fter a little,
my son, when you are old enough; it is a difficult instrument to learn.'
I knew he was right, but did not like to wait. At last, however, he told
me I was to begin, and the very next day gave me a violin, and sent me
to the choir teacher. It was a happy day for me."

"Tell me something about Padre Peyri," I asked.

"Senor, I could talk all day long about that good man. He was so kind
and gentle to all, that no one but would have been willing to die for
him, if he had asked such a thing. He was not a large man, but was as
strong as many of the Indians, and he worked as hard as any one of us. I
have heard my mother tell how he helped with his own hands to build the
church and the other houses of the mission, and worked all day, so long
as it was light, hardly stopping to take time to eat. She said he seemed
to think of nothing but to get all the buildings finished, and was
unhappy until that was done. She saw him on the day he first came from
Mission San Diego with a few workmen and soldiers to start the mission.
It was in the afternoon, and the padre and his men passed the time till
nightfall in making a few huts for themselves like those of the Indians.
The next morning, before he would permit anything else to be done, he
made an altar of earth, which he covered all over with the green growing
grass, and there offered up a sacrifice to his God. He had with him some
children he had brought from San Diego, and after the mass he baptized
them. My mother and some of the Indians had been to San Diego, to the
mission there, and were not afraid, but nearly all the Indians did not
dare come near.

"As soon as the mass was ended, the padre marked out on the ground the
lines for the mission buildings, and the men went to work making
adobes. After a few days, the Indians began to lose their fear of the
cristianos, and it was not long before they were helping in all the work
to be done. The padre paid them every day for what they did; he would
give them clothes or something to eat, and they were very glad to work
for him; and it was only a short time when a great crowd was busy on the
buildings. My mother told me all this, Senor, for that was long before
I was born,--more than fifteen years. She was a young girl then. My
mother told the Indians how good the padres were to them at San Diego,
and did all she could to bring them to work for the mission. I was
her first child, and, at her wish, the padre named me after