ng information concerning the worth of advertising. I forget
the fabulous figure at which "The Gold Dust Twins" trade-mark is valued,
but I know that it easily puts them into Charley Chaplin's class. I am
sure that "Sunkist" cannot be far behind the "Twins," for no single word
could possibly suggest a more luscious, delectable, and desirable fruit
than that. It would even take the curse off being a lemon to be a
"Sunkist" lemon. It contains no hint of the perilous early life of an
orange. Truly that life is more chancey than an aviator's. They say that
in the good old days there were no frosts, but that irrigation is
gradually changing the climate of Southern California. We would not dare
to express an opinion on this much discussed point, as we have never
gone to any new place where the climate has been able to stand the
shock. It is always an unusual season. I do know, however, that bringing
up a crop of oranges is as anxious an undertaking as "raising" a family.
Little black smudge pots stand in rows in the groves, ready to be
lighted at the first hint of frost. The admonition of the hymn applies
to fruit growers as well as to foolish virgins:

"See that your lamps are burning,
Your vessels filled with oil."

On sharp mornings the valleys are full of a gray haze still lingering
protectingly over the ranches. Then there are blights. I don't pretend
to know all the ills the orange is heir to. Sometimes it grows too fat
and juicy and cracks its skin, and sometimes it is attacked by scale.
Every tree has to be swathed in a voluminous sheet and fumigated once a
year at great expense. After living out here some time, I began to
understand why even in the heart of the orange country we sometimes pay
fifty cents a dozen for the large fruit. There is a way, however, of
getting around the high cost of living in this particular--you can go to
a packing house and buy for thirty-five cents an entire box of what are
called culls--oranges too large or too small for shipping, or with some
slight imperfection that would not stand transportation, but are as good
for most purposes as the "Sunkist" themselves.

In California, Orange Day is next in importance to Washington's Birthday
and the Fourth of July. I shall never forget our first experience of its
charms. We were motoring, taking a last jaunt in an old machine which we
had just sold for more than we ever had expected to get for it. It was a
reckless thing to do, for we