THE place the Fathers first selected for the Mission was very low, and before they had lived there many winters, a great rain made the creek overflow its banks and flood the Mission.
“This place is too low; we must move farther away from the creek,” said the Fathers, as they watched the muddy water swirling about among their houses.
So before long the entire Mission was moved three miles away to a safe place.
Father Joseph was the name of the younger of the two Fathers. He had charge of the Mission gardens, and one day in May he walked out among the gardens that had been planted. Massea was at work pulling weeds. As Father Joseph came near, he said, “Massea, our garden needs more water.”
Massea said, “Yes, it is too dry; but there will be no rain for three or four months yet.”
“What can we do to bring some water to the garden?” said Father Joseph. “I wonder if we could not make a long ditch from the Guadalupe Creek around our garden and then back to the creek again.”
“It would bring the water, but it would be much work, Father,” said Massea.
“We have many Indians who could work,” said Father Joseph. “I will ask Father Pena what he thinks about it.”
Father Pena thought the idea was a good one. So in a few days, after they had marked out the course of the ditch, there were two hundred Indian men at work digging. Even Docas worked after school was done. They worked so hard that in a few weeks the ditch was made, and part of the water of the creek was flowing through it. After that the gardens were never dry any more.
The children liked the ditch too, for it was such a fine place to go wading in. Heema made tiny boats out of tules[1] as nearly like Massea’s big boat as he could. Even Docas liked to watch his little brother and sister sail their boats on the water in the ditch.