[E] Porch angle of brushwood.
CHAPTER IX.
A JAUNT.—THE VALLEY OF THE RATTLESNAKES.
Bleak and barren as is for the most part the immediate neighborhood of the Springs, one need not ride very far to reach the cool shade of the mountain woods.
One day, when Walter and Nellie were telling Francisco of the delicious sugar-cane in their native State and lamenting that in California there were no lilacs or "snowballs," the Indian boy said:
"But yes; in the garden of the teacher there are always lilacs in the spring. From the woods the children brought them to her, young plants; now they are trees, and they bloom very well indeed. She says they are not so large or so sweet-swelling as those of her own home in the East, but yet they will do, she says. And of snowball trees she has two."
"With bright green leaves and big, round flowers, like snowballs?" asked Nellie.
"Yes, from a distance that is how they look. Now they have done blooming, but in the spring they are fine. Wild roses we have in the woods over yonder. There are spots full of them. Would you like to see? And I will show you then the sugar tree."
"Let us ask papa to have a picnic. Can we come and go in one day, Francisco?"