he reminiscent stories of Consuello's father, the first of
the fine old Spanish aristocrats of Southern California John had ever
met. Don Ygnacio Carrillo wore a dark blue broadcloth suit with black
velvet lapels and cuffs, a spotless, stiffly starched, pleated linen
shirt and a loose black silk bow tie. His fluffy white hair contrasted
beautifully, John thought, with his skin, tinted a pale amber.

The gracious hospitality of his hosts, so typical of the pioneers of the
early southland, had put John completely at his ease. They had eaten
from a solid mahogany table which, he was told, had been brought "around
the Horn" in a sailing vessel.

Consuello curled herself at her father's feet. Her mother, whose
grandfather made the arduous trip across the isthmus which Consuello had
described, was the descendant of a New England family who had adopted
the picturesque customs of the Spanish family into which she had
married. As she sat with them she wore a finely-spun black lace
mantilla, or shawl, around her shoulders.

"I promised Mr. Gallant you would tell us stories of the old days in
Los Angeles, father," said Consuello.

"Ah, no, Mi Primavera. I would not care to bore Mr. Gallant with such
dusty old tales. He is a lad of today," her father stroked her head as
it rested against his knee.

"Mi Primavera," My Springtime, how well her father's pet name suited
her! John wondered why he had not transferred it to her when she told
him the story of the naming of Spring street.

"Do tell us, Mr. Carrillo," he begged. "Consuello has already told me
how Spring street was named. Old stories, old homes, the old names of
old streets charm me."

"Old streets--old names," said Don Ygnacio, as if to himself. "Si, I
will tell you. Pardon an old man if he seems garrulous.

"What is now San Fernando street, my children, was once the Street of
the Maids. Was not that a prettier name? Aliso street is from the
Castilian 'aliso,' meaning alder tree. In 1829 Jean Louis Vignes--after
whom Vignes street was named--set out a vineyard through which Aliso
street now runs. Someone misapplied the word 'aliso' to a sycamore tree
in front of the Vignes home and that was how the street was given its
name.

"Broadway was Fort street. J. M. Griffith built the first two-story
frame house in Los Angeles between Second and Third on which is now
Broadway in 1874. Judge H. K. S. O'Melveney built the second. Then it
was the choice residential district.