imitation of their former life.

[Illustration: A DEGENERATE.]

It is on his way to this Mission that the traveler passes the reputed
residence of Ramona. There is, it is true, another structure near San
Diego which, also, claims this distinction; but the ranch on the
route from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara perfectly corresponds to
"H.H.'s" descriptions of her heroine's home, with its adjoining brook
and willows, and hills surmounted by the cross. The house is almost
hidden by the trees with which a Mexican ordinarily surrounds his
dwelling, and is, as usual, only one story high, with a projecting
roof, forming a porch along the entire front. As we learn in
"Ramona," much of the family life in those old days--sewing,
visiting, and siesta-taking--went on in the open air, under the shade
of the porticos which were wide and low. Here it was that Alessandro
brought Felipe back to health, watching and nursing him as he slept
outdoors on his rawhide bed; and we may see the arbor where the
lovers met, the willows where they were surprised by Señora Moreno,
and the hills on which the pious lady caused wooden crosses to be
reared, that passers-by might know that some good Catholics were
still left in California.

[Illustration: THE CROSS ON THE HILL.]

[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA MISSION.]

The Mission of Santa Barbara is of solid brick and stone, with walls
six feet in thickness. Its cloisters look sufficiently massive to
defy an earthquake, and are paved with enormous bricks each twelve