iceplant bloom, with jewelled iceplant foliage, with the
running blue of the lovely sea daisy, with the white and pink of the
sea fig, where the walls were festooned with ferns, lichens, studded all
over with flaming Our Lord's Candles, and strange, uncanny, grotesque
flower forms, almost human in their writhing turns as they twisted
around the rocks and slipped along clinging to the sheer walls. Just
where the vegetation met the white, sea-washed sand, Linda spread
the Indian blanket, and Donald brought the lunch box. At their feet
adventurous waves tore themselves to foam on the sharp rocks. On their
left they broke in booming spray, tearing and fretting the base of
cliffs that had stood impregnable through aeons of such ceaseless attack
and repulse.

"I wonder," said Donald, "how it comes that I have lived all my life in
California, and today it seems to me that most of the worthwhile things
I know about her I owe to you. When I go to college this winter the
things I shall be telling the boys will be how I could gain a living, if
I had to, on the desert, in Death Valley, from the walls of Multiflores
Canyon; and how the waves go to smash on the rocks of Laguna, not to
mention cactus fish hooks, mescal sticks, and brigand beefsteak. It's
no wonder the artists of all the world come here copying these pictures.
It's no wonder they build these bungalows and live here for years,
unsatisfied with their efforts to reproduce the pictures of the Master
Painter of them all."

"I wonder," said Linda, "if anybody is very easily satisfied. I wonder
today if Eileen is satisfied with being merely rich. I wonder if we
are satisfied to have this golden day together. I wonder if the white
swallows are satisfied with the sea. I wonder if those rocks are
satisfied and proud to stand impregnable against the constant torment of
the tide."

"I wonder, oh, Lord, how I wonder," broke in Donald, "about Katherine
O'Donovan's lunch box. If you want a picture of per feet satisfaction,
Belinda beloved, lead me to it!"

"Thank heaven you're mistaken," she said; "they spared me the 'Be'--.
It's truly just 'Linda."'

"Well, I'm not sparing you the 'Be--'," said Donald, busy with the
fastenings of the lunch basket. "Did you hear where I used it?"

"Yes, child, and I like it heaps," said Linda casually. "It's fine to
have you like me. Awfully proud of myself."

"You have two members of our family at your feet," said Donald soberly
as he hande