-not more than an
acre; but it was as much as the old man could cultivate. He raised a few
vegetables, chiefly beans, and kept some hens.

Carmena had done fine washing for the San Gabriel people as long as her
strength held out; but she had not been able for some years to do that.
All she could do now was to embroider and make lace. She had to stay in
bed most of the time, for she had the rheumatism in her legs and feet so
she could but just hobble about; but there she sat day after day,
propped up in her bed, sewing. It was lucky that the rheumatism had not
gone into her hands, for the money she earned by making lace was the
chief part of their living.

Sometimes Ysidro earned a little by days' works in the fields or
gardens; but he was so old, people did not want him if they could get
anybody else, and nobody would pay him more than half wages.

When he could not get anything else to do, he made mats to sell. He made
them out of the stems of a plant called yucca; but he had to go a long
way to get these plants. It was slow, tedious work making the mats, and
the store-keepers gave him only seventy-five cents apiece for them; so
it was very little he could earn in that way.

Was not this a wretched life? Yet they seemed always cheerful, and they
were as much attached to this poor little mud hovel as any of you can
be to your own beautiful homes.

Would you think any one could have the heart to turn those two poor old
people out of their home? It would not seem as if a human being could be
found who would do such a thing. But there was. He was a lawyer; I could
tell you his true name, but I will not. He had a great deal to do with
all sorts of records and law papers, about land and titles and all such
things.

There has always been trouble about the ownership of land in California,
because first it belonged to Spain, and then it belonged to Mexico; and
then we fought with Mexico, and Mexico gave it to us. So you can easily
see that where lands are passed along in that way, through so many
hands, it might often be hard to tell to whom they justly belonged.

Of course this poor old Ysidro did not know anything about papers. He
could not read or write. The missionaries gave the land to his father
more than a hundred years ago, and his father gave it to him, and that
was all Ysidro knew about it.

Well, this lawyer was rummaging among papers and titles and maps of
estates in San Gabriel, and he found out that there