“Mother, dear, remove that child from my sight, or I shall certainly shake her! Phil, go on, just to keep Polly quiet.”
“Very well. Being the oldest Californian present, I—”
“What about Dr. Paul?” asked the irrepressible Polly.
“He wasn’t born here,” responded Philip, dryly, “and I was.”
“I think that’s a quibble,” interrupted Bell. “Papa was here twenty years before you were.”
“It’s not my fault that he came first,” answered Philip. “Margery and I are not only the oldest Californians present, but the only ones. Isn’t that so, sir?”
“Quite correct.”
“Oh, if you mean that way, I suppose you are; but still papa helped frame the Constitution, and was here on the first Admission Day, and was one of the Vigilantes—and I think that makes him more of a real Californian than you. You’ve just ‘grown up with the country.’”
“Bless my soul! What else could I do? I would have been glad to frame the Constitution, admit the State, and serve on the Vigilance Committee, if they had only waited for me; but they went straight ahead with the business, and when I was born there was nothing to do but stand round and criticise what they had done, or, as you express it, ‘grow up with the country.’ Well, as I was saying when I was interrupted—”
“Beg pardon.”