They went inside the circle and tossed the straw over the fence. Of course the pitchforks would not lift the wheat, so it stayed on the ground. They kept on putting down new layers of grain and letting the wild horses run over it and trample the wheat out, until there was no longer any stack in the middle.
Yisoo had the wooden shovels ready, and they shovelled all the wheat into a pile in the centre of the circle. Some of it they swept into the pile with brush brooms.
“What dirty wheat! I don’t want to eat any mush made of that wheat. It’s all full of little pieces of chaff,” said Alachu. She shivered as she spoke, for a cold wind was blowing.
“Don’t you want to come inside the fence? It is warmer inside,” said Docas. Alachu went inside and ran over to Docas, but he said, “No, you must not stay here. Go across to the other side of the circle, close to the fence.”
In a moment more she saw why Docas made her go over to the other side of the circle. Docas threw a big shovelful of the grain and chaff up into the air.
The chaff was light, and the wind blew it away, but the grain fell back to the ground. The air was so full of the bits of flying chaff that Alachu could hardly see the fence where she had been standing at first.
GETTING READY TO MAKE BRICKS
ONE morning, Father Pena came to Massea.
“I received a letter yesterday saying that a ship has come to San Francisco,” he said. “It has brought some pictures for the church at our Mission. I want you to go to San Francisco with an ox-cart and bring the pictures back.”
Father Pena gave Massea charge of many things. Massea had been a chief at his Indian rancheria, and so Father Pena sent him for the pictures.