Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Splendid Idle Forties - Stories of Old California by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
page 4 of 325 (01%)


I

Within memory of the most gnarled and coffee-coloured Montereño never
had there been so exciting a race day. All essential conditions seemed
to have held counsel and agreed to combine. Not a wreath of fog floated
across the bay to dim the sparkling air. Every horse, every vaquero,
was alert and physically perfect. The rains were over; the dust was not
gathered. Pio Pico, Governor of the Californias, was in Monterey on
one of his brief infrequent visits. Clad in black velvet, covered with
jewels and ropes of gold, he sat on his big chestnut horse at the upper
end of the field, with General Castro, Doña Modeste Castro, and other
prominent Montereños, his interest so keen that more than once the
official dignity relaxed, and he shouted "Brava!" with the rest.

And what a brilliant sight it was! The flowers had faded on the hills,
for June was upon them; but gayer than the hills had been was the
race-field of Monterey. Caballeros, with silver on their wide gray hats
and on their saddles of embossed leather, gold and silver embroidery on
their velvet serapes, crimson sashes about their slender waists, silver
spurs and buckskin botas, stood tensely in their stirrups as the racers
flew by, or, during the short intervals, pressed each other with eager
wagers. There was little money in that time. The golden skeleton within
the sleeping body of California had not yet been laid bare. But ranchos
were lost and won; thousands of cattle would pass to other hands at the
next rodeo; many a superbly caparisoned steed would rear and plunge
between the spurs of a new master.

And caballeros were not the only living pictures of that memorable day
DigitalOcean Referral Badge