th a
classical dictionary, and named the towns from that, as Rome, Syracuse,
Palmyra, Utica, so the devout Spanish explorer named the places where he
halted by the name of the saint whose name was on the church calendar
for that day. And we have San Diego (St. James), San Juan (St. John),
San Luis, San Jose, San Pedro, Santa Inez, Santa Maria, Santa Clara,
and, best of all, Santa Barbara, to which town we are now going.

The Mexican dialect furnishes words which are now permanently
incorporated in our common speech; as:

Adobe, sun-dried brick.

Canon, gorge.

Tules, rush or water-weed. (Bret Harte's _Apostle of the Tules_.)

Bonanza, originally _fair weather at sea_, now _good fortune in mining_.

Fandango, dance of the people.

Corral, a place to collect stock. (A farmer of the West never says
cow-pen, or barnyard, or farmyard, but corral.)

Cascarones, egg-shells filled with finely cut gold or silver paper, or
perfumes, broken on head of young man, in friendly banter or challenge
to a dance.

Burro, small kind of donkey.

Broncho, wild, untamed animal.

Sombrero, hat.

Rebozo, scarf.

Serape, blanket.

Lariat, rawhide rope.

Hacienda, estate.

While we are rattling along there is so little to see until we reach
the ocean, that we may as well be recalling a few more facts worth
knowing. At Riverside I learned that the leaf of the orange tree was
larger when it first came out than later. It grows smaller as it
matures. And most people say that the fig tree has no blossom, the fruit
coming right out of the branch. But there is a blossom, and you have to
cut the fruit open to find it. Just split a young fig in two and notice
the perfect blossom in the centre.

They say it takes two Eastern men to believe a Californian, but it only
takes one Eastern woman to tell true stories which do seem almost too
big for belief. One man got lost in a mustard field, and he was on
horseback too.

I saw at San Diego a tomato vine only eight months old, which was
nineteen feet high and twenty-five feet wide, and loaded full of fruit
in January. A man picking the tomatoes on a stepladder added to the
effect. And a Gold of Ophir rose-bush at Pasadena which had 200,000
blossoms. This is vouched for by its owner, a retired missionary, who
cannot be doubted. There are truly true pumpkins that weigh 256 pounds
and are seven feet in circumference; cucumbers seven feet long; seven
beets weighed 500 pounds; three bites to