domestic duties. Going to the gate of the courtyard, the Patrona would
call, "To the brooms, to the brooms, muchachas," adding, if it were
foggy, "A very fine morning for the brooms, little ones;" and out would
come running a cluster of Indian girls carrying each a broom. At the
work they would go, sweeping as clean as a floor the courtyard and
ground for a large space about the house.

Next they flocked to the sewing room, often sixteen or eighteen of these
girls, to take up their day's work under the mistress's eye. Some made
garments for the ranch hands, those who were better work women attended
to the making of clothing for the family, while the girls who were the
most skillful with the needle fashioned delicate, fine lace work and
embroidery.

The children were seldom indoors unless it rained. There were no
schools; there were few ranches where there were teachers, and the
fathers and mothers generally had their hands too full to devote
themselves to their children's education, so in the early days it was
all playtime. Later, schools were started for boys, and dreadful places
they were.

As General Vallejo describes them, they were generally held in a narrow,
badly lighted room, with no adornment but a large green cross or some
picture of a saint hanging beside the master's table. The master was
often an old soldier in fantastic dress, with ill-tempered visage. The
scholar entered, walked the length of the room, knelt before the cross
or picture, recited a prayer, then tremblingly approached the master,
saying, "Your hand, Senor Maestro," when with a grunt the hand would be
extended to him to be kissed. Little was taught besides the reading of
the primer and the catechism.