is at once a square stronghold and mansion shaded with ample porches.
Corrals for horses, pens for sheep, make up his constructions for
the first year. Already the herds are increasing under the eyes
of his retainers.

The Commandante has learned that no manual work can be expected of
his Californian followers, except equestrian duties of guarding
and riding.

A flash of mother-wit leads him to bring a hundred mission Indians
from the bay. They bear the brunt of mechanical toil.

Autumn finds Lagunitas Rancho in bloom. Mild weather favors all.
Stores and supplies are brought from San Francisco Bay.

Don Miguel establishes picket stations reaching to the Castro
Rancho.

Save that Juanita Peralta sees no more the glories of the Golden
Gate, her life is changed only by her new, married relation. A few
treasures of her girlhood are the sole reminders of her uneventful
springtime.

Rides through the forests, and canters over the grassy meadows
with her beloved Miguel, are her chiefest pleasures. Some little
trading brings in the Indians of the Sierras. It amuses the young
Donna to see the bartering of game, furs, forest nuts, wild fruits
and fish for the simple stores of the rancho. No warlike cavaliers
of the plains are these, with Tartar blood in their veins, from
Alaskan migration or old colonization. They have not the skill and