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70 Historical Society of Southern California

prayer while my father said the Rosary for the family in
the parlor.
Thirty feet away from the front of the corridor, there
stood a grand old pepper tree decked with a profusion of
great bunches of tiny creamy blossoms and here and there
bright bunches of its red berries, forming in all a huge bou-
quet. Our home was exceedingly pleasant, as it stood
fronting the grandeurs of the west and its sublime sunsets.
Land made ready by the power of God for human hands
to embellish! Embellished by the courageous civilizers
that came with the immortal missionaries.
On the north side of the yard was a deep well which
produced delicious, cool water, but there was just enough
water for the use of the house, as the strong current at the
bottom of the well would stop up the well with sand which
had to be removed often. By the well, in later years, there
stood an enormous acacia tree. It called the attention of
everyone to it because of its size. When in bloom it would
become covered with huge bunches of cream-white aro-
matic blossoms.
When a very young child, one morning I went down to
the orchard for a stroll, w hen Miss Charlotte, Miss Maria
r
Boyle’s maiden aunt, called me to come over to see her
flower garden. It was a fine garden indeed!
A narrow ditch with running water divided my father’s
orchard from Mr. Boyle’s. Their flower garden, the finest
fruit trees, and their most exuberant grapevines, started
from the border of this little ditch.
It seemed to me that everything that grew on the other
side of the ditch was better than on our side. The big
bunches of purple velvety grapes half hidden under luxu-
riant leaves looked more tempting than ours, and of which
I could easily have helped myself, but my mother’s early
training taught us to hold other people’s goods as sacred,
so all I could do was to feast my eyes on them.
Going by a row of trees, I noticed some small plants
with tiny pink and white blossoms set around the trunks
of the trees. They seemed exquisite to me and their in-
nocent-looking calyx took my eye and held me spellbound