we had many a waltz.

"Pretty dresses, Edith? Yes, gay, bright silk or satin ones, with many
ruffles on the skirts and wide collars and sleeves of lace, or yellow
satin slippers and always a high comb of silver or tortoise-shell and
a spangled fan. And we had long gold and coral earrings and strings of
pearls from the Gulf, and, see!" as she pulled aside her neck-scarf,
"here is the necklace of gold beads that was my wedding gift. We
had no hats or bonnets, but wore black lace shawls, or mantillas, to
church, or twisted long silk scarfs over our heads to go riding.

"You will think the gentlemen were fine dandies in those Mexican days,
when I tell you that they often wore crimson velvet knee trousers
trimmed with gold lace, embroidered white shirts, bright green cloth
or velvet jackets with rows and rows of silver buttons, and red sashes
with long, streaming ends. Their wide-brimmed sombrero hats were
trimmed with silver or gold braid and tassels. They dressed up their
horses with beautiful saddles and bridles of carved leather worked
all over with gold or silver thread and gay with silver rosettes or
buttons. Each gentleman wore a large Spanish cloak of rich velvet or
embroidered cloth, and if it rained, he threw over his fine clothes
a serape, or square woollen blanket with a slit cut in the middle for
the head.

"Los Gringos used to laugh at the Mexican and his cloak, and not long
after they came the 'Greasers,' as the Americans called the young men
born here in California, began to wear the ugly clothes the Gringos
brought out from Boston. And so the times changed, children, and our
people learned to do everything as the Americans did it and to work
hard and save money instead of dancing and idling away the time.

"And the bull-fights, Harry? Oh, yes, there was a bull-fight every
Sunday afternoon, and everybody went, as you do to the football games.
The ladies clapped their hands if the sport was good, or if the bull
was killed by the brave swordsman. And if the men got hurt or the
horses,--well, we only thought that was part of the game, you see. El
toro, as we called the bull, always tried to save himself; and if he
was savage and cruel, that was his nature, to try to kill his enemies.
The gay dresses and the music was what I cared for, and then all my
friends were there, also.

[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA MISSION. Founded 1786.]

"But you must be tired of my old stories; is it not so, my children?
No, yo