The four Corners in California

by Amy Ella Blanchard

THE HOME OF RAMONA

Carter Barnwell proved to be a pleasant addition to the little circle. He was a bright, cheery lad, always ready to do a service, unselfish, courteous, and grateful for the open hospitality shown him.

"I tell you," he said, "it's mighty different when you meet some of these cold unresponsive people who can only invite you to their houses when there is a special dinner on, and who nearly die if any one happens in to a meal unawares. Give me the kind of friends such as we have in old Virginia, who don't care for frills, and are glad to have you take pot-luck with them. It sends a chill down my spine when I get into some of these stiff inhospitable houses one happens on, sometimes not a thousand miles from home. You all are just my sort, Mrs. Corner."

"Of course we are," she replied, "because you are just our sort. We have always been used to sharing with our friends whatever we have, and we know when they come they are glad to accept a simple meal in the spirit it is offered while they are just as ready to do the same by us. I must confess there is less of all that than there used to be, but I hate to see friendliness and open handed hospitality passing away before the modern formalities."

"It does me good to hear you talk so," returned Carter, "though I must say that here on the coast one meets with plenty of generous treatment. I suppose one doesn't really need to get the blues, but when a fellow doesn't feel quite up to his best he rather shrinks from strangers and wants his own. That's the way it was with me when I first came."

Mrs. Corner looked at the young man with motherly concern; he certainly looked better and brighter these last few days.

"I make every excuse to come over here," he went on laughing, "but to-day I have a good one. I want to know if we are to take that trip to the Camulos ranch. Will the girls all go? I suppose the twinnies will feel out of it if they don't. I have the chance of getting a big motor car and can take the whole bunch—I beg your pardon, I mean the entire crowd."

Mrs. Corner laughed. "You don't have to mind your p's and q's with me," she said. "I like boys to be boys. It is very nice of you, Carter, to want us all to go. Nan and Mary Lee are so deeply interested in Ramona that they will be perfectly wild to go, but don't you think we'd better divide up? Let me see—four—six, eight of us are a good many."

"But that is just the point; if I can get this big car there will be plenty of room; the only point is that we must decide at once, in the next day or two, for the golden opportunity happens to be the present. Could you all start to-morrow?"

Mrs. Corner said that she would consult her sister and Carter sat down on the pleasant veranda to await her return.

Presently Jack and Nan came around the corner of the house, their hands full of flowers. They did not see Carter who had established himself in the hammock. "Mother and Aunt Helen have their heads together and are talking, talking as fast as can be," said Jack. "I saw them when I went in for the string. I believe something is going to happen, Nan."

"Something is always happening here," returned Nan, gathering a bunch of heliotrope together and binding it firmly to a hoop she was holding.

"I mean something unusual."

"So do I mean that."

"Oh, Nan, you are always teasing."

"No, I'm not. I'm just talking facts. Hand me a rose, a white one, Jack. What is your idea of the unusual thing that is going to happen?"

"Maybe we are going to have a party."

"I'd like to know who would come to it. We know about six people besides the Robertses."

"Well, that would be enough for a dinner party."

"I don't believe it is that."

"What do you think then?"

"I think they are talking over our sins."

"Oh, Nan, that is horrid. I don't like to think it is that."

"You know we are not perfect," said Nan solemnly.

"I know that, but I don't like to be reminded of it."

"If you are never reminded of it how can you improve?"

"You talk just like Aunt Sarah."

"Oh, goodness! then I'll stop and change my tune. Let me see, what delightful thing can we imagine, Jack, to take the taste out of our mouths? Think of the very nicest thing that could happen, and we will pretend that mother and Aunt Helen are talking of that."

Jack thoughtfully disposed some red roses upon a spray of glossy green leaves. "Let's pretend Mr. St. Nick is going to take us to some lovely place," she began, "and——"

Here a mysterious voice interrupted: "What's the matter with somebody else taking you to some lovely place?"

Jack started up and dropped her roses in a heap, while Nan exclaimed: "Carter Barnwell, how long have you been eaves-dropping?"

"Only a moment. As soon as things looked as if they might become too serious I spoke out. You really haven't said anything worth listening to yet. The only remark that impressed me at all was that which announced that you weren't perfect. I thought you all were."

"That's too beautiful a compliment to pass over," said Nan. "You are forgiven."

"I can tell you I think, what is at present occupying the thoughts of your elders in there."

"What? Oh, Cart, are you planning to take us somewhere?"

"I am, fair maiden."

"All of us?" put in Jack.

"Every mother's son——I mean daughter."

"Oh, where? Do tell us," cried Nan.

"Haven't you been pining to see the home of Ramona?"

"Oh, Carter, indeed we have. Is that it?"

"That is it."

"When?"

"To-morrow, if the powers so decide. That is probably what your aunt and mother are considering now."

"I'm going right in to see," said Nan laying down scissors and string and rushing off. She was back in a few minutes. "We're going, we're going!" she cried. "Jack, go find Mary Lee and Jean and tell them to come right here; we must have the fun of talking it all over. Carter, you are a brick."

"So glad."

"He's better than a brick," said Jack throwing affectionate arms around him; "he is a darling. I want to kiss him."

"You embarrass me. I'm blushing," cried Carter pretending to hide his face while Jack bestowed a cyclonic kiss upon his ear, and Nan laughed at his pretended coyness. Then off skipped Jack to find the other two sisters and soon the whole party was busily talking over the morrow's excursion.

Early the next day Carter appeared with the large touring car in which they were to go, and there was much excitement among the children in the getting off.

It was a ride of forty-eight miles to the Camulos ranch, and if they should conclude to extend it further to Santa Barbara they would travel over a hundred miles, but the further the better, said the young people.

It promised to be a delightful trip. Each of the girls settled herself according to her liking. Mary Lee with Miss Dolores by her side was supremely happy, while Jean was content to sit on the same seat with these two. Nan could turn to her Aunt Helen on her right and to her mother on her left, so she was suited, while Jack occupied what to her was the place of honor, by Carter's side. His goggles sent her into shrieks of laughter every time he turned his eyes her way. "You look like some funny bug," she told him. "Like a grasshopper on its hind legs, with poppy eyes and a funny cap."

"Look here; stop making fun of me," said Carter in pretended resentment. "I'll tell your mother on you. Mrs. ——"

"Oh, don't call her," said Jack in alarm, "she might make me change seats with Jean, and I don't want to."

"After that subtle compliment, I can't do anything worse than stop the machine in the middle of the road and leave you to get home the best way you can. How will you manage to do it?"

"The same way you will," returned Jack not at all nonplussed.

Meanwhile Nan on the back seat was making excited remarks to her Aunt Helen. "Isn't it wonderful to think that we are going through California in something as if we were flying through the clouds in a chariot? Those pink flowers are pink clouds, that field is a grayish one, and the sky around it is green instead of blue. Shall we stay long at the Camulos ranch, do you suppose? Oh, me, I am so happy; I'd like to be a bird and sing, sing all day."

"Your throat would get mighty dry with the dust," remarked Mary Lee from the opposite seat.

"Oh, you are so dreadfully matter-of-fact, Mary Lee," said Nan descending from her raptures. "Let's talk about Ramona and the missions, Aunt Helen. Do you suppose there was really a Ramona? I like to think so."

"We can pretend there was even if there wasn't," answered her aunt. She was always ready to humor Nan's imagination. "We'll give her the benefit of the doubt and Allessandro, too. The fact that the Camulos ranch still exists and is the very spot where the scene of Mrs. Jackson's story is laid, makes it seem very real."

As they approached the place, Nan grew fidgety. She stood up every few minutes and craned her neck to see the low adobe house made so famous by the writer. At last there it was with its broad verandas; there was the inner court open on the east, there the room occupied by Ramona. On the south veranda Felipe had rested while Allessandro played upon his violin. Yonder to the west was the little chapel and there hung the three old bells brought from Spain so long ago. On the east side of the garden a long arbor led to the little brook where Ramona's lover first beheld her washing the altar cloth. All these sights gave thrills to the girls and indeed their elders were not unmoved. The señorita felt at home on what to her seemed Spanish soil and the others felt as if they had stepped back into a past age.

Courteously the family invited them to remain as long as it suited them, and even offered to entertain them at the next meal. Dinner they had taken on the way, and though it was a great temptation to remain under the historic roof, the travelers felt that it would be an imposition to linger beyond such time as they might satisfy their interest in H. H's lovely story. Therefore when they had given a proper amount of time to examining the various places they left the old house set in among its great vineyards, olive groves and orange trees, and resumed their journey to Santa Barbara which they hoped to reach before night.

The beautiful Santa Clara valley with its river meadows still green and lovely, was a pleasant place to travel through or to linger in, and Miss Helen declared that they must take a more leisurely journey through it, and perhaps spend some time at Santa Barbara when they should be journeying toward the north.

Nan's raptures had subsided under the sight of realities and for some time she sat silently dreaming, following Ramona through her sad experiences, but suddenly a sharp report made her spring to her feet and indeed caused every one to give an alarmed exclamation. The automobile came to a standstill. Carter clambered down and looked contemplatively at one of the tires. "The blamed old thing has busted," he said. "There's something else wrong, too," he went on. "I don't know just what till I examine. I'm afraid there is no Santa Barbara to-night. Let me see; we've probably come ten or twelve miles since we left Camulos." He took out his road map and looked it over. "The nearest town must be Santa Paula—everything is Santa something out here—I don't see anything to do but to get help there." He looked about him. "Will you ladies stay in the car or will you go to that house I see yonder through the trees? I fancy it is a bee ranch, for you can see the white beehives."

"I thought they were sheep," said Jack.

"Beehives," Carter declared. "It looks like rather a nice place. Must be the owner is making a success out here; they don't all do it by a long shot. I wish we were nearer San Buenaventura; you could pass away the time at the old mission church there, but there is no help for it. Shall we try the house or would you rather walk to the next railway station? We might get a train there for Santa Barbara."

"Is it far to the station?" asked Mrs. Corner.

"I don't know exactly. We are between Sespe and Santa Paula and they are seven miles apart; I judge it could not be less than two or three miles."

"Oh, then, let us try the house; probably we could get a conveyance there, which would take us to either the town or the station."

This was decided upon and all took up the line of march, Carter leading the way.

They had not walked far up the long avenue of trees before they saw a man coming toward them. "Hallo, friends," he said as he came up. "Glad to see you. Your family?" he said jovially to Carter.

"I am not a Mormon and these are not my seven wives," replied Carter in the same spirit. "We've come up from Los Angeles in an automobile, and the beastly thing has broken down out there on the road. If it had been my own car such a thing shouldn't have happened. May these ladies wait here till I can get up to the nearest town? I suppose it is Santa Paula."

"You're right, it is. Why, of course they can wait here and welcome. Glad to have them. Do you want a horse, or will you go up by train? One of my men can drive you over and you can get the next train and save time, maybe. Come along right up. I'll see that you get there in time. Not a Mormon, eh? Well, I should judge not by your age. Your mother and sisters and aunt, probably."

"No, only friends, good friends."

"Well, my females will be glad to see 'em. We've got a little gal about the size of one of these young misses. Bess! Bessie!" he raised his voice. "Step up on the piazza, ladies, and take seats. I'll call some one."

"Don't disturb your family," said Mrs. Corner in protest.

"Oh, bless you, ma'am, it won't disturb 'em; they'll like it. The little gal don't have many playmates. I'm laying out to send her away to a good school when she gets bigger. She don't have anything but dogs and cats to play with out here. Ah, Bessie," he called again.

Presently a little girl about the age of the twins came running around the corner of the house. She stopped short at sight of the visitors. "Come along, Bess; they won't bite you," said the man.

The child came nearer and regarded the twins interestedly. Jean gave her a beaming smile which was answered in kind, and seeing that the mountain would not come to Mahomet, the twins decided that it would have to be the other way, and both went forward to make the acquaintance of little Bessie Sanders. In a short time the three were playing together, and making a friendly tour of inspection, Bessie piloting them all over the place to view "the orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wild-wood," though instead of "the rude bucket which hung in the well" there were big windmills to draw up the water for use in house and garden.

Nan, Mary Lee and the señorita left their elders sitting on the veranda, Mrs. Sanders a pleasant, homely woman, being glad to entertain them while the girls and their governess wandered out to the orange grove where the great golden globes of luscious fruit were hanging. "Help yourselves to anything you see," had been Mr. Sanders' hospitable charge, and they did not disregard it when it came to oranges.

"Señor Sanders has very familiar face," said the señorita musingly. "I wonder where I have some time to see him." When they returned to the house she was enlightened, for Mr. Sanders turning to her said, "I wonder if Don Arnaldo de Garcia is a relative of yours, Miss de Garcia. I didn't catch the name when the ladies here first mentioned it."

"If it is my uncle of whom you speak, he is Arnaldo de Garcia. I was thinking that I have been seeing you in some time past."

"Very likely, very likely. I knew de Garcia well in Mexico where I was for several years before I was married. Then I lost sight of him, though I heard he had come to California. I used to see him often at his father-in-law's in those days."

"Ah, then it is there I have seen you, when I was little girl like these." The señorita put her hand on Jean's head.

"Yes, yes, to be sure; I remember there was a little girl who used to run in and out. Where is your uncle now?"

"He has gone back to Mexico. For a little while he is living in Los Angeles, but he likes it not so well. He returns with his wife and children."

"Ah, he has children? You were the only one I used to see in those days."

"Yes, he has married a second time. His wife was a widow with children of her own and since there are two others."

"Ah, yes, yes. I remember the first wife very well, a fine woman. Her people were my good friends. Fine old man your grandfather."

Mary Lee listened attentively to all this. Anything which pertained to her dear Miss Dolores was of the greatest importance to her. Fortunately she remembered the conversation afterward, and it was well that she did; on such slight threads do fortune or misfortune hang.

Carter returned later with the necessary things to doctor up the motor car, but it was too late to start for Santa Barbara that day and as Mr. Sanders insisted upon keeping the party for over night, they consented to stay as it was evidently his wish. The next morning it was decided to return home and make the trip to Santa Barbara when the flower festival should take place, and when they could remain as long as they felt inclined.

"Li Hung will not know what has become of us," said Mrs. Corner, "for I told him we would be back by this evening, and to-morrow will be Sunday, Helen, so I think we would better go back, for you know we promised to dine with the Robertses to-morrow."

Miss Helen agreed that they must not go on, though the younger ones begged hard not to go back.

"You will let Bessie come to see us, won't you, Mr. Sanders?" said Jean, who had taken a fancy to the little girl.

"To be sure I will," was the reply. "And when you come this way you must all stop as long as you can. You'll find the latch-string out, ain't that so, mother?" He turned to his wife.

"I reckon the door'll be wide open when they come along," she said hospitably. "I wish, Mrs. Corner, you'd let the little girls come up and stay with Bess awhile. We'll take good care of them and Mr. Sanders will go down for them any time."

"Oh, may we come?" cried Jean, before whose vision arose unlimited supplies of honey, raisins for the taking, horses to ride and such delights as only a big ranch could afford.

"We'll see about it," said Mrs. Corner. And they all went off laden down with branches of oranges, combs of honey, and a basket of choice fruit, although the month was December.

"It was a great trip," said Carter as the automobile dashed around the last corner and stopped before the door of the cottage in Los Angeles. "We'll go again, won't we? Any time any of you want to see some old mission or get into a new bit of country, say the word and off we'll go. I am having the time of my life with you all."

"It's just like having a big brother," said Nan delightedly, as she watched him whirl off. "This world is so full of surprises and nice things, isn't it, kiddy?"

"This world is so full of such numbers of things,

We all ought to be as happy as kings,"

quoted Jack, as they went up the steps to where Li Hung, clean and smiling, stood ready to receive them.