the sunlight struck full on the boats "Yes, yes, I am sure of it, for
one is red, and no on else has a boat of that color; all others are
brown."

"Mother said he would bring abalone when he came," cried Cleeta, dancing
from one foot to the other; "and she said they are better than mussels
or anything else for soup."

"He will bring fish," said Gesnip, "big shining fish with yellow tails."

"Mother said he would bring big blue ones with hard little seams down
their sides," said Cleeta.

Meantime the boats drew nearer. They were of logs hollowed out until
they were fairly light, but still seeming too clumsy for safe seagoing
craft. In each were several men. One sat in the stern and steered, the
others knelt in pairs, each man helping propel the boat by means of a
stick some four feet long, more like a pole than a paddle, which he
worked with great energy over the gunwale.

"I am afraid of them," said Cleeta, drawing close to her sister. "They
do not look like the people I have seen. Their faces are the color of
the kah-hoom mother weaves in her baskets. There are only three like us,
and they all have such strange clothes."

"Do not be afraid," said Gesnip. "I see uncle; he is one of the dark
ones like ourselves. The island people have yellow skins."

The time was the year 1540, and the people, the Californians of that
day. The men in the boat were mostly from the island of Santa Catalina,