nally stood in the centre of
the plaza, where it was planted with sacred ceremonials, and where amid
ringing cheers of "_Viva Mexico!_" it first flung to the breeze that
country's symbolical banner of green, white, and red. Through ten
fitful years it loyally waved those colors; then followed its brief
humiliation by the Bear Flag episode, and early redemption by order of
Commodore Sloat, who sent thither an American flag-bearer to invest it
with the Stars and Stripes. Thereafter, a patriotic impulse suggested
its removal to the parade ground of the United States Army post, and
as Spanish residents looked upon it as a thornful reminder of lost
power they felt no regret when Uncle Sam's boys transplanted it to new
environments and made it an American feature by adoption.

But the Mexican landmark which appealed to me most pathetically was the
quaint rustic belfry which stood solitary in the open space in front of
the Mission buildings. Its strong columns were the trunks of trees that
looked as though they might have grown there for the purpose of
shouldering the heavy cross-beams from which the chimes hung. Its
smooth timbers had been laboriously hewn by hand, as must be the case
in a land where there are no saw mills. The parts that were not bound
together with thongs of rawhide, were held in place by wooden pegs. The
strips of rawhide attached to the clappers dropped low enough for me to
reach, and often tempted me to make the bells speak.

Mission padres no longer dwelt in the buildings, but shepherds from
distant folds came monthly to administer to the needs of this
consecrated flock. Then the many bells would call the faithful to mass,
and to vespers, or chime for the wedding of favored sons and daughters.
Part of them would jingle merrily for notable christenings; but one
only would toll when death whitened the lips of some distinguished
victim; and again, while the blessed body was being borne to its last
resting-place.

During one of my first trips to town, Jakie and I were standing by
grandpa's shop on the east side of the plaza, when suddenly those bells
rang out clear and sweet, and we saw the believing glide out of their
homes in every direction and wend their way to the church. The
high-born ladies had put aside their jewels, their gorgeous silks and
satins, and donned the simpler garb prescribed for the season of fasts
and prayer. Those to the manor born wore the picturesque _rebosa_ of
fine lace or gauz