisely left the boys to themselves for the entire day, and transformed their tent into a mammoth

The intervening hours had slipped quickly away, and now the fatal moment had arrived, and everything was

The wouldbe actresses were a trifle excited when the Professor and his eight students were brought up and

introduced by Jack and Scott Burton; and, as if that were not enough, who should drive up at the last moment

but the family from the neighbouring milk ranch, and beg to be allowed the pleasure of witnessing the

performance. Mr. Sandford was the gentleman who had sold Dr. Winship his land, and so they were cordially

All the cushions and shawls belonging to the camp were arranged carefully on the knoll, for audience seats; it

was a brilliant moonlight night, and the stage assumed a very festive appearance with its four pounds of

Meanwhile the actors were dressing in their respective tents. Bell's first dress was a long pink muslin wrapper

of Mrs. Burton's, which had been belted in and artistically pasted over with bouquets from the cretonne trunk

covers, in imitation of flowered satin; under this she wore a short blue lawn skirt of her own, catching up the

pink muslin on the left side with a bouquet of wild roses, and producing what she called a 'positively Neilson

Her bright hair was tossed up into a fluffy knot on the top of her head; and with a flat coronet of wild roses

and another great bunch at her belt, one might have gone far and not have found a prettier Rosalind.

'Yes, she looks quite well,' answered Laura, abstractedly, being much occupied in making herself absurdly

beautiful as Audrey. 'Of course the dress fits horridly, but perhaps it won't show in the dim light.'

'Oh, is it very bad?' sighed Bell, plaintively; 'I can't see it in this glass. Well, the next one fits better, and I

'Nothanks; Margery has such a capital knack at hairdressing, and she doesn't come on yet.'

During this conversation Polly was struggling with Aunt Truth's trained white wrapper. It was rather difficult

to make it look like a court dress; but she looked as fresh and radiant as a rose in it, for the candlelight

obliterated every freckle, and one could see nothing but a pair of dancing eyes, the pinkest of cheeks, and a

'Now, Bell, criticise me!' she cried, taking a position in the middle of the tent, and turning round like a wax

figure. 'I have torn out my hair by the roots to give it a "done up" look, and have I succeeded? and shall I

wear any flowers with this lace surplice? and what on earth shall I do with my hands? they're so black they

will cast a gloom over the stage. Perhaps I can wrap my handkerchief carelessly round one, and I'll keep the

other round your waist, considerable, tucked under your Watteau pleat. Will I do?'

'Do? I should think so!' and Bell eyed her with manifest approval. 'Your hair is very nice, and your neck

looks lovely with that lace handkerchief. As for flowers, why don't you wear a great mass of yellow and

'As a sunset by Turner,' said Laura, with a glance at Polly's auburn locks. 'Seems to me this is a mutual

admiration society, isn't it?' and she sank languidly into a chair to have her hair dressed.

'Yes, it is,' cried Polly, boldly; 'and it's going to "continner." Meg, you're a darling in that blue print and pretty

hat. I'll fill my fernbasket with flowers, and you can take it, as to have something in your hand to play with.

You look nicer than any Phoebe I ever saw, that's a fact. And now, hurrah! we're all ready, and there's the

boys' bell, so let us assemble out in the kitchen. Oh dear! I believe I'm frightened, in spite of every promise to

When the young people saw each other for the first time in their stage costumes there was a good deal of

merriment and some honest admiration. Geoff looked very odd without his eyeglasses and with the yellow

The girls had not succeeded in producing a great effect with the masculine costumes, because of insufficient

material. But the boys had determined not to wear their ordinary clothes, no matter what happened; so Jack

had donned one of Hop Yet's blue blouses for his Sylvius dress, and had ready a plaid shawl to throw

His Sylvius attire was open to criticism, but no one could fail to admire his appearance as the Duke, on

account of a magnificent ducal headgear, from which soared a bunch of tall peacock feathers.

'Oh, Jack, what a headdress for a Duke!' laughed Margery; 'no wonder they banished you. Did you offend

Phil said that at all events nobody could mistake him for anything but a fool, in his 'Touchstone' costume, and

Scott Burton was arranging Pancho's toilette for the wrestlingmatch, and meanwhile trying to raise his

drooping spirits; and Rosalind was vainly endeavouring to make Adam's beard of grey moss stay on.

While these antics were going on behind the scenes, the audience was seated on the knoll, making merry over

the written programmes, which had been a surprise of Geoff's, and read as follows:

A Royal Galaxy and Boyaxy of Artists in the play of AS YOU LIKE IT, By William Shakespeare, or Lord

'Alas! unmindful of their doom, the little victims play; No sense have they of ills to come, or cares beyond

ROSALIND The Lady BellPepper. (Her greatest creation.) CELIA The Countess Paulina. PHOEBE The

Duchess of Sweet Marjoram. AUDREY A talented Incognita of the Court. ORLANDO Hennery Irving

Salvini Strong. (Late from the Blank Theatre, Oil City.) ADAM Dr. Paul Winship. (By kind permission of his

manager, Mrs. T. W.) BANISHED DUKE } SYLVIUS } Lord John Howard } Lightning TOUCHSTONE }

} Change Artists. JACQUE } Duke of Noble } (N.B.The Duke of Noble has played the 'fool' five million

times.) OLIVER Mr. Scott Burton. (Specially engaged.) CHARLES THE WRESTLER Pancho Muldoon

The scene between Adam and Orlando went off with good effect; and when Celia and Rosalind came through

the trees in an affectionate attitude, and Celia's blithe voice broke the stillness with, 'I pray thee, Rosalind,

sweet my coz, be merry,' there was a hearty burst of applause which almost frightened them into silence.

At the end of the first act everybody was delighted; the stage manager, carpenter, sceneshifter, costumier,

Hop Yet declared it was 'all the same good as China theatre'; and every one agreed to that criticism without a

To be sure, there was an utter absence of stagemanagement, and all the 'traditions' were remarkable for their

absence; but I fancy that the spirits of Siddons and Kemble, Macready and Garrick, looked down with kind

approval upon these earnest young actors as they recited the matchless old words, moving to and fro in the

quaint setting of trees and moonlight, with an orchestra of cooing doves and murmuring zephyrs.

The forest scenes were intended to be the features of the evening, and in these the young people fairly

surpassed themselves. Any one who had seen Neilson in her doublet and hose of silvergrey, Modjeska in

her shades of blue, and Ada Cavendish in her lovely suit of green, might have thought Bell's patchedup

dress a sorry mixture; yet these three brilliant stars in the theatrical firmament might have envied this little

Rosalind the dewy youth and freshness that so triumphed over all deficiencies of costume.

Margery's campingdress of grey, shortened to the knee, served for its basis. Round the skirt and belt and

sleeves were broad bands of laurelleaf trimming. She wore a pair of Margery's long grey stockings and

Laura's dainty bronze Newport ties. A soft grey chudda shawl of Aunt Truth's was folded into a mantle to

swing from the shoulder, its fringes being caught up out of sight, and a laurelleaf trimming added. On her

bright wavy hair was perched a cunning flat cap of leaves, and, as she entered with Polly, leaning on her

manzanita staff, and sighing, 'Oh Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!' one could not wish a lovelier stage

And so the play went on, with varying fortunes. Margery was frightened to death, and persisted in taking

Touchstone's speeches right out of his mouth, much to his discomfiture. Adam's beard refused to stay on; so

did the moustache of the Banished Duke, and the clothes of Sylvius. But nothing could damp the dramatic

Dicky sat in the dresscircle, wrapped in blankets, and laughed himself nearly into convulsions over

Touchstone's jokes, and the stage business of the Banished Duke; for it is unnecessary to state that Jack was

As for Polly, she enjoyed being Celia with all her might, and declared her intention of going immediately on

the 'regular' stage; but Jack somewhat destroyed her hopes by affirming that her nose and hair wouldn't be

just the thing on the metropolitan boards, although they might pass muster in a backwoods theatre.

'Hello! What's this?' exclaimed Philip, one morning. 'A visitor? Yesno! Why, it's Senor Don Manuel Felipe

Hilario Noriega coming up the canyon! He's got a loaded team, too! I wonder if Uncle Doc is expecting

The swarthy gentleman with the long name emerged from one cloud of dust and disappeared in another, until

Philip opened the gate, and received a bow of thanks which would have made Manuel's reputation at a

Philip reached for it, and Polly leaned over his shoulder, devoured with curiosity.

'It's for Aunt Truth,' she said; 'andyes, I am sure it is Mrs. Howard's writing; and if it is'

Hereupon, as Manuel spoke no English, and neither Philip nor Polly could make inquiries in Spanish, Polly

darted to the cart in her usual meteoric style, put one foot on the hub of a wheel and climbed to the top like a

squirrel, snatched off a corner of the canvas cover, and cried triumphantly, 'I knew it! Elsie is coming! Here's

a tent, and some mattresses and pillows. Hurry! Help me down, quick! Oh, slowcoach! Keep out of the way

and I'll jump! Give me the letter. I can run faster than you can.' And before the vestige of an idea had

penetrated Philip's head, nothing could be seen of Polly but a pair of twinkling heels and the gleam of a curly

It was a dusty, rocky path, and uphill at that; but Polly, who was nothing if not ardent, never slackened her

pace, but dashed along until she came in sight of the camp, where she expended her last breath in one shrill

It was responded to promptly. Indeed, it was the sort of shriek that always commands instantaneous attention;

and Aunt Truth came out of her tent prepared to receive tragic news. Bell followed; and the entire family

Polly thrust the letter into Mrs. Winship's hand, and sank down exhausted, exclaiming, breathlessly, 'There's a

mattressand a tent coming up the canyon. It's Elsie's, I know. Philip is down at the gatewith the

'What!' cried Bell, joyfully. 'Elsie at the gate! It can't be true!' And she darted like an arrow through the trees.

'Elsie is not at the gate. Don S. D. M. F. H. N. is there with a team loaded down with things. Isn't it from Mrs.

'Yes, it is. Written this morning from Tacitas Rancho. Why, how is this? Let me see!'

Dear Truth,You will be surprised to receive a letter from me, written from Tacitas. But here we are, Elsie

Elsie has been growing steadily better for three weeks. The fever seems to have disappeared entirely, and the

troublesome cough is so much lessened that she sleeps all night without waking. The doctor says that the

camplife will be the very best thing for her now, and will probably complete her recovery.

I need not say how gladly we followed this special prescription of our kind doctor's, nor add that we started at

('Oh, Aunt Truth, there is nobody within a mile of the camp; can't I, PLEASE can't I turn one little

handspring, just one little ladylike one?' pleaded Polly, dancing on one foot and chewing her sunbonnet

Elsie would not let me tell you our plans any sooner, lest the old story of a sudden ill turn would keep us at

home; and I think very likely that she longed to give the dear boys and girls a surprise.

We arrived at the Burtons' yesterday. Elsie bore the journey exceedingly well, but I would not take any risks,

I venture to send the tent and its belongings ahead today, so that Jack may get everything to rights before we

The mattress is just the size the girls ordered; and of course I've told Elsie nothing about the proposed

I am bringing my little China boy with me, for I happen to think that, with the Burtons, we shall be fourteen

at table. Gin is not quite a success as a cook, but he can at least wash dishes, wait at table, and help Hop Yet

in various ways; while I shall be only too glad to share all your housekeeping cares, if you have not escaped

I shall be so glad to see you again; and oh, Truth, I am so happy, so happy, that, please God, I can keep my

child after all! The weary burden of dread is lifted off my heart, and I feel young again. Just think of it! My

Mrs. Winship's voice quivered as she read the last few words, and Polly and Bell threw themselves into each

'Come, come, dears! I suppose you will make grand preparations, and there is no time to lose. One of you

must find somebody to help Philip unload the team. Papa and the boys have gone fishing, and Laura and

Margery went with them, I think.' And Mrs. Winship bustled about, literally on hospitable thoughts intent.

Polly tied on her sunbonnet with determination, turned up her sleeves as if washing were the thing to be

'First and foremost,' said she, her eyes sparkling with excitement, 'first and foremost, I am going to blow the

'Certainly not,' said Aunt Truth. 'Are you crazy, Polly? It is scarcely ten o'clock, and everybody would think it

'No, they'd think something had happened to Dicky,' said Bell, 'and that would bring them in still sooner.'

'Of course! I forgot. But can't I blow it earlier than usual? Can't I blow it at halfpast eleven instead of

twelve? We can't do a thing without the boys, and they may not come home until midnight unless we do

something desperate. Oh, delight! There's Don S. D. M. F. H. N., and Phil has found Pancho to help unload.'

'Isn't it lucky that we decided on the place for Elsie's tent, and saved it in case she should ever come?' said

Bell. 'Now Philip and Pancho can set it up whenever they choose. And isn't it fortunate that we three stayed at

home today, and refused to fish? now we can plan everything, and then all work together when they come

Meanwhile Polly was tugging at an immense bundle, literally tooth and nail, as she alternated trembling

Like many of her performances, the physical strength expended was out of all proportion to the result

produced, and one stroke of Philip's knife accomplished more than all her illdirected effort. At length the

bundle of awning cloth stood revealed. 'Oh, isn't it beautiful?' she cried, 'it will be the very prettiest tent in

'Look, mamma,' exclaimed Bell, 'it is green and grey, in those pretty broken stripes, and the edge is cut in

lovely scollops and bound with green braid. Won't it look pretty among the trees?'

'Oooh!' screamed Polly. 'There comes a piece of the floor. They've sent it all made, in three pieces. What

'And here's a roll of straw matting,' said Phil, depositing a huge bundle on the ground near the girls. 'I'll cut

'Green and white plaid!' exclaimed Bell. 'Well! Mrs. Howard did have her wits about her!'

'Here are a lookingglass and a towelrack and a Shaker rocking chair,' called Philip; 'guess they're going to

'Yes, of course they wouldn't want a lookingglass if they were only going to stay a month or two,' laughed

'Dear Aunt Truth, if you won't let me turn a single decorous little handspring, or blow the horn, or do

anything nice, will you let us use all that new white mosquitonetting? Bell says that it has been in the

storehouse for two years, and it would be just the thing for decorating Elsie's tent.'

'Why, of course you may have it, Polly, and anything else that you can find. There! I hear Dicky's voice in the

Bell and Polly darted through the swarm of tents, and looked up the narrow path that led to the brook.

Sure enough, Margery and Laura were strolling towards home with little Anne and Dick dangling behind,

after the manner of children. Margery carried a small string of trout, and Dick the inevitable tin pail in which

he always kept an unfortunate frog or two. The girls had discovered that he was in the habit of crowding the

cover tightly over the pail and keeping his victims shut up for twentyfour hours, after which, he said, they

were nice and tameso very tame, as it transpired, that they generally gave up the ghost in a few hours after

their release. Margery had with difficulty persuaded him of his cruelty, and the cover had been pierced with a

'Guess the loveliest thing that could possibly happen!' called Bell at the top of her voice.

'Elsie has come,' answered Margery in a second, nobody knew why; 'let me hug her this minute!'

'With those fish?' laughed Polly. 'No! you'll have to wait until day after tomorrow, and then your guess will

'And she is almost well,' added Bell, joyfully, slipping her arm through Margery's and squeezing it in sheer

delight. 'Mrs. Howard says she is really and truly better. Oh, if Elsie Howard in bed is the loveliest, dearest

thing in the world, what will it be like to have her out of it and with us in all our good times!'

'Yes; a terrible cold left her with weakness of the lungs, and the doctors feared consumption, but thought that

she might possibly outgrow it entirely if she lived in a milder climate; so Mrs. Howard left home and

everybody she cared for, and brought Elsie to Santa Barbara. Papa has taken an interest in her from the first,

and as far as we girls are concerned, it was love at first sight. You never knew anybody like Elsie!'

'Interesting!' said Bell, in a tone that showed the word to be too feeble for the subject; 'Elsie is more

'Popular!' exclaimed Margery, taking her turn in the oral examination, 'I don't know whether anybody can be

popular who is always in bed; but if it's popular to be adored by every man, woman, child, and animal that

'Favourite!' said Bell. 'Why, they think that she is simply perfect! Of course she has scarcely been able to sit

up a week at a time for a year, and naturally she has not seen many people; but, if you want a boy's opinion,

just ask Philip or Geoffrey. I assure you, Laura, after you have known Elsie a while, and have seen the

impression she makes upon everybody, you will want to go to bed and see if you can do likewise.'

'And it isn't the prettiness either,' added Polly; 'though if you saw Elsie asleep, a flower in one hand, the other

under her cheek, her hair straying over the pillow (O for hair that would stray anywhere!), you would expect

'I don't believe it is because she is good that everybody admires her so,' said Laura, 'I don't think goodness in

itself is always so very interesting; if Elsie had freckles and a snub nose'('Don't mind me!' murmured

Polly)'you would find that people would say less about her wonderful character.'

'There are things that puzzle me,' said Polly, thoughtfully. 'It seems to me that if I could contrive to be ever so

good, nobody ever would look for a halo round my head. Now, is it my turnedup nose and red hair that

'We'll have to ask Aunt Truth,' said Margery; 'that is too difficult a thing for us to answer.'

'Wasn't it nice I catched that big bullfrog, Margie?' cried Dick, his eyes shining with anticipation. 'Now I'll

have as many as seven or 'leven frogs and lots of horned toads when Elsie comes, and she can help me play

When the girls reached the tents again, the last article had been taken from the team and Manuel had driven

away. The sound of Phil's hammer could be heard from the carpentershop, and Pancho was already laying

the tent floor in a small, open, sunny place, where the low boughs of a single sycamore hung so as to protect

one of its corners, leaving the rest to the full warmth of the sunshine that was to make Elsie entirely well

'I am tired to death,' sighed Laura, throwing herself down in a bamboo loungingchair. 'Such a tramp as we

had! and after all, the boys insisted on going where Dr. Winship wouldn't allow us to follow, so that we had

to stay behind and fish with the children; I wish I had stayed at home and read The Colonel's Daughter.'

'Oh, Laura!' remonstrated Margery, 'think of that lovely pool with the forests of maidenhair growing all

'And poisonoak,' grumbled Laura. 'I know I walked into some of it and shall look like a perfect fright for a

'It's no use for you to try walking four miles in highheeled shoes, my dear,' said Polly, bluntly.

'They are not high,' retorted Laura, 'and if they are, I don't care to look like aacowboy, even in the

'I'm an awful example,' sighed Polly, seating herself on a stump in front of the tent, and elevating a very dusty

little commonsense boot. 'Sir Walter Raleigh would never have allowed me to walk on his velvet cloak with

that boot, would he, girls? Oh, wasn't that romantic, though? and don't I wish that I had been Queen

'Thank you! I had forgotten Elizabeth's hair was red; so it was. This is my court train,' snatching a tablecloth

that bung on a hush near by, and pinning it to her waist in the twinkling of an eye, 'this my farthingale,'

dangling her sunbonnet from her belt,'this my sceptre,' seizing a Japanese umbrella,'this my crown,'

inverting a bright tin plate upon her curly head. 'She is just alighting from her chariot, THUS; the courtiers

turn pale, THUS; (why don't you do it?) what shall be done? The Royal Feet must not be wet. "Go round the

puddle? Prit, me Lud, 'Od's body! Forsooth! Certainly not! Remove the puddle!" she says haughtily to her

subjects. They are just about to do so, when out from behind a neighbouring chaparral bush stalks a beautiful

young prince with coalblack hair and rose red cheeks. He wears a rich velvet cloak, glittering with

embroidery. He sees not her crown, her hair outshines it; he sees not her sceptre, her tiny hand conceals it; he

sees naught save the loathly mud. He strips off his cloak and floats it on the puddle. With a haughty but

gracious bend of her head the Queen accepts the courtesy; crosses the puddle, THUS, waves her sceptre,

THUS, and saying, "You shall hear from me by return mail, me Lud," she vanishes within the castle. The

next morning she makes Sir Walter British Minister to Florida. He departs at once with a cargo of tobacco,

The girls were convulsed with mirth at this historical romance, and, as Mrs. Winship wiped the tears of

merriment from her eyes, Polly seized the golden opportunity and dropped on her knees beside her.

'Please, Aunt Truth, we can't get the white mosquitonetting because Dr. Winship has the key of the

Mrs. Winship gave her consent in despair, and Polly went to the oak tree where the horn hung and blew all

'That's all I needed,' she said, on returning; 'that was an escape valve, and I shall be ladylike and

'Now, Laura,' asked Bell, when quiet was restored, 'advise us about Elsie's tent. We want it to be perfectly

'Let me think,' said Laura. 'Oh, if she were only a brunette instead of a blonde, we could festoon the tent with

'What difference does it make whether she is dark or light?' asked Bell, obtusely.

'Why, a room ought to be as becoming as a dressso Mrs. Pinkerton says. You know I saw a great deal of

her at the hotel; and oh, girls! her bedroom was the most exquisite thing you ever saw! She had a French

toilettable, covered with pale blue silk and white marquise lace,perfectly lovely,with yards and yards

of robin's egg blue watered ribbon in bows; and on it she kept all her toilet articles, everything in hammered

silver from Tiffany's with monograms on the back,three or four sizes of brushes, and combs, and mirrors,

and a full manicure set. It used to take her two hours to dress; but it was worth it. Oh, such gorgeous

teagowns as she had! One of old rose and lettuce was a perfect dream! She always had her breakfast in bed,

you know. I think it's delightful to have your breakfast before you get up, and dress as slowly as you like. I

'What does she do after she gets dressed in her rows of old lettuce I mean her old rows of lettuce?' asked

'Do? Why really, Polly, you are too stupid! What do you suppose she did? What everybody else does, of

'Between nineteen and twenty. There is not three years' difference in our ages, though she has been married

'Only nineteen!' cried Bell. 'Why, I always thought that she was old as the hillstwentyfive or thirty at the

'Well,' said Laura, in a whisper intended to be too low to reach Mrs. Winship's tent, 'I don't know whether I

ought to repeat what was told me in confidence, but the fact iswellshe doesn't like Mr. Pinkerton very

The other girls, who had not enjoyed the advantages of city life and travel, looked as dazed as any

'Don't like him!' gasped Polly, nearly falling off the stump. 'Why, she's married to him!'

'Where on earth were you brought up?' snapped Laura. 'What difference does that make? She can't help it if

she doesn't happen to like her husband, can she? You can't make yourself like anybody, can you?'

'Well, did she ever like him?' asked Margery; 'for she's only been married a year or two, and it seems to me it

'But,' whispered Laura, mysteriously, 'you see Mr. Pinkerton was very rich and the Dentons very poor. Mr.

Denton had just died, leaving them nothing at all to live on, and poor Jessie would have had to teach school,

or some dreadful thing like that. The thought of it almost killed her, she is so sensitive and so refined. She

never told me so in so many words, but I am sure she married Mr. Pinkerton to save her mother from poverty;

'I suppose it was noble,' said Bell, in a puzzled tone, 'if she couldn't think of any other way, but'

'Well, did she try very hard to think of other ways?' asked Polly. 'She never looked especially noble to me. I

'I wish, Miss Oliver, that you would be kind enough to remember that Mrs. Pinkerton is one of my most

intimate friends,' said Laura, sharply. 'And I do wish, also, that you wouldn't talk loud enough to be heard all

The colour came into Polly's cheeks, but before she could answer, Mrs. Winship walked in, stockingbasket

in hand, and seated herself in the little wicker rockingchair. Polly's clarion tones had given her a clue to the

'You were talking about Mrs. Pinkerton, girls,' she said, serenely. 'You say you are fond of her, Laura, dear,

and it seems very ungracious for me to criticise your friend; that is a thing which most of us fail to bear

patiently. But I cannot let you hold her up as an ideal to be worshipped, or ask the girls to admire as a piece

of selfdenial what I fear was nothing but indolence and self gratification. You are too young to talk of

these things very much; but you are not too young to make up your mind that when you agree to live all your

life long with a person, you must have some other feeling than a determination not to teach school. Jessie

Denton's mother, my dear Laura, would never have asked the sacrifice of her daughter's whole life; and Jessie

herself would never have made it had she been less vain, proud, and luxurious in her tastes, and a little

braver, more selfforgetting and industrious. These are hard words, dear, and I am sorry to use them. She has

gained the riches she wanted,the carriages and servants, and teagowns, and hammered silver from

Tiffany's, but she looks tired and disappointed, as Bell says; and I've no doubt she is, poor girl.'

'If you are really attached to her, Laura, don't make the mistake of admiring her faults of character, but try to

find her better qualities, and help her to develop them. It is a fatal thing when girls of your age set up these

false standards, and order their lives by them. There are worse things than schoolteaching, yes, or even

floorscrubbing or windowwashing. Lovely teagowns and silver backed brushes are all very pretty and

nice to have, if they are not gained at the sacrifice of something better. I should have said to my daughter, had

I been Mrs. Denton, "We will work for each other, my darling, and try to do whatever God gives us to do;

but, no matter how hard life is, your heart is the most precious thing in the world, and you must never sell

that, if we part with everything else." Oh, my girls, my girls, if I could only make you believe that "poor and

content is rich, and rich enough." I cannot bear to think of your growing year by year into the conviction that

these pretty glittering things of wealth are the true gold of life which everybody seeks. Forgive me, Laura, if I

'I know you would never hurt anybody's feelings, if you could help it, Mrs. Winship,' Laura answered, with a

hint of coldness in her voice, 'though I can't help thinking that you are a little hard on poor Jessie; but, even

then, one can surely like a person without wishing to do the very same things she does.'

'Yes, that is true,' said Mrs. Winship, gravely. 'But one cannot constantly justify a wrong action in another

without having one's own standard unconsciously lowered. What we continually excuse in other people we

should be inclined by and by to excuse in ourselves. Let us choose our friends as wisely as possible, and love

them dearly, helping them to grow worthier of our love at the same time we are trying to grow worthier of

theirs; because "we live by admiration, hope, and love," you know, but not by admiring and loving the wrong

'But there is the horn, and I hear the boys. Let us come to luncheon, and tell our good news of Elsie.'

[Music follows] With incredible energy. The horn! The horn! The lusty, lusty horn! 'Tis not a thing to

Long before the boys appeared in sight, their voices rang through the canyon in a chorus that woke the

echoes, and presently they came into view, bearing two quarters and a saddle of freshly killed mutton,

'A splendid "still hunt" this morning, Aunt Truth!' exclaimed Jack. 'Game plenty and not too shy, dogs in

The girls could scarcely tell whether or no Laura was offended at Aunt Truth's unexpected little lecture. She

did not appear quite as unrestrained as usual, but as everybody was engaged in the preparations for Elsie's

welcome there was a general atmosphere of hilarity and confusion, so that no awkwardness was possible.

The toolshop resounded with blows of hammer and steel. Dicky was under everybody's feet, and his 'seven

or ten frogs,' together with his unrivalled collection of horned toads, were continually escaping from their tin

pails and boxes in the various tents, and everybody was obliged to join in the search to recover and

Hop Yet was making a gold and silver cake, with 'Elsie' in pink letters on chocolate frosting. Philip had

pitched the new tent so that in one corner there was a slender manzanitatree which had been cropped for

some purpose or other. He had nailed a crosspiece on this, so that it resembled the letter T, and was now

laboriously boring holes and fitting in pegs, that Elsie might have a sort of closet behind her bed.

As for the rustic furniture, the girls and boys declared it to be too beautiful for words. They stood in circles

about it and admired it without reserve, each claiming that his own special piece of work was the gem of the

collection. The sunlight shining through the grey and green tints of the tent was voted perfection, Philip's

closet a miracle of ingenuity, the green and white straw matting an inspiration.

The lookingglass had been mounted on a packingbox, and converted by Laura into a dressingtable that

rivalled Mrs. Pinkerton's; for green tarlatan and white mosquitonetting had been so skilfully combined that

the traditional mermaid might have been glad to make her toilet there 'with a comb and a glass in her hand.'

The rest of the green and white gauzy stuff had been looped from the corners of the tent to the centre of the

roofpiece, and delicate tendrils of wild clematis climbed here and there as if it were growing, its roots

plunged in cunningly hidden bottles of water. Bell had gone about with pieces of awning cloth and green

braid, and stitched an elaborate system of pockets on the inside of the tent wherever they would not be too

prominent. There were tiny pockets for needlework, thimbles, and scissors, mediumsized pockets for soap

and combs and brushes, bigger pockets for shoes and slippers and stockings, and mammoth pockets for

By four o'clock in the afternoon Margery had used her clever fingers to such purpose that a white silesia flag,

worked with the camp name, floated from the tip top of the front entrance to the tent. The ceremony of

raising the flag was attended with much enthusiasm, and its accomplishment greeted by a deafening cheer

'Unless one wants Paradise,' sighed Margery, 'who wouldn't be contented with dear Camp Chaparral?'

'Who would live in a house, any way?' exclaimed Philip. 'Sniff this air, and look up at that sky!'

'And this is what they call "roughing it," in Santa Barbara,' quoth Dr. Winship. 'Why, you youngsters have

'Now, let's organise for reception!' cried Geoffrey. 'Assemble, good people! Come over here, Aunt Truth! I

will take the chair myself, since I don't happen to see anybody who would fill it with more dignity.'

'I am going to mount my broncho and go out on the road to meet my beloved family,' said Jack, sauntering up

'I can make a pretty good guess. They'll probably start from Tacitas as early as eight or nine o'clock, if Elsie

is well. Let's see: it's about twentyfive miles, isn't it, Uncle Doc? Say twentythree to the place where they

turn off the main road. Well, I'll take a bit of lunch, ride out ten or twelve miles, hitch my horse in the shade,

'Very well,' said Geoffrey. 'It is not usual for committees to appoint themselves, but as you are a near relative

of our distinguished guests we will grant you special consideration and order you to the front. Ladies and

gentlemen, passing over the slight informality of the nomination, all in favour of appointing Mr. John

'There seems to be a slight difference of opinion as to the usual sign. All right.Contrary minded!'

'It is a unanimous vote,' said Geoffrey, crushingly, bringing down his fist as an imaginary gavel with

incredible force and dignity. 'Dr. and Mrs. Winship, will you oblige the Chair by acting as a special

'Certainly,' responded the doctor, smilingly. 'Will the Chair kindly outline the general policy of the

'Hmmm! Yes, certainlyof course. The Chair suggests that the Reception Committeewell, that they

stay at home andreceive the guests,yes, that will do very nicely. Allinfavourandsoforth

itisavoteandsoordered. Secretary will please spread a copy on the minutes.' Gavel.

'I rise to a point of order,' said Jack, sagely. 'There is no secretary and there are no minutes.'

'Mere form,' said the Chair; 'sit down; there will be minutes in a minute,got to do some more things first;

that will do, SIT DOWN. Will the Misses Burton and Messrs. Burton and Noble kindly act as Committee on

'Where's the Committee on Music, and Refreshments, and Olympian Games, and all that sort of thing?'

interrupted Polly, who had not the slightest conception of parliamentary etiquette; 'and why don't you hurry

'If Miss Oliver refuses to bridle her tongue, and persists in interrupting the business of the meeting, the Chair

Polly rose again, undaunted. 'I would respectfully ask the Chair, who put him in the chair, any way?'

'Second the motion!' shrieked Bell, that being the only parliamentary expression she knew.

'Order!' cried Geoffrey in stentorian accents. 'I will adjourn the meeting and clear the courtroom unless there

'Do!' remarked Polly, encouragingly. 'I will rise again, like Phoebus, from my ashes, to say that'

Here Jack sprang to his feet. 'I would suggest to the Chair that the last speaker amend her motion by

'Question!' called Bell, with another mighty projection of memory into a missionary meeting that she had

'I am not aware that there is any motion before the house,' said Geoffrey, cuttingly.

'Ladies, there IS no motion. Will you oblige the Chair by remaining quiet until speech is requested?'

'Move that the meeting be adjourned and another one called, with a new Chair!' remarked Margery, who felt

'Move that this motion be so ordered and spread upon the minutes, and a copy of it be presented to the

'Move that the copy be appropriately bound in CALF,' said Jack, dodging an imaginary blow.

'This is simply disgraceful!' exclaimed the Chair. 'Order! order! I appoint Miss Oliver Committee on

'Never mind; either write new words to that tune or sing tralala to it. Mr. Richard Winship, the Chair

appoints you Committee on Menagerie, and suggests that as we have proclaimed a legal holiday, you give

'Don't know what freedom of er city means,' said Dicky, who feared that he was being made the butt of

'Why, we want you to allow the captives to parade in the evening, with torchlights and mottoes.'

'All right!' cried Dicky, kindling in an instant; ''n' Luby, 'n' the doat, 'n' my horn' toads, all e'cept the one that

just gotted away in Laura's bed; but may be she'll find him tonight, so they'll be all there.'

This was too much for the various committees, and Laura's wild shriek was the signal for a hasty

adjournment. A common danger restored peace to the assembly, and they sought the runaway in perfect

'Well,' said Jack, when quiet was restored, 'I am going a little distance up the Pico Negro trail; there are some

magnificent Spanish bayonets growing there, and if you'll let me have Pancho, Uncle Doc, we can bring

down four of them and lash them to each of the corners of Elsie's tent,they'll keep fresh several days in

'Do let me go with you!' pleaded Laura, with enthusiasm. 'I should like the walk so much.'

'It's pretty rough, Laura,' objected Margery. 'If you couldn't endure our walk this morning, you would never

'Oh, that was in the heat of the day,' she answered. 'I feel equal to any amount of walking now, if Jack doesn't

'Delighted, of course, Miss Laura. You'll be willing to carry home one of the trees, I suppose, in return for the

'Snub him severely, Laura,' cried Bell; 'we never allow him to say such things unreproved.'

'I think he is snubbed too much already,' replied Laura, with a charming smile, 'and I shall see how a course

'Oh, Laura,' remonstrated Bell, 'think twice before you encourage him in his dreadful ways. We have studied

him very carefully, and we know that the only way to live with him is to keep him in a sort of "pint pot"

where we can hold the lid open just a little, and clap it down suddenly whenever he tries to spring out.'

'Do not mind that young person, Miss Laura, but form your own impressions of my charming character.

Excuse me, please, while I put on a celluloid collar, and make some few changes in my toilet necessary to a

'Do you hear that, young person? She prefers me as I are! Now see what magic power her generosity has

upon me!' And he darted into the tent, from which he issued in a moment with his Derby hat, a manzanita

cane, a pockethandkerchief tied about his throat, and a flower pinned on his flannel campingshirta most

ridiculous figure, since nothing seems so out of place in the woods as any suggestion of city costumes or

customs. Laura was in high goodhumour, and looked exceedingly brilliant and pretty, as she always did

when she was the central figure of any group or the bright particular star of any occasion.

'Be home before dark,' said Dr. Winship. 'Pancho, keep a lookout for the packmule. Truth, one of the

'Ditto, curiously enough. His name should have led him not to set an example, but to follow one.'

Perhaps you thought that this was going to be an exciting story, and that something would happen to keep her

at the Tacitas ranch; but nothing did. Everything came to pass exactly as it was arranged, and Jack met his

mother and sister at twelve o'clock some four miles from the camp, and escorted them to the gates.

'Welcome' had been painted on twenty different boards or bits of white cloth and paper, and nailed here and

there on the trees that lined the rough woodroad; the strains of an orchestra, formed of a guitar, banjo,

castanets, Chinese fiddle, and tin cans, greeted them from a distance, but were properly allowed to die away

in silence when the guest neared the tents. Everything wore a new and smiling face, and Elsie never came

Elsie, in the prettiest of gingham dresses, and her cloud of golden hair braided in two funny little pugs to keep

it out of the dust; Elsie, with a wide hat that shaded her face, already a little tanned and burned, no longer

colourless; Elsie, with no lines of pain in her pretty forehead, and the hollow ring gone from her voice; Elsie,

who jumped over the wheel of the wagon, and hugged her huggers with the strength of a young bear! It was

At three o'clock the happiest party in the world assembled at the rough diningtable under the

Elsie beamed upon the feast from the highbacked manzanita chair, a faint colour in her cheeks, and starry

prisms of light in a pair of eyes that had not sparkled for many a weary month. Hop Yet smiled a trifle

himself, wore his cap with a red button on the top to wait upon the table, and ministered to the hungry people

with more interest and alacrity than he had shown since he had been dragged from Santa Barbara, his Joss,

and his nightly game of fantan. And such a dinner as he had prepared in honour of the occasion!longer by

four courses than usual, and each person was allowed two plates in the course of the meal.

Quail Soup. Crackers. Chili Colorado. (Mutton stew, in Spanish style, with Chili peppers, tomatoes, and

onions.) Cold Boiled Ham. Fried Potatoes. Apples and Onions stewed together. Gingersnaps. Pickles.

And last of all, a surprise of Bell's, flapjacks, long teased for by the boys, and prepared and fried by her own

She came in flushed with heat and pride, the prettiest cook anybody ever saw, with her hair bobbed up out of

the way and doing its best to escape, a highnecked white apron, sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and an

'There!' she cried, joyfully, as she deposited a heaping plate in front of her mother, and set the tin can of

maple syrup by its side. 'Begin on those, and I'll fry like lightning on two griddles to keep up with you,' and

she rushed to the brush kitchen to turn her next instalments that had been left to brown. Hop Yet had retired

to a distant spot by the brook, and was washing dishtowels. All Chinese cooks are alike in their horror of a

woman in the kitchen; but some of them will unbend so far as to allow her to amuse herself so long as they

Bell delicately inserted the caketurner under the curled edges of the flapjacks and turned them over deftly,

using a little too much force, perhaps, in the downward stroke when she flung them back on the griddle.

'Seems to me they come down with considerable of a thud,' she said, reflectively. 'I hope they're not tough,

for I should never hear the last of it. Guess I'll punch one with the handle of this tin shovel, and see how it

acts. Goodness! it's sort ofelastic. That's funny. Well, perhaps it's the way they ought to look.' Here she

transferred the smoking mysteries to her plate, passed a bit of pork over the griddles, and, after ladling out

'Are they good?' she was beginning to ask, when the words were frozen on her lips by the sight of a

The four boys were standing on the bench that served instead of diningchairs, each with a plate and a

pancake on the table in front of them. Jack held a hammer and spike, Scott Burton a hatchet, Geoffrey a saw,

and Philip a rifle. Bell was nothing if not intuitive. No elaborate explanations ever were needed to show her a

fact. Without a word she flung the plate of flapjacks she held as far into a thicket as she had force to fling it,

"'Shoot, if you must, this old grey head, But spare my flapjacks, sirs," she said!

'What's the matter with them? Tough? I refuse to believe it. Your tools are too dull,that's all. Use more

'Don't touch them, dearest!' cried Bell, snatching the plate from under Elsie's very nose. 'I won't have you

made ill by my failures. But as for the boys, I don't care a fig for them. Let them make flapjacks more to their

taste, the odious things! Polly Oliver, did you put in that baking powder, as I told you, while I went for the

'Oh, baking powder, to be sure. Well, now that you mention the matter, I do remember that Dicky called me

away just as I was getting it; and now that I think of it, Elsie came just afterwards, andand '

'And that's the whole of my story, O,' sang Jack. 'I recommend the criminal to the mercy of the court.'

'A case of too many cooks,' laughed Dr. Winship. 'Cheer up, girls; better fortune next time.'

'There are eight more of them burning on the griddles this moment, Polly,' said Bell, scathingly; 'and as they

are yours, not mine, I advise you to throw them in the brook, with the rest of the batter, so that Hop Yet won't

'Some people blight everything they touch,' sighed Polly, gloomily, as she departed for the kitchen.

'Oh, Polly, dear,' interrupted Margery, 'that apology will not serve any longer; you've used it too often.'

'But when I lie in the green kirkyard, With the mould upon my breasts Say not that she made flapjacks well,

CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. 64

Polly's birthday dawned auspiciously. At six o'clock she was kissed out of a sound sleep by Bell and

Margery, and the three girls slipped on their wrappers, and prepared to run through the trees for a morning

plunge in Mirror Pool. Although it was August there was still water enough in Minnehaha Brook to give one

a refreshing dip. Mirror Pool was a quarter of a mile distant and well guarded with rocks and deep hidden in

trees; but a little pathway had been made to the water's edge, and thus the girls had easy access to what they

called The Mermaid's Bath. A baytree was adorned with a little redwood sign, which bore a picture of a

Laura had not lived long enough in the woods to enjoy these cold plunges; and, as her ideal was a marble tub,

with scented water, and a French maid to apply the same with a velvet sponge, it is not much wonder. She

insisted that, though it was doubtless a very romantic proceeding, the bottom and sides of the natural tub were

quite too rocky and rough for her taste, and that she should be in constant terror of snakes curling round her

'I've a great mind to wake Laura, just for once,' said Bell, opening the tent door. 'There never was such a

morning! (I believe I've said that regularly every day; but I simply never can get used to it.) There must have

been a wonderful sunrise, dears, for the glow hasn't faded yet. Not a bit of morning fogthat's good for

Elsie. And what a lovely day for a birthday! Did they use to give you anything like this in Vermont, Polly?'

'Hardly,' said Polly, peering over Bell's shoulder. 'Let's see. What did they give us in Vermont this month?

Why, I can't think of anything but dogdays, hot nights, and hay fever; but that sounds ungrateful. Why,

Geoff's up already! There's Elsie's bunch of vines, and twigs, and pretty things hanging on her tentdoor. He's

been off on horseback. Just my luck to have him get up first. Jack always does, you know; and last night I

sewed up the tentopening with carpetthread, good and tight, overhandstitches I wouldn't be ashamed of

'Oh you naughty girl!' laughed Bell. 'The boys could rip it open with a knife in half the time it took you to

'Certainly. I didn't mean to keep them sewed up all day; but I thought I'd like Jack to remember me the first

'Girls,' whispered Margery, excitedly, 'don't stand there mooningor sunningfor ever! I thought there was

a gopher in this tent last night. I heard something scratching, and I thought it was the dog outside; but just

'Let's fill them up, cover them overanything!' gasped Bell. 'Laura will never sleep here another night if she

'Nobody insured Laura against gophers,' said Polly. 'She must take the fortunes of war.'

'I wouldn't wake her,' said Margery. 'She didn't sleep well, and her face is flushed. Come, or we shall be late

When they returned, fresh and rosy, from their bath, there was a stir of life in all the tents. Pancho had come

from the stagestation with mail; an odour of breakfast issued from the kitchen, where Hop Yet was

humming a fragment of Chinese song, that ran something like this,not loud, but unearthly enough, as Bell

CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. 65

[Music follows] Fong fong mongmong tiu he sun yiu sow chong how kiu me yun tantar che ku choi

Dicky was abroad, radiant in a new suit of clothes, and Elsie pushed her golden head out between the

curtains, and proclaimed herself strong enough for a wrestlingmatch with any boy or man about the camp.

But they found Laura sitting on the edge of her straw bed, directly over the concealed gopherholes, a mirror

'What's the matter?' cried the girls in one breath. But they needed no answer, as she turned her face towards

the light, for it was plainly a case of poisonoakone eye almost closed, and the cheek scarlet and swollen.

'Oh, I don't know. It's everywhere; so I don't see how I ever hoped to escape it. Yet I've worn gloves every

minute. I think I must have touched it when I went up the mountain trail with Jack. I'm a perfect fright

'Is it very painful?' asked Polly, sympathetically. 'Oh, you do look so funny, I can hardly help laughing, but

'I should expect you to laughyou generally do,' retorted Laura. 'No, it's not painful yet; but I don't care

about thatit's looking so ridiculous. I wonder if Dr. Winship could send me home. I wish now that I had

'Oh, it won't hurt you to go out,' said Bell, 'and you can lie in the sittingroom. Just wait, and let mamma try

and cure you. She's a famous doctor.' And Bell finished dressing hurriedly, and went to her mother's tent,

while Polly and Margery smoothed the bed with a furtive kick of straw over the offending gopherholes, and

Aunt Truth entered speedily, with a family medical guide under one arm, and a box of remedies under the

'The doctor has told me just what to do, and he will see you after breakfast himself. It doesn't look so very

bad a case, dear; don't run about in the sun for a day or two, and we'll bring you out all right. The doctor has

had us all under treatment at some time or other, because of that troublesome little plant.'

'Just as you like. But it is Polly's birthday, you know (many happy returns, my sweet Pollykins), and there are

'I can't help it, Mrs. Winship. The boys would make fun of my looks; and I shouldn't blame them.'

'I won't come, and that's the end of it,' said Laura. 'Perhaps if I bathe my face all the morning I can come to

After breakfast was cleared away, Hop Yet and Mrs. Howard's little China boy Gin were given a

halfholiday, and allowed to go to a neighbouring ranch to see a 'flend' of Hop Yet's; for it was a part of

CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. 66

Jack was so delighted at the failure of Polly's scheme to sew him in his tent, that he simply radiated

amiability, and spent the whole morning helping Elsie and Margery with a set of elaborate dinner cards,

The dinner itself was a grand success. Half of the cards bore a caricature of Polly in the shape of a parrot,

with the inscription 'Polly want a cracker?' The rest were adorned with pretty sketches of her in her

This was the bill of fare arranged by Bell and Geoffrey, and written on the reverse side of the dinnercards

BEAN SOUP. 'She gave them some broth, she gave them some bread.' SALT CODFISH. 'You shall have a

fishy In a little dishy.' ROAST MUTTON A LA VENISON. 'Dear sensibility, O la! I heard a little lamb cry

baa!' POTATOES IN JACKETS. 'The butcher, the baker, the candlestickmaker, All jumped out of a

roasted potato.' STEWED BEANS. 'You, nor I, nor nobody knows, Where oats, peas, beans, and barley

grows.' CHICKEN AND BEEF SANDWICHES. 'Hickety, pickety, my pretty hen Laid good eggs for

gentlemen.' Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief, Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef.'

LEMON PIE. 'A pie sat on a peartree.' PLUM TARTS. 'The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts, All on a

summer's day.' FRUIT, NUTS, AND RAISINS. 'You shall have an apple, You shall have a plum.' 'I had a

little nuttree, nothing would it bear But a silver nutmeg and a golden pear.' BREAD AND CHEESE. 'When

I was a bachelor I lived by myself, And all the bread and cheese I got I put upon the shelf.' COFFEE AND

LEMONADE. 'One, two, three, how good you be! I love coffee and Billy loves tea.' 'Oranges and lemons,

'What they ate I can't tell, But 'tis known very well That none of the party grew fat.'

Bell and Geoff took turns at 'dishing up' in the kitchen, and sat down at the table between whiles; and they

barely escaped being mobbed when they omitted one or two dishes on the programme, and confessed that

they had been put on principally for the 'style' of the thing,a very poor excuse to a company of people who

Jack was head waiter, and having donned a clean white blouse of Hop Yet's and his best cap with the red

button, from which dangled a hastily improvised queue of black worsted, he proceeded to convulse

everybody with his Mongolian antics. These consisted of most informal remarks in clever pigeon English,

and snatches of Chinese melody, rendered from time to time as he carried dishes into the kitchen. Elsie

laughed until she cried, and Laura sat in the shadiest corner, her head artistically swathed in white tarlatan.

Polly occupied the seat of honour at the end of the table opposite Dr. Winship, and was happier than a queen.

She wore her new green cambric, with a bunch of leaves at her belt. She was sunburned, but the freckles

seemed to have disappeared mysteriously from her nose, and almost any one would have admired the rosy

skin, the dancing eyes, and the graceful little auburn head, 'sunning over with curls.'

CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. 67

When the last bit of dessert had been disposed of, and Dicky had gone to sleep in his mother's lap, like an

infant boaconstrictor after a hearty meal, the presentation of gifts and reading of poems took place; and

Polly had to be on the alert to answer all the nonsensical jokes that were aimed at her.

Finally, Bell crowned the occasion by producing a song of Miss Mulock's, which had come in the morning

mail from some girl friend of Polly's in the East, who had discovered that Polly's name had appeared in

poetry and song without her knowledge, and who thought she might be interested to hear the composition.

With the aid of Bell's guitar and Jack's banjo the girls and boys soon caught the pretty air, and sung it in

1. Pretty Polly Oliver, will you be my own? Pretty Polly Oliver, as cold as a stone; But my love has

2. Pretty Polly Oliver, I love you so dear! Pretty Polly Oliver, my hope and my fear; I've waited

for you, sweetheart, this many a long year; For Pretty Polly Oliver, I've loved you so dear!

3. Pretty Polly Oliver, I'll bid you good bye: Pretty Polly Oliver, for you I'll not die; You'll never

At the end, Dr. Winship raised his glass of lemonade, and proposed to drink Miss Oliver's health. This was

'Speech!' sung Jack and Philip vociferously, pounding on the table with knifehandles to increase the furore.

'Speech!' demanded the genial doctor, going over to the majority, and smiling encouragingly at Polly, who

was pushed to her feet before she knew very well what she was doing. 'Oh, if Laura were not looking at me,'

she thought, 'I'd just like to speak right out, and tell them a little bit of what is in my heart. I don't careI

'I know you are all in fun,' she said, looking bravely into the good doctor's eyes, 'and of course no one could

make a proper speech with Jack grinning like a Cheshire cat, but I can't help telling you that this is the

happiest summer and the happiest birthday of my whole life, and that I scarcely remember nowadays that I

have no father and no brothers and sisters, for I have never been alone or unhappy since you took me in

among you and Bell chose me for her friend; and I think that if you knew how grateful I am for my beautiful

summer, dear Dr. Paul and Aunt Truth, you would be glad that you gave it to me, and I love you all, dearly,

dearly, dearly!' Whereupon the impulsive little creature finished her maiden speech by dashing round the

table and giving Mrs. Winship one of her 'bear hugs,' at which everybody laughed and rose from the table.

Laura Burton, who was thoroughly out of conceit with the world, and who was never quite happy when other

people seemed for the moment to be preferred to herself, thought this burst of affection decidedly theatrical,

but she did not know of any one to whom she could confine her opinions just then; indeed, she felt too

Dinner being over, Dr. Paul and the boys took the children and sauntered up the canyon for a lazy afternoon

with their books. Elsie went to sleep in the new hammock that the doctor had hung in the sycamores back of

the girls' sleepingtent, and Mrs. Winship lay down for her afternoon nap. Pancho saddled the horses for Bell

and Margery, who went for a gallop. Polly climbed into the skyparlour to write a long letter to her mother,

and Laura was left to solitude in the sleepingtent. Now everybody knows that a tent at midday is not a

particularly pleasant spot, and after many a groan at the glare of the sun, which could not be tempered by any

CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. 68

system of shawls, and moans at the gopherholes which she discovered while searching for her earring, and

repeated consultations with the handglass at brief intervals, during which she convinced herself that she

looked worse every minute,she finally discovered a series of alarming new spots on her neck and chin. She

felt then that camping out was a complete failure, and that she would be taken home forthwith if it could be

managed, since she saw nothing before her but day after day of close confinement and unattractive personal

appearance. 'It's just my luck!' she grumbled, as she twisted up her hair and made herself as presentable as

possible under the trying circumstances. 'I don't think I ever had a becoming or an interesting illness. The

'I feel much worse, Mrs. Winship,' she said, going into the sitting room tent and waking Aunt Truth from a

peaceful snooze. 'If you can spare Pancho over night, I really think I must trouble you to send Anne and me

home at once. I feel as if I wanted to go to bed in a dark room, and I shall only be a bother if I stay.'

'Why, my child, I'm sorry to have you go off with your visit unfinished. You know we don't mind any amount

'I hardly dare let you start in the hot sunwithout consulting the doctor, and everybody is away except Polly;

'It is nearly three o'clock now, so the worst of the sun is over, and we shall be at the ranch by eight this

evening. I feel too ill to say goodbye, any way, and we shall meet Bell and Margery somewhere on the road,

'Very well, my dear, if you've made up your mind I must yield,' replied Mrs. Winship, getting up and

smoothing her hair. 'I don't dare wake Elsie, she has had such an exciting day; but I'll call Polly to help you

pack, and then tell Pancho to find Anne and harness the team. While he is doing that, I'll get you a little lunch

to take with you and write a note to your mother. Perhaps you can come again before we break camp, but I'm

Polly came at once to the tent, where she found Laura getting her belongings together.

'Why, Laura, it seems too bad you should go off so suddenly. What can I do to help you?'

The very spirit of evil entered Laura's heart as she looked at Polly, so fresh and pretty and radiant, with her

dimples dancing in and out, her hair ruffled with the effort of literary composition, and the glow of the day's

happiness still shining in her eyes. She felt as if Polly was 'glad inside' that she was poisoned; she felt sure

she was internally jumping for joy at her departure; and, above all, she felt that Polly was entirely too

conceited over the attention she had received that day, and needed to be 'taken down a peg or two.'

'Redhaired, stuckup, saucy thing,' she thought, 'how I should like to give her a piece of my mind before I

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 69

'But it will only make your head ache to bend over and tug away at that valise, and I'll be only too glad to do

'I've no doubt of that,' responded Laura, meaningly. 'It is useless for you to make any show of regret over my

'Why, Laura, what do you mean?' exclaimed Polly, completely dazed at this bombshell of candour.

'I mean what I say; and I should have said it before if I could ever have found a chance. Because I didn't

mention it at the time, you needn't suppose I've forgotten your getting me into trouble with Mrs. Winship, the

'That was not my fault,' said Polly, hotly. 'I didn't speak any louder than the other girls, and I didn't know

Aunt Truth objected to Mrs. Pinkerton, and I didn't know she was anywhere near.'

'You roared like the bull of Bashanthat's what you did. Perhaps you can't help your voice, but anybody in

the canyon could have heard you; and Mrs. Winship hasn't been the same to me since, and the boys don't take

'You are entirely mistaken, Laura. Dr. and Mrs. Winship are just as lovely and cordial to you as they are to

everybody else, and the boys do not feel well enough acquainted with you to "frolic" with you as they do with

'It isn't so, but you are not sensitive enough to see it; and I should never have been poisoned if it hadn't been

'Oh, go on, do!' said Polly, beginning to lose her selfcontrol, which was never very great. 'I didn't know I

'I didn't say you poisoned me; but you made me so uncomfortable that day, bringing down Mrs. Winship's

lecture on my head and getting my best friend abused, that I was glad to get away from the camp, and went

out with Jack for that reason when I was too tired and warm; and you are always trying to cut me out with

'That's a perfectlyjet blackfib!' cried Polly, who was now thoroughly angry; 'and I don't think it is very

polite of you to attack the whole party, and say they haven't been nice to you, when they've done everything

'It isn't your party any more than mine, is it? And if I don't know how to be polite, I certainly shan't ask YOU

for instruction; for I must know as much about the manners of good society as you do, inasmuch as I have

Polly sank into a campchair, too stunned for a moment to reply, while Laura, who had gone quite beyond

the point where she knew or cared what she said, went on with a rush of words: 'I mean to tell you, now that I

am started, that anybody who isn't blind can see why you toady to the Winships, who have money and social

position, and why you are so anxious to keep everybody else from getting into their good graces; but they are

so partial to you that they have given you an entirely false idea of yourself; and you might as well know that

unless you keep yourself a little more in the background, and grow a little less bold and affected and

independent, other people will not be quite as ready as the Winships to make a pet of a girl whose mother

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 70

Poor Laura! It was no sooner said than she regretted ita little, not much. But poor Polly! Where was her

good angel then? Why could she not have treated this thrust with the silence and contempt it deserved? But

how could Laura have detected and probed the most sensitive spot in the girl's nature? She lost all command

of herself. Her rage absolutely frightened her, for it made her deaf and blind to all considerations of propriety

and selfrespect, and for a moment she was only conscious of the wild desire to strike yes, even to

'Don't dare to say another word!' she panted, with such flaming cheeks and such flashing eyes that Laura

involuntarily retreated towards the door, half afraid of the tempest her words had evoked. 'Don't dare to say

another word, or I don't know what I may do! Yes, I am glad you are going, and everybody will be glad, and

the sooner you go the better! You've made everybody miserable ever since you came, with your jealousy and

your gossip and your finelady airs; and if Aunt Truth hadn't loved your mother, and if we were mean

enough to tell tales, we would have repeated some of your disagreeable speeches long ago. How can you dare

to say I love the Winships for anything but themselves? And if you had ever seen my darling mother, you

Oh, but the dashing torrent of angry words stopped at the mere mention of her mother. The word recalled her

to herself, but too late. It woke in her memory the clasp of her mother's arms, the sound of the sweet, tired

voice: 'Only two of us against the big world, Pollyyou and I. Be brave, little daughter, brave and patient.'

Oh, how impatient and cowardly she had been! Would she never learn to be good? The better impulses

rushed back into her heart, and crowded out the bad ones so quickly that in another moment she would have

flung herself at Laura's feet, and implored her forgiveness merely to gain again her own selfrespect and her

mother's approval; but there was no time for repentance (there isn't sometimes), for the clatter of wheels

announced Pancho's approach with the team, and Mrs. Winship and Anne Burton came into view, walking

Laura was a good deal disconcerted at their illtimed appearance, but reflected rapidly that if Mrs. Winship

had overheard anything, it was probably Polly's last speech, in which case that young person would seem to

be more in fault than herself, so stepping out of the tent she met Mrs. Winship and kissed her goodbye.

Little Anne ran on and jumped into the wagon, with all a child's joy at the prospect of going anywhere.

Polly's back was turned, but she could not disappear entirely within the tent without causing Mrs. Winship

surprise; and she went through a lifetime of misery and self reproach in that minute of shame and fear, when

'I don't quite like to let you go alone, Laura, without consulting the doctor, and I can't find him,' said Mrs.

Winship. 'Why, you are nervous and trembling! Hadn't you better wait until tomorrow?'

'No, thank you, Mrs. Winship. I am all ready now, and would prefer to go. I think perhaps I have stayed quite

long enough, as Polly has just told me that everybody is glad to see the last of me, and that I've made you all

This was the climax to Polly's misery; for she was already so overcome by the thought of her rudeness that

she was on the point of begging Laura's pardon for that particular speech then and there, and she had only to

hear her exact words repeated to feel how they would sound in Mrs. Winship's ears.

Mrs. Winship was so entirely taken aback by Laura's remark, that she could only ejaculate,

'Oh, I am quite ready to think she said more than she intended, but those were her words.'

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 71

Polly turned. Alas! it was plain enough that this was no false accusation. Her downcast eyes, flushed,

tearstained cheeks, quivering lips, and the silent shame of her whole figure, spoke too clearly.

'Can it be possible, Polly, that you spoke in such a way to a guest who was about to leave my house?'

The word was wrung from Polly's trembling lips. What could she say but 'Yes,'it was true,and how

could she repeat the taunts that had provoked her to retort? They were not a sufficient excuse; and for that

matter, nothing could be a sufficient excuse for her language. Now that she was confronted with her own

fault, Laura's seemed so small beside it that she would have been ashamed to offer it as any justification.

Mrs. Winship grew pale, and for a moment was quite at a loss as to the treatment of such a situation.

'Don't say any more about it, Mrs. Winship,' said Laura; 'we were both angry, or we should never have

forgotten ourselves, and I shall think no more of it.' Laura spoke with such an air of modest virtue, and

seemed so ready to forgive and forget, that Polly in her silence and confusion appeared worse than ever.

'But I want you to remember that you are my guest, not Pauline's; that I asked you to come and ask you to

remain. I cannot allow you to go simply because you do not chance to be a favourite with another of my

'I am only going because I feel so ill,not a bit because of what Polly said; I was in the wrong, too, perhaps,

but I promise not to let anybody nor anything make me quarrel when I visit you again. Goodbye!' and Laura

'I trust you will not mention this to your mother, since I hope it is the only unpleasant incident of your visit;

and it is no fault of mine that you go away with an unhappy impression of our hospitality.' Here Mrs. Winship

reached up and kissed little Anne, and as the horses were restive, and no one seemed to have anything further

'I don't care to talk with you any more at present, Polly,' said Mrs. Winship. 'I am too hurt and too indignant

to speak of your conduct quietly. I know the struggles you have with your temper, and I am quite willing to

sympathise with you even when you do not come off victorious; but this is something quite different. I can't

conceive how any amount of provocation or dislike could have led you into such disloyalty to me'; and with

Polly staggered into a little playroom tent of Dicky's, where she knew that she could be alone, pinned the

curtains together so that no one could peep in, and threw herself down upon the long cushioned seat where

Dicky was wont to take his afternoon nap. There, in grief and despair, she sobbed the afternoon through,

'My beautiful birthday spoiled,' she moaned, 'and all my own fault! I was so happy this morning, but now was

ever anybody so miserable as I? And even if I tell Aunt Truth what Laura said, she will think it no excuse,

As it neared suppertime she made an opening in the back of the tent, and after long watching caught sight of

Gin on his way to the brook for water, signalled him, and gave him this despairing little note for Mrs.

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 72

Dear Aunt Truth,I don't ask you to forgive meI don't deserve to be forgivenbut I ask you to do me

just one more of your dear little kindnesses. Let me stay alone in Dicky's tent till morning, and please don't

let any one come near me. You can tell everybody the whole story tonight, if you think best, though I should

be glad if only Dr. Paul and Bell need know; but I do not mind anything after displeasing younothing can

be so bad as that. Perhaps you think I ought to come out and confess it to them myself, as a punishment; but

oh, Aunt Truth, I am punishing myself in here alone worse than any one else can do it. I will go back to Santa

Barbara any time that you can send me to the stage station, and I will never ask you to love me again until I

P.S.I remember that it is my birthday, and all that you have done for me, today and all the other days. It

looks as if I were ungrateful, but in spite of what I did I am not. The words just blazed out, and I never knew

that they were going to be said till I heard them falling from my mouth. It seems to me that if I ever atone for

this I will have a slate and pencil hanging to my belt, and only write what I have to say. POLLY.

The moisture came to Mrs. Winship's eyes as she read this tear stained little note. 'There's something here I

don't quite understand,' she thought; 'and yet Polly confessed that Laura told the truth. Poor child!but she

has got to learn patience and self control through suffering. However, I'll keep the matter a secret from

everybody at present, and stand between her and my inquisitive brood of youngsters,' and she slipped the note

At six o'clock the members of the family came into camp from various directions, and gathered about the

suppertable. All were surprised at Laura's sudden departure, but no one seemed especially grief stricken.

Dicky announced confidentially to Philip that Laura was a 'norful 'fraidcat of frogs,' and Jack ventured the

'But where is Polly?' asked Bell, looking round the table, as she pinned up her ridingskirt and sat down in

'She has a bad headache, and is lying down,' said Mrs. Winship, quietly; 'she'll be all right in the morning.'

'Headache!' ejaculated four or five people at once, dropping their napkins and looking at each other in

'Too much birthday?' asked Dr. Paul. 'Tell her we can spare almost anybody else better.'

'Bless the child, she wants me if she is sick. Go on with your suppers, I'll see to her,' and Bell rose from the

'No, my dear, I want you all to leave her alone at present,' said Mrs. Winship, decidedly. 'I've put her to bed in

Dicky's playtent, and I want her to be quiet. Gin has taken her some supper, and she needs rest.'

Polly Oliver in need of rest! What an incomprehensible statement! Nobody was satisfied, but there was

nothing more to be said, though Bell and Philip exchanged glances as much as to say, 'Something is wrong.'

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 73

Supper ended, and they gathered round the campfire, but nothing was quite as usual. It was all very well to

crack jokes, but where was a certain merry laugh that was wont to ring out, at the smallest provocation, in

such an infectious way that everybody else followed suit? And who was there, when Polly had the headache,

to make a saucy speech and look down into the fire innocently, while her dimples did everything that was

required in order to point the shaft? And pray what was the use of singing when there was no alto to Bell's

treble, or of giving conundrums, since it was always Polly who thought of nonsensical answers better than the

real ones? And as for Jack, why, it was folly to shoot arrows of wit into the air when there was no target. He

simply stretched himself out beside Elsie, who was particularly quiet and snoozed peacefully, without taking

any part in the conversation, avowing his intention to 'turn in' early. 'Turn in' early, forsooth! What was the

'It's no use,' said Bell, plaintively; 'we can't be anything but happy, now that we have Elsie here; but it needs

only one small headache to show that Polly fills a longfelt want in this camp. You think of her as a modest

'Yes,' said Margery, 'I think every one round this fire is simply angelic, unless I except Jack; but the fact is

'And the shark said, "If you Don't believe it is true, Just look at my wisdom tooth!"'

'And if any one ever tells me again that she has red hair and hasn't good features, I should just like to show

'As if anybody needed features with those dimples,' added Elsie, 'or would mind red hair when it was such

'I think a report of this conversation would go far towards curing Polly,' said Dr. Winship, with a smile.

'And you say we can't go in there before we go to bed, mamacita?' whispered Bell in her mother's ear, as the

'My dear,' she answered decidedly, with a fond kiss for each of the girls, 'Polly herself asked me to keep

Meanwhile Dicky, who had disappeared for a moment, came back to the fire, his bosom heaving with grief

'I went to my playtent,' he sobbed, 'and putted my hand underneath the curtain and gave Polly a piece of my

supper cake I saved for her not the frosted part, but the burnt part I couldn't eatand she liked it and

kissed my handand then I fought she was lonesome, and would like to see my littlest frog, and I told her to

put out her hand again for a s'prise, and I squeezed him into it tight, so 't he wouldn't jumpand she fought it

was more cake, and when she found it wasn't she frew my littlest frog clear away, and it got losted!'

This brought a howl of mirth from everybody, and Dicky was instructed, while being put to bed, not to

squeeze little frogs into people's hands in the dark, as it sometimes affected them unpleasantly.

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 74

All this time Polly was lying in the tent, quite exhausted with crying, and made more wretched by every

sound of voices wafted towards her. Presently Gin appeared with her nightwrapper and various things for

comfort sent her by the girls; and as she wearily undressed herself and prepared for the night, she found three

little messages of comfort pinned on the neck and sleeves of her flannel gown, written in such colossal letters

Darling Polly,Get well soon, or we shall all be sick in order to stay with you. Lovingly, MEG.

Dearest,You have always called me the Fairy Godmother, and pretended I could see things that other

The boys (great stupids!) think you have the headache. We girls can all see that you are in trouble, but only

the Fairy Godmother KNOWS WHY; and though she can't make a beautiful gold coach out of this pumpkin,

because there's something wrong about the pumpkin, yet she will do her best for Cinderella, and pull her out

Polly's tears fell fast on the dear little notes, which she kissed again and again, and tucked under her pillow to

bring her sleep. 'Elsie knows something,' she thought, 'but how? she knows that I'm in trouble and that I've

done wrong, or she wouldn't have said that about not being able to turn a bad pumpkin into a beautiful gold

coach; but perhaps she can get Aunt Truth to forgive me and try me again. Unless she can do it, it will never

come to pass, for I haven't the courage to ask her. I would rather run away early in the morning and go home

than have her look at me again as she did today. Oh! what shall I do?' and Polly went down on her knees

beside the rough couch, and sobbed her heart out in a childish prayer for help and comfort. It was just the

prayer of a little child telling a sorrowful story; because it is when we are alone and in trouble that the

unknown and mysterious God seems to us most like a Father, and we throw ourselves into the arms of His

'Dear Father in heaven,' she sobbed, 'don't forgive me if I ought not to be forgiven, but please make Aunt

Truth feel how sorry I am, and show me whether I ought to tell what made me so angry, though it's no

excuse. Bless and keep my darling patient little mother, and help me to grow more like her, and braver and

stronger too, so that I can take care of her soon, and she needn't work hard any longer. Please forgive me for

hating some things in my life as much as I do, and I will try and like them better; but I thinkyes, I

knowthat I am full of wicked pride; and oh, it seems as if I could never, never get over wanting to live in a

pretty house, and wear pretty dresses, and have my mother live like Bell's and Margery's. And oh, if Thou

canst only forgive me for hating boarders so dreadfully, and being ashamed of them every minute, I will try

and like them better and tell everybody that we take themI will indeed; and if I can only once make Aunt

Truth love and trust me again, I will make the boarders' beds and dust their rooms for ever without

grumbling. Please, dear Father in heaven, remember that I haven't any father to love me or to teach me to be

good; and though mamma does her best, please help her to make something out of me if it can be done.

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 75

'Truth,' said Mrs. Howard, when all was quiet about the camp, 'Elsie wants to see you a moment before she

goes to sleep. Will you go to her tent, while I play a game of cribbage with Dr. Paul?'

Elsie looked like a blossom in all the beautiful greenness of her tent, with her yellow head coming out from

above the greens and browns of the cretonne bedcover for all the world like a daffodil pushing its way up

'Aunt Truth,' she said softly, as Mrs. Winship sat down beside her, 'you remember that Dr. Paul hung my

hammock in a new place today, just behind the girls' sleepingtent. Now I know that Polly is in trouble, and

that you are displeased with her. What I want to ask, if I may, is, how much you know; for I overheard a great

'I overheard nothing,' replied Mrs. Winship. 'All that I know Polly herself confessed in Laura's presence.

Polly told Laura, just as she was going away, that everybody would be glad to see the last of her, and that she

had made everybody miserable from the beginning of her visit. It was quite inexcusable, you know, dear, for

one of my guests to waylay another, just as she was leaving, and make such a cruel speech. I would rather

anything else had happened. I know how impetuous Polly is, and I can forgive the child almost anything, her

heart is so full of love and generosity; but I cannot overlook such a breach of propriety as that. Of course I

have seen that Laura is not a favourite with any of you. I confess she is not a very lovable person, and I think

she has led a very unwholesome life lately and is sadly spoiled by it; still that is no excuse for Polly's

'No, of course it isn't,' sighed Elsie, with a little quiver of the lip. 'I thought I could plead a better case for

Polly, but I see exactly how thoughtless and impolite she was; yet, if you knew everything, auntie, dear, you

would feel a little different. Do you think it was nice of Laura to repeat what Polly said right before her, and

just as she was going away, when she knew it would make you uncomfortable and that you were not to blame

'No, hardly. It didn't show much tact; but girls of fifteen or sixteen are not always remarkable for social tact. I

'Well,' Elsie went on, 'I didn't hear the whole quarrel, so that I do not know how long it lasted nor who began

it. I can't help thinking it was Laura, though, for she's been trying her best to provoke Polly for the last

fortnight, and until today she has never really succeeded. I was half asleep, and heard at first only the faint

murmur of voices, but when I was fully awake, Laura was telling Polly that she doted on you simply because

you had money and position, while she had not; that you were all so partial to her that she had lost sight of

her own deficiencies. Then she called her bold and affected, and I don't know what else, and finally wound up

by saying that nobody but the Winships would be likely to make a pet of the daughter of a boardinghouse

'Elsie!' ejaculated Mrs. Winship; 'this grows worse and worse! Is it possible that Laura Burton could be guilty

'I can't be mistaken. I was too excited not to hear very clearly; and the moment the words were spoken I knew

my poor dear's fiery temper would never endure that. And it didn't; it blazed out in a second, but it didn't last

long, for before I could get to the tent she had stopped herself right in the middle of a sentence; and in another

minute I heard your voice, and crept back to the hammock, thinking that everything would be settled by

Laura's going away. I'd no idea that she would pounce on Polly and get her in disgrace, the very last thing,

when she knew that she was responsible for the whole matter. You see, auntie, that, impolite as Polly was,

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 76

she only told Laura that we girls were glad she was going. She didn't bring you in, after all; and Laura knew

perfectly well that she was a welcome visitor, and we all treated her with the greatest politeness, though it's

'I am very sorry for the whole affair,' sighed Mrs. Winship, 'there is so much wrong on both sides. Laura's

remark, it is true, would have angered almost anybody who was not old and wise enough to see that it

deserved only contempt; but both the girls should have had too much respect for themselves and for me to

descend to such an unladylike quarrel. However, I am only too glad to hear anything which makes Polly's

fault less, for I love her too dearly not to suffer when I have to be severe with her.'

'She wouldn't ask you to overlook her fault,' continued Elsie, with tears in her eyes. 'I know just how

wretched and penitent she must bePolly is always so fierce against her own faultsbut what must be

making her suffer most is the thought that she has entirely lost your confidence and good opinion. Oh, I can't

help thinking that God feels sorrier this very minute for Polly, who fights and fights against her temper, like a

dear sunbeam trying to shine again and again when a cloud keeps covering it up, than He does for Laura, who

has everything made smooth for her, and who is unhappy when her feathers are ruffled the least bit.'

'You are right, dear, in so far that a fiery little soul like Polly's can, if it finds the right channels, do God's

work in the world better than a character like Laura's, which is not courageous, nor strong, nor sweet enough

for great service, unless it grows into better things through bitter or rich experiences. Now, goodnight, my

blessed little peacemaker; sleep sweetly, for I am going into Polly's tent to have a good talk with her.'

As Mrs. Winship dropped the curtains of Elsie's tent behind her, and made her way quietly through the trees,

the tinkling sound of a banjo fell upon the still night air; and presently, as she neared Polly's retreat, this

'Prithee, Polly Oliver, why bide ye so still? Pretty Polly Oliver, we fear you are ill. I'm singing 'neath thy

window, when night dews are chill, For, pretty Polly Oliver, we hear you are ill.'

She was about to despatch Master Jack to his tent with a round scolding, when the last words of the song

were frozen on his lips by the sound of a smothered sob, in place of the saucy retort he hoped to provoke. The

unexpected sob frightened him more than any fusilade of hot words, and he stole away in the darkness more

Mrs. Winship, more troubled than ever, pulled apart the canvas curtains, and stood in the opening, silently.

The sight of the forlorn little figure, huddled together on the straw bed, touched her heart, and, when Polly

started up with an eloquent cry and flew into her extended arms, she granted willing forgiveness, and the

The next morning Mrs. Winship announced that Polly was better, sent breakfast to her tent, and by skilful

generalship drove everybody away from the camp but Elsie, who brought Polly to the sittingroom, made her

comfortable on the lounge, and, administering much good advice to Margery and Bell concerning topics to be

avoided, admitted them one by one into her presence, so that she gradually regained her selfcontrol. And at

the dinnertable a very pale Polly was present again, with such a white face and heavy eyes that no one could

doubt there had been a headache, while two people, at least, knew that there had been a heartache as well.

My dear Laura,As I told you when you were leaving, I cannot well say how sorry I am that anything

should have occurred to mar your pleasant remembrance of your stay with us. That your dear mother's

CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. 77

daughter should have been treated with discourtesy while she was my guest was very disagreeable to me; but

I have learned that you were yourself somewhat to blame in the affair, and therefore you should have borne

the harsh treatment you received with considerable patience, and perhaps have kept it quite to yourself. ('That

little cat told her, after all,' said Laura, when she read this. 'I didn't think she was that kind.') Polly would

never have confessed the cause of the quarrel, because she knew nothing could justify her language; but Elsie

was lying in the hammock behind the tent and overheard the remark which so roused Polly's anger. You were

not aware, of course, how sore a spot you touched upon, or you could never have spoken as you did, though I

well know that you were both too angry to reflect. Polly is a peculiarly proud and highspirited girlproud,

I confess, to a fault; but she comes, on her mother's side, from a long line of people who have had much to be

proud of in the way of unblemished honesty, nobility, fine attainments, and splendid achievements. Of her

father's honourable services to his country, and his sad and untimely death, you may have heard; but you may

not know that Mrs. Oliver's misfortunes have been very many and very bitter, and that the only possibility of

supporting and educating Polly lies at present in her taking boarders, for her health will not admit just now of

her living anywhere save in Southern California. I fail to see why this is not thoroughly praiseworthy and

respectable; but if you do not consider it quite an elegant occupation, I can only say that Mrs. Oliver presides

over the table at which her 'boarders' sit with a highbred dignity and grace of manner that the highest lady in

the land might imitate; and that, when health and circumstances permit her to diminish the distance between

herself and the great world, she and her daughter Polly, by reason of their birth and their culture, will find

doors swinging wide to admit them where you and I would find it difficult to enter. Polly apologises sincerely

for her rudeness, and will write you to that effect, as of course she does not know of this letter.

The August days had slipped away one after another, and September was at hand. There was no perceptible

change of weather to mark the advent of the new month. The hills were a little browner, the dust a little

deeper, the fleas a little nimbler, and the water in the brook a trifle lower, but otherwise Dame Nature did not

concern herself with the change of seasons, inasmuch as she had no old dresses to get rid of, and no new ones

to put on for a long time yet; indeed, she is never very fashionable in this locality, and wears very much the

Elsie seemed almost as strong as any of the other girls now, and could enter with zest into all their

amusements. The appetite of a young bear, the sound, dreamless sleep of a baby, and the constant breathing

in of the pure, lifegiving air had made her a new creature. Mrs. Howard and Jack felt, day by day, that a

burden of dread was being lifted from their hearts; and Mrs. Howard especially felt that she loved every rock

It was a charming morning, and Polly was seated at the diningroom table, deep in the preparation of a lesson

in reading and pronunciation for Hop Yet. Her forehead was creased with many wrinkles of thought, and she

bit the end of her leadpencil as if she were engaged in solving some difficult problem; but, if that were so,

why did the dimples chase each other in and out of her cheeks in such a suspicious fashion? She was a very

gentle, a very sedate Polly, these latter days, and not only astonished her friends, but surprised herself, by her

good behaviour, her elegant reserve of manner, her patience with Jack, and her abject devotion to Dicky.

'I'm afraid it won't last,' she sighed to herself occasionally. 'I'm almost too good. That's always the way with

meI must either be so bad that everybody is discouraged, or else so good that I frighten them. Now I catch

Bell and Elsie exchanging glances every day, as much as to say, "Poor Polly, she will never hold out at this

rate; do you notice that nothing ruffles herthat she is simply angelic?" As if I couldn't be angelic for a

Margery was in the habit of giving Hop Yet an English lesson every other day, as he had been very loath to

leave his evening school in Santa Barbara and bury himself in a canyon, away from all educational

influences; but she had deserted her post for once and gone to ride with Elsie, so that Polly had taken her

place and was evolving an exercise that Hop Yet would remember to the latest day of his life. It looked

1. The grass is dry. 2. The fruit is ripe. 3: The chaparral is green. 4. The new road is all right. 5. The

But as no Chinaman can pronounce the letter 'r,' it was laboriously rendered thus, when the unhappy time of

1. Theglassisdly. 2. Thefluitislipe. 3. Thechaplalisgleen. 4. Thenewloadisalllightee. 5.

Finally, when she attempted to introduce the sentence, 'Around the rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal

ran,' Hop Yet rose hurriedly, remarking, 'All lightee; I go no more school jus' now. I lun get lunchee.'

Bell came running down the path just then, and linking her arm in Polly's said, 'Papa has the nicest plan. You

know the boys are so disappointed that Colonel Jackson didn't ask them over to that rodeo at his cattle

ranchthough a summer rodeo is only to sort out fat cattle to sell, and it is not very exciting; but papa

promised to tell them all about the oldfashioned kind some night, and he has just remembered that

tomorrow is Admission Day, September 9, so he proposes a real celebration round the campfire to amuse

Elsie. She doesn't know anything about California even as it is now, and none of us know what it was in the

'That's just what I'm coming to. I have such a bright idea. He said that we might look in any of his books, but

Geoff and Jack are at them already, and I'd like a surprise. Now Juan Capistrano, an old vaquero of Colonel

Jackson's, is over here. He is a wonderful rider; papa says that he could ride on a comet, if he could get a

chance to mount. It was he who told the boys that the rodeo was over. Now I propose that we go and

interview Pancho and Juan, and get them to tell us some old California stories. They are both as stupid as

they can be, but they must have had some adventures, I suppose, somewhere, sometime. I'll translate and

And was Dr. Paul out here when California was admitted into the Union1850, wasn't it?'

'Of course; why, my child, he was one of the delegates called by General Riley, the military governor, to

meet in convention at Monterey and make a State constitution. That was September, toothe first day of

September 1849. He went back to the East some time afterwards, and stayed ten or fifteen years; but he was a

The next night, September 9th, was so cool that the campfire was more than ordinarily delightful;

accordingly they piled on more wood than usual, and prepared for a grand blaze. It was always built directly

in front of the sittingroom tent, so that Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Winship could sit there if they liked; but the

young people preferred to lie lazily on their cushions and saddles under the oak tree, a little distance from

the blaze. The clear, red firelight danced and flickered, and the sparks rose into the sombre darkness

fantastically, while the ruddy glow made the great oak an enchanted palace, into whose hollow dome they

never tired of gazing. When the light streamed highest, the bronze green of the foliage was turned into

crimson, and, as it died now and then, the stars winked brightly through the thousand tiny windows formed

'Well,' said the doctor, bringing his Chinese loungingchair into the circle, and lighting his pipe so as to be

thoroughly happy and comfortable, 'will you banish distinctions of age and allow me to sit among you this

'Certainly,' Margery said; 'that's the very point of the celebration. This is Admission Day, you know, and why

'True; and having put myself into a holiday humour by dining off Pancho's dish of guisado (I suppose

tonight of all nights we must call beef and onion stew by its local name), I will proceed to business, and we

will talk about California. By the way, I shall only conduct the exercises, for I feel rather embarrassed by the

fact that I've never killed, or been killed by, a bear, never been bitten by a tarantula, poisoned by a

rattlesnake, assaulted by a stage robber, nor anything of that sort. You have all read my story of crossing the

plains. I even did that in a comparatively easy and unheroic fashion. I only wish, my dear girls and boys, that

we had with us some one of the brave and energetic men and women who made that terrible journey at the

risk of their lives. The history of the California Crusaders, the thirty thousand or more emigrants who crossed

the plains in '48, more than equals the great military expeditions of the Middle Ages, in magnitude, peril, and

adventure. Some went by way of Santa Fe and along the hills of the Gila; others, starting from Red River,

traversed the Great Stake Desert and went from El Paso del Norte to Sonora; others went through Mexico,

and, after spending over a hundred days at sea, ran into San Diego and gave up their vessels; others landed

exhausted with their seven months' passage round the Horn; and some reached the spot on foot after walking

'What privations they must have suffered!' said Mrs. Howard. 'I never quite realised it.'

'Why, the amount of suffering that was endured in those mountain passes and deserts can never be told in

words. Those who went by the Great Desert west of the Colorado found a stretch of burning salt plains, of

shifting hills of sand, with bones of animals and men scattered along the trails; of terrible and ghastly odours

rising in the hot air from the bodies of hundreds of mules, and human creatures too, that lay halfburied in

the glaring white sand. A terrible journey indeed; but if any State in the Union could be fair enough, fertile

enough, and rich enough to repay such a lavish expenditure of energy and suffering, California certainly was

and is the one. Now who can tell us something of the name "California"? You, Geoffrey?'

'Geoffrey has crammed!' exclaimed Bell, maliciously. 'I believe he's been reading up all day and told papa

'In 1534, one Hernando de Grijalva was sent by Hernando Cortez to discover something or other, and it was

probably he who then saw the peninsula of California; but a quarter of a century before this a romance called

Esplandian had appeared in Spain, narrating the adventures of an Amazonian queen who brought allies from

"the right hand of the Indies" to assist the infidels in their attack upon Constantinopleby the way I forgot to

say that she was a pagan. This queen of the Amazons was called Calafia, and her kingdom, rich in gold and

precious stones, was named California. The writer of the romance derived this name, perhaps, from Calif, a

successor of Mohammed. He says: "Know that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island named

California, very close to the Terrestial Paradise, and it was peopled by black women without any man among

them, for they lived in the fashion of the Amazonia. They were of strong and hardy bodies, of ardent courage,

and of great force. Their island was the strongest in all the world, with its steep cliffs and rocky shore. Their

arms were all of gold, and so was the harness of the wild beasts which they tamed and rode. For in the whole

island there was no metal but gold. They lived in caves wrought out of the rocks with much labour, and they

had many ships with which they sailed out to other countries to obtain booty." Cortez and Grijalva believed

that they were near the coast of Asia, for they had no conception of the size of the world nor of the vastness

of the Pacific Ocean; and as the newlydiscovered land corresponded with the country described in the

'My book,' said Philip, 'declared that the derivation of the name was very uncertain, and that it was first

'Now, Philip!' exclaimed Margery, 'do you suppose we are going to believe that, after Geoff's lovely story?'

'Certainly not; I only thought I'd permit you to hear both sides. I knew of course that you would believe the

'That isn't a "pretty story"your remark, I mean, so we won't believe it; will we, girls?' asked Bell.

'Now, Polly, your eyes sparkle as if you couldn't wait another minute; your turn next,' said Dr. Winship.

'I am only afraid that I can't remember my contribution, which is really Bell's and still more really Pancho's,

for he told it to us, and Bell translated it and made it into a story. We call it "Valerio; or, The Mysterious

'Now, Jack, you must be nice. Remember this is Bell's story, and she is letting me tell it so that I can bear my

'Pancho believes every word of it,' added Bell, 'and says that his father told it to him; but as I had to change it

from bad Spanish into good English, I don't know whether I've caught the idea exactly.'

'Oh, it will do quite nicely, I've no doubt,' said Jack, encouragingly. 'We've often heard you do good English

into bad Spanish, and turn and turn about is only fair play. Don't mind me, Polly; I will be gentle!'

'Jack, if you don't behave yourself I'll send you to bed,' said Elsie; and he ducked his head obediently into her

lap, as Polly, with her hands clasping her knees, and with the firelight dancing over her bright face, leaned

'A long time ago, before the settlement of Santa Barbara by the whites, the Mission padres had a great many

Indians under their control, who were known as peons, or serfs. They were given enough to eat, were not

molested by the outside Indians, and were entirely peaceable. There were so few mountain passes by which to

enter Santa Barbara that they were easily held, and of course the padres were anxious to keep their Indians

from running away, lest they should show the wilder tribes the way to get in and commit depredations. These

peaceable Indians paid tribute to intermediary tribes to hold the passes and do their fighting. Those about the

Mission gave corn and cereals and hides and the products of the sea, and got in exchange pinones (pine nuts).

One of these Indians, named Valerio, was a strong, brave, handsome youth, whose haughty spirit revolted at

his servitude, and, after seeking an opportunity for many weeks he finally escaped to the Santa Ynez

mountains, where he found a cave in which he hid himself, drawing himself up by a rope and taking it in after

him. The Indians had unlimited belief in Valerio's mysterious and wonderful powers. Pancho says that he

could make himself invisible at will, that locks and keys were powerless against him; and that no one could

hinder his taking money, horses, or food. All sorts of things disappeared mysteriously by day and by night,

and the robberies were one and all laid to the door of Valerio. But after a while Valerio grew lonely in his

mountain retreat. He longed for human companionship, and at length, becoming desperate, he descended on

the Mission settlement and kidnapped a young Indian boy named Chito, took him to his cave, and admitted

him into his wild and lawless life. But Chito was not contented. He liked home and comfortable slavery better

than the new, strange life; so he seized the first opportunity, and being a bright, daring little lad, and fleet of

foot, he escaped and made his way to the Mission. Arriving there he told wonderful stories of Valerio and his

life; how his marvellous white mare seemed to fly, rather than gallop, and leaped from rock to rock like a

chamois; and how they lived upon wheat bread, cheeses, wine, and other delicacies instead of the coarse

fare of the Indians. He told them the location of the cave and described the way thither; so the Alcalde (he

was the mayor or judge, you know, Elsie), got out the troops with their muskets, and the padres gathered the

Mission Indians with their bows and arrows, and they all started in pursuit of the outlaw. Among the troops

were two hechiceros (wizards or medicinemen), whose bowed shoulders and grizzled beards showed them

to be men of many years and much wisdom. When asked to give their advice, they declared that Valerio

could not be killed by any ordinary weapons, but that special means must be used to be of any avail against

his supernatural powers. Accordingly, one of the hechiceros broke off the head of his arrow, cast a charm

over it, and predicted that this would deal the fatal blow. The party started out with Chito as a guide, and,

after many miles of wearisome travel up rugged mountain sides and over steep and almost impassable

mountain trails, they paused at the base of a cliff, and saw, far up the height, the mouth of Valerio's cave, and,

what was more, Valerio himself sitting in the doorway fast asleep. Alas! he had been drinking too heavily of

his stolen wine, or he would never have so exposed himself to the enemy. They fired a volley at him. One

shot only took effect, and even this would not have been possible save that the spell was not upon him

because of his sleep; but the one shot woke him and, half rising, he staggered and fell from the mouth of the

cave to a ledge of rocks beneath. He sprang to his feet in a second and ran like a deer towards a tree where his

white mare was fastened. They fired another volley, but, though the shots flew in every direction, Valerio

passed on unharmed; but just as he was disappearing from view the hechicero raised his bow and the headless

arrow whizzed through space and pierced him through the heart. They clambered up the cliffs with shouts of

triumph and surrounded him on every side, but poor Valerio had surrendered to a more powerful enemy than

they! Wonderful to relate, he still breathed, though the wound should have been instantly fatal. They lifted

him from the ground and tied him on his snowwhite mare, his long hair reaching almost to the ground, his

handsome face as pale as death, the blood trickling from his wound; but the mysterious power that he

possessed seemed to keep him alive in spite of his suffering. Finally one of the hechiceros decided that the

spell lay in the buckskin cord that he wore about his throata rough sort of necklace hung with bears' claws

and snake rattlesand that he never would die until the magic cord was cut. This, after some consultation,

was done. Valerio drew his last breath as it parted asunder, and they bore his dead body home in triumph to

'But he is not forgotten. Stories are still told of his wonderful deeds, and people still go in search of money

that he is supposed to have hidden in his cave. The Mexican women who tell suertes, or fortunes, describe the

location of the money; but, as soon as any one reaches the cave, he is warned away by a little old man who

stands in the door and protects the buried treasure. An Indian lad, who was riding over the hills one day with

his horse and his dogs, dismounted to search for his moccasin, when he suddenly noticed that the dogs had

chased something into a cave in the rocks. He followed, and, peering into the darkness, saw two gleaming

eyes. He thrust his knife between them, but struck the air; and, though he had been standing directly in front

of the opening, so that nothing could have passed him, yet he heard the clatter of hoofs and the tinkle of

spurs, and, turning, saw a mysterious horseman, whose pale face and streaming hair melted into the mountain

mist, as it floated down from the purple Santa Ynez peaks into the lap of the vinecovered foot hills below.'

'Brava!' 'Bravissima!' 'Splendid, Polly!' exclaimed the boys. 'Bell, you're a great author!'

'Couldn't have done better myselfgive you my word!' cried Jack, bowing profoundly to Bell and Polly in

turn, and presenting them with bouquets of faded leaves hastily gathered from the ground.

'Polly covered herself with glory,' said the doctor; 'and I am very proud of your part in it, too, my little

daughter. I have some knowledge of Pancho's capabilities as a narrator, and I think the "Story of Valerio"

'No, please,' said Margery, 'for I have another story. Take one of the boys, and let's have more facts.'

'Yes, something historic and profound, out of the encyclopaedia, from Jack,' said Polly, saucily.

'Mother, dear, remove that child from my sight, or I shall certainly shake her! Phil, go on, just to keep Polly

'I think that's a quibble,' interrupted Bell. 'Papa was here twenty years before you were.'

'It's not my fault that he came first,' answered Philip. 'Margery and I are not only the oldest Californians

'Oh, if you mean that way, I suppose you are; but still papa helped frame the Constitution, and was here on

the first Admission Day, and was one of the Vigilantesand I think that makes him more of a real

'Bless my soul! What else could I do? I would have been glad to frame the Constitution, admit the State, and

serve on the Vigilance Committee, if they had only waited for me; but they went straight ahead with the

business, and when I was born there was nothing to do but stand round and criticise what they had done, or,

as you express it, "grow up with the country." Well, as I was saying when I was interrupted'

'Don't mention it. Uncle Doc has asked me to tell Mrs. Howard and Elsie how they carried on the rodeos ten

or fifteen years ago. Of course I was only a little chap'('VERY little,' murmured his sister)'but never too

small to stick on a horse, and my father used often to take me along. The rodeos nowadays are neither as

great occasions, nor as exciting ones, as they used to be; but this is the way a rodeo is managed. When the

spring rains are mostly over, and the grass is fine,say in Aprilthe ranchero of a certain ranch sends word

to all his neighbours that he will hold a rodeo on a certain day or days. Of course the cattle used to stray all

over the country, and get badly mixed, as there were no fences; so the rodeo was held for the purpose of

'The owners of the various ranches assemble the night before, bringing their vaqueros with them. They start

out very early in the morning, having had a cup of coffee, and ride to the "rodeoground," which is any flat,

convenient place where canyons converge. Many of the cattle on the hills round about know the place, having

been there before, and the vaqueros start after them and drive them to the spot.'

'Oh, nine or ten, perhaps; and often from one thousand to three thousand cattleit depends on the number of

ranches and cattle represented. Some of the vaqueros form a circle round the cattle that they have driven to

the rodeoground, and hold them there while others go back to the ranch for breakfast and fresh horses.'

'Fresh horses so soon?' said Mrs. Howard. 'I thought the mustangs were tough, hardy little beasts, that would

'Yes, so they are; but you always have to begin to "part out" the cattle with the freshest and besttrained

horses you have. The owners and their best vaqueros now go into the immense band of cattle, and try to get

the cows and the unbranded calves separated from the rest. You can imagine what skilful engineering this

takes, even though you never saw it. Two work together; they start a certain cow and calf and work them

through the band of cattle until they near the outside, and then "rush" them to a place three or four hundred

yards beyond, where other vaqueros are stationed to receive and hold them. Of course the cattle don't want to

leave the band, and of course they don't want to stay in the spot to which they are driven.'

'I don't blame them!' cried Bell impetuously. 'Probably the cows remember the time when they were branded

themselves, and they don't want their dear little bossies put through the same operation.'

'Very likely. Then more cows and calves are started in the same way; the greatest difficulty being had with

the first lot, for the cattle always stay more contentedly together as the group grows larger. Occasionally one

"breaks" and runs off on the hills, and a vaquero starts after him, throws the reata and lassos him, or "lass's"

'Yes; but not so many as you would suppose, for the horsemanship, in its particular way, is something

wonderful. When an ugly steer is lassoed and he feels the reata or lariat round his neck, he sometimes turns

and "makes" for the horse, and unless the vaquero is particularly skilful he will be gored and his horse too;

but he gives a dexterous turn to the lariat, the animal steps over it, gets tangled and thrown. Frequently an

animal breaks a horn or a leg. Sometimes one fall is not enough; the steer jumps up and pursues the horse.

Then the vaquero keeps a little ahead of him and leads him back to the rodeoground, where another vaquero

lassos him by the hind legs and throws him, while the reata is taken off his neck.'

'There is another danger, too,' added Dr. Winship. 'The vaquero winds the reata very tightly round the

pommel of his saddle to hold the steer, and he is likely to have his finger caught in the hair rope and cut off.'

'Yes, I forgot that. Two or three of the famous old vaqueros about Santa BarbaraJose Maria, Jose Antonio,

and old Clementehave each lost a finger. Well, the vaqueros at length form in a circle round the band of

selected cattle. The ranch owner who gives the rodeo takes his own cattle that he has foundthe ones

bearing his brand, you knowand drives them in with the ones to be branded, leaving in the rodeoground

the cattle bearing the brands of all the other rancheros. There has been much drinking of aguardiente (brandy)

and everybody by this time is pretty reckless. Then they drive this selected band to the home corral, the

vaqueros yelling, the cattle "calling," and the reatas whizzing and whistling through the air. If any unfortunate

tries to escape his fate he is pursued, "lass'd," and brought back. By this time the cattle are pretty well heated

and angry, and when they get into the crowded corral they horn each other and try to gore the horses. A fire is

'Oh! hold my hand, Polly, if the branding is going to begin, I hate it so,' exclaimed Elsie.

'I won't say much about it, but it's no worse than a thousand things that people have to bear every year of their

lives. Animals never have to have teeth filled, for instance, nor limbs amputated'

'Oh, just think of a calf with a wooden leg, or a cow with false teeth! Wouldn't it be funny?' laughed Bell.

'They don't have a thousand ills that human flesh is heir to, so they must be thankful they get off so easy.

Well! the brandingirons are heated, as I sayeach cattleowner having his special brand, which is properly

recorded, and which may be any device not previously used. Two men now catch the calves; one lassoing

them by the head, the other by the legs. A third man takes the iron from the fire and brands the chosen letter

'Sometimes on the fore quarter, don't they?' asked Bell. 'I've seen brands there,your horse has two, and our

'Yes, a brand on the fore quarter shows that the animal has been sold, but it always has the original brand on

the hind quarter. When a sale is effected, the new brand is put anywhere in front of the fifth rib, and this

constitutes what they call a venta, or sale. If you notice some of the little "plugs" ridden by Santa Barbara

boys, you'll see that they bear half a dozen brands. By the way, if the rodeo has been a very large one, they

are several days branding the cattle, so they are turned out to pastorear a little while each day.'

'The brand was absolute sign of ownership, you know, girls,' said Dr. Winship; 'and though there was the

greatest care exercised in choosing and recording the brands, there was plenty of opportunity for cheating.

For instance, a man would often see unbranded cattle when riding about, and there was nothing to prevent his

dismounting, building a fire, heating his iron, and putting his own brand on them. Then, at the next rodeo,

they were simply turned over to him, for, as I say, the brand was absolute ownership.'

'Whene'er I take my rides abroad, How many calves I see; And, as I brand them properly, They all belong to

'How I should like to see a rodeo!' sighed Elsie. 'I can't imagine how the vaqueros can fling the reata while

'It isn't so very wonderful,' said Polly, nonchalantly 'the most ordinary people can learn it; why! your brother

'And I can "lass" any stationary object myself,' cried Bell; 'a hitchingpost, or even a doorknob; I can do it

'That shows immense skill,' answered Jack, 'but, as the thing you want to "lass" never does stay still, and as it

is absolutely necessary to catch it more than three times out of ten, you probably wouldn't make a name and

fortune as a vaquero. Juan Capistrano, by the way, used to be famous with the lariat. I had heard of his

adventure with a bull on the island of Santa Rosa, and I asked him about it today; but he had so exhausted

himself telling stories to Bell that he had very few words for me. You see there was a bull, on Santa Rosa

island, so wild that they wanted to kill him; but nobody could do it, though he was a terror to any one who

ventured on the island. They called him "Antiguelo," because of his long horns and long tail. He was such a

terrible fighter that all the vaqueros were afraid to lass' him, for he always broke away with the lariat. You see

a horse throws a bull by skill and not by strength, of course. You can choke almost any bull; but this one was

too smart! he would crouch on his haunches and pull back until the rope nearly choked him and then

suddenly "make" for the horse. Juan Capistrano had a splendid horseyou see as much depends on the horse

as the man in such a caseand he came upon Antiguelo on the Cerro Negro and lass'd him. Well, did he

fight? I asked. "Si, Senor." Well, what happened? "Yo lo mate" (I killed him), he said, with a shrug of his

'But you haven't done your share, you lazy boy,' objected Bell. 'You must tell us more.'

'What do you want to hear? I am up on all the animal and vegetable life of Southern California, full of

interesting information concerning its old customs, can give you Spanish names for all the things that come

up in ordinary conversation, and am the only man present who can make a rawhide reata,' said Jack,

'I'll tell you that myself,' said Elsie, 'for I've seen him do it dozens of times, when he should have been

studying his little lessons. He takes a big piece of raw hide, cuts a circle right out of the middle, and then cuts

round and round this until he has one long continuous string, half an inch wide. He then stretches it and

scrapes the hair off with a knife or a piece of glass, gets it into four strands, and braids it "round."'

'Perhaps you think braiding "round" is easy to do,' retorted Jack, in an injured tone; 'but I know it took me six

'I fail to see,' said his mother, 'how a knowledge of "braiding round" and lassoing of wild cattle is going to

'Oh yes, it will. I shall be the Buffalo Bill of Harvard, and I shall give charming little entertainments in my

'Oh yes, unless they go too fast. My sports won't take any more time than rowing or baseball. They'll be a

little more expensive, because I'll have to keep some wild cattle constantly on hand, and perhaps a vaquero or

'But I shall be selfsupporting, mother dear. I shall give exhibitions on the campus, and the gatemoney will

'This is all very interesting,' said Polly, cuttingly; 'but what has it to do with California, I'd like to know?'

'Poor dear! Your brain is so weak. Can't you see that when I am the fashion in Cambridge, it will be noised

about that I gained my marvellous skill in California? This will increase emigration. I don't pretend to say it

will swell the population like the discovery of gold in '48, but it will have a perceptible effect.'

'You are more modest than a whole mossy bank of violets,' laughed Dr. Paul. 'Now, Margery, will you give

'Mine is the story of Juan de Dios (literally, Juan of God), and I'm sorry to say that it has a horse in it, like

Polly's; only hers was a snowwhite mare, and mine is a coalblack charger. But they wouldn't tell us any

'In early days, when Americans were coming in to Santa Barbara, there were many cattlebuyers among

them; and there were large bands of robbers all over the country who were ready to pounce on these travellers

on their way to the great cattle ranchos, kill them, and steal their money and clothes, as well as their horses

and trappings. No one could understand how the robbers got such accurate information of the movements of

the travellers, unless they had a spy somewhere near the Mission, where they often stopped for rest and

'Now, there was a certain young Indian vaquero in the employ of the padres at La Mission de la Purisima. He

was a wonderful horseman, and greatly looked up to by his brother vaqueros, because he was so strong, alert,

and handsome, and because he was always dressed elegantly in rich old Spanish embroideries and velvets,

'One day a certain traveller, a Spanish official of high degree, came from Monterey to wed his sweetheart, the

daughter of the richest cattleowner in all the country round. His spurs and bit and bridle were of solid silver;

his jaquima (halter) was made of a hair rope whose strands had been dyed in brilliant colours; his tapaderos

(front of the stirrups), mochilas (large leather saddle flaps), and sudaderos (thin bits of leather to protect the

legs from sweat), were all beautifully stamped in the fashion used by the Mexicans; his saddle blankets and

his housings were all superb, and he wore a broad sombrero encircled with a silver snake and trimmed with

'The traveller stayed at La Purisima all night, and set out early in the morning to ride the last forty miles that

separated him from his bride. But Juan and two other robbers were lying in wait for him behind a great rock

that stood at the entrance of a lonely canyon. They appeared on horseback, one behind the unfortunate man

and two in front, so that he could escape neither way. They finally succeeded in lassoing the horse and

throwing him to the ground with his rider, who defended himself bravely with his knife, but was finally killed

and robbed, Juan taking his clothes and trappings, and the other two dividing the contents of his purse. They

could not have buried their victim as successfully as usual, or else they were surprised, and had to escape, for

the body was found; and Juan, whom the padres had begun to view with suspicion, was nowhere to be found

about the Mission. Troops were sent out in pursuit of him, for this particular traveller was a high official, and

it was necessary that his death should be avenged. They at last heard that Juan had been seen going towards

Santa Ynez Mission, and, pursuing him thither, they came upon him as he was driving a band of horses into a

corral, and just in the act of catching his own horse, a noble and powerful animal, called Azabache, because

of his jetblack colour. The men surrounded the corral, and ordered him to surrender. He begged them to

wait until he had saddled Azabache, and then they might shoot them both down together. He asked

permission to call three times (pegar tres gritos), and after the third call they were to shoot. His last wish was

granted. He saddled and mounted his splendid horse, called once twicethrice,but when the last shout

faded in the air, and the troops raised their muskets to fire, behold, there was no Juan de Dios to be seen.

They had been surrounding the corral so that no one could have ridden out; they looked among the horses,

'Just then a joyous shout was heard, so ringing and triumphant that every man turned in the direction from

which it came. There, galloping up the hillside, nearly half a mile distant, was Juan de Dios, mounted on his

coalblack Azabache! But it was no common sunshine that deepened the gorgeous colours of his trappings

and danced upon his silver spurs till they glistened like two great stars! It was a broad, glittering stream of

light such as no mortal had ever seen before and which almost blinded the eyes; and over this radiant path of

golden sunbeams galloped Juan de Dios, until he disappeared over the crest of the mountain. Then the light

faded; the padres crossed themselves in silence and went home to their Mission! and Juan de Dios never was

Modest little Margery was hailed with such cheers that you could not have seen her cheeks for the blushes;

and, just as the party began to think of forsaking the fascinating campfire for bed, Bell jumped up

impetuously and cried, 'Here, Philip, give me the castanets, please. Polly and Jack, you play "Las Palomas"

for me, and I'll sing and show you the dance of that pretty Mexican girl whom I saw at the ball given under

the Big Grape Vine. Wait till I take off my hair ribbon. Lend me your scarf, mamma. Now begin!'

LAS PALOMAS. {2} (THE DOVES.) Cuatro palomitas blancas que vie nen de por alla. Unas a

It is barely possible, but not likely, that anything prettier than Bell's Mexican danza was to be seen under the

light of the September stars that night; although they were doubtless shining down upon a thousand lovely

things. With all the brightness of her loosened hair rising and falling with the motion of her swaying

figurewith her twinkling feet, her crimson cheeks and parted lips, she looked the very spirit of the dance,

and her enrapturedaudience only allowed her to stop when she was absolutely breathless.

'Oh what a beautiful evening!' exclaimed Elsie, when the celebration was finally over. 'Was there ever such a

dear, dear canyon with such dear people in it! If it only wouldn't rain and we could live here for ever!'

But it did rain; and it didn't wait until they were out of the canyon either. It began long before the proper time,

and it by no means confined itself to a shower, but opened the winter season fully a month before there was

any need of it, and behaved altogether in a most heartless and inconsiderate manner, like a very spoilsport of

It began after dark, so as to be just as disagreeable as possible, and under the too slight cover of their tents the

campers could hear the rush and the roar of it like the tramping of myriad feet on the leaves. Pancho and the

two Chinamen huddled under the broad sycamores in their rubber blankets, and were dry and comfortable;

But when it was dawn, the Sun, having heard nothing apparently of any projected change in the weather, rose

at the usual time in the most resplendent fashionbrighter, rosier, and more gloriously, if you will believe

me, than he had risen that whole long sunshiny summer! And he really must have felt paid for getting up at

such an unearthly hour in the morning, when, after he had clambered over the grey mountain peaks, he

looked down upon Las Flores Canyon, bathed in the light of his own golden beams.

If he knew anything about Ancient History and Biblical Geographyand if he didn't I don't know who

should, inasmuch as he had been present from the beginning of timehe must have thought it as fair as the

Garden of Eden; for Nature's face simply shone with cleanliness, like that of a smiling child just fresh from

its bath, and every leaf of every tree glistened as he beamed upon it, and shook off its crystal drops that he

'It was only a shower,' said Dr. Winship, as he seated himself on a damp board and partook of a moist

breakfast, 'and with this sun the tents will be dry before night; Elsie has caught no cold, the dust will be laid,

Everybody was hilarious over this decision save the menofallwork, who longed unspeakably for a less

poetic existenceHop Yet particularly, who thought camping out 'not muchee good.'

Dicky was more pleased than anybody, perhaps, as every day in the canyon was one day less in school; not

that he had ever been to school, but he knew in advance, instinctively, that it wouldn't suit him. Accordingly,

he sought the wettest possible places and played all day with superhuman energy. He finally found Hop Yet's

box of blueing under a tree, in a very moist and attractive state of fluidity, and just before dinner improved

the last shining hour by painting himself a brilliant hue and appearing at dinner in such a fiendish guise that

Now Dr. Winship was one of the most weatherwise men in California, and his predictions were always

quite safe and sensible; but somehow or other it did rain again in two or three days, and it poured harder than

ever, too. To be sure, it cleared promptly, but the doctor was afraid to trust so fickle a person as the Clerk of

The boys tramped over all their favourite bits of country, and the girls visited all their best beloved haunts,

every one of them dear from a thousand charming associations. They looked for the last time in Mirror Pool,

and saw the reflection of their facesrather grave faces just then, over the leavetaking.

The watermirror might have been glad to keep the picture for ever on its surfaceMargery with her sleek

braids and serene forehead; with Polly, saucy nose and mischievous eyes, laughing at you like a merry

watersprite; Bell, with her brilliant cheeks glowing like two roses just fallen in the brook; and Gold Elsie,

who, if you had put a frame of green leaves about her delicate face and yellow locks, would have looked up at

They wafted a farewell to Pico Negro, and having got rid of the boys, privately embraced a certain

Whispering Tree under whose singing branches they had been wont to lie and listen to all the murmuring that

Then they clambered into the great thoroughbrace wagon, where they all sat in gloomy silence for ten

minutes, while Dicky's tan terrier was found for the fourth time that morning; and the long train, with its

baggagecarts, its saddlehorses and its dogged little pack mules, moved down the rocky steeps that led to

civilisation. The gate that shut them in from the county road and the outer world was opened for the last time,

10. CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE. , page = 67

11. CHAPTER VIII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: SECOND HALF IN WHICH SHE WISHES SEE HAD NEVER BEEN BORN. , page = 72