"Alice Payne is to be Queen of the May, and seven maids of honor from the different schools," said Olive. "Why, I could take Laverne with me. You'd have to wear your white frock, that's all."
Laverne glanced up eagerly, with a dainty flush. Could she really take part in it?
It was true Jason Chadsey had not been very anxious to push his little girl forward. They had lived too far from schools before, and she was too much of a stranger to go around alone.
"It will be just splendid! And you will see so many girls. Of course, we have lived here a long while and know almost everybody."
"Of all the thousands," appended her mother, rather humorously. "Then you must be a 'Forty-niner.'"
Olive colored. "We're older than that," she answered, with some pride. "Father is a real Californian."
"And you children will belong to the old aristocracy when birth begins to count. I suppose that will come in presently."
"It always does," returned Miss Holmes. "Think of the pride of Boston over her early immigrants."
They drove around the garden and then took the two guests home. Miss Holmes expressed her pleasure warmly.
"Oh," laughed Mrs. Personette, "when we were on our long journey, coming to a strange land, who could have imagined that in so short a time I should be riding round in my carriage! And I seemed to have no special gift or attraction. Truly it is a Golden State."