ginger-snaps and apricots since early morning. After asking
plaintively for the fiftieth time how long it would be before dinner,
he finally succumbed to his weariness, and dropping his yellow head,
that was like a cowslip ball, in his mother's lap, he fell asleep.

But the young people, whose eyes were not blinded by hunger and
sleep, found more than enough to interest them on this dusty
California road, winding as it did through grand old growths of
trees, acres and acres of waving grain, and endless stretches of
gorgeous yellow mustard, the stalks of which were five or six feet
high, almost hiding from view the boys who dashed into the golden
forest from time to time.

At the foot of the hill they passed an old adobe hut, with a crowd of
pretty, swarthy, frowzy Mexican children playing in the sunshine,
while their mother, black-haired and ample of figure, occupied
herself in hanging great quantities of jerked beef on a sort of
clothes-line running between the eucalyptus-trees.

The father, a wild-looking individual in a red shirt and enormous
hat, came from behind the hut, unhitched the stout little broncho
tied to the fence, gave the poor animal a desperately tight 'cinch,'
threw himself into the saddle without touching his foot to the
lumbering wooden stirrups, and, digging his spurs well into the
horse's sides, was out of sight in an instant, leaving only a huge
cloud of dust to cover his disappearance.

'How those fellows do ride!' exclaimed Dr. Winship, savagely. 'I
wish they were all obliged to walk until they knew how to treat a
horse.'