y silk, draped over the head and about the shoulders;
while those of humbler station made the shawl serve in place of the
_rebosa_. The Indian servants, who with mats and kneeling cushions
followed their mistresses, wore white chemises, bright-colored
petticoats, and handkerchiefs folded three-cornerwise over the head and
knotted under the chin. The costumes of the young girls were modelled
after those of their mothers; and the little ladies appeared as demure
and walked as stately as their elders. The gentlemen also were garbed
in plainer costumes than their wont, and, for custom's sake, rode on
horseback even the short distances which little children walked.

The town seemed deserted, and the church filled, as we started
homeward, I skipping ahead until we reached a shop window where I
waited for Jakie and asked him if he knew what those pretty little
things were that I saw on a shelf, in big short-necked glass jars. Some
were round and had little "stickers" all over them, and others looked
like birds' eggs, pink, yellow, white, and violet.

He told me the round ones were sugar plums, and the egg-shaped had each
an almond nut under its bright crust; that they were candies that had
come from France in the ships that had brought the Spanish people their
fine clothes; and that they were only for the rich, and would make poor
little girls' teeth ache, if they should eat them.

Yet, after I confided to him how mother had given me a lump of loaf
sugar each night as long as it lasted, and how sorry we both felt when
there was no more, he led me into the shop and let me choose two of
each kind and color from the jars. We walked faster as I carried them
home. Jakie and grandma would not take any, but she gave Georgia and me
each a sugar plum and an egg, and saved the rest for other days when we
should be good children.

CHAPTER XXII

GOLD DISCOVERED--"CALIFORNIA IS OURS"--NURSING THE SICK THE U.S.
MILITARY POST--BURIAL OF AN OFFICER.

In the year 1848, while the settlers and their families were
contentedly at work developing the resources of the country, the
astounding cry, "Gold discovered!" came through the valley like a
blight, stopping every industry in its wake.

Excited men, women, and children rushed to town in quest of
information. It was furnished by Alcalde Boggs and General Vallejo, who
had been called away privately two weeks earlier, and had just returned
in a state of great enthusiasm, declaring t