. "What do you know about it? Were it not
for my wife and little one, I would go away quickly, and be glad to go.
There are Indians here and in Baja California, plenty of them, and what
harm do they do any one?"

"All very well," replied the other. "You may not believe it. But I have
heard tales of that land which made my flesh creep. Know you not what
the Indians did to Father Jaime at Mission San Diego? Would you like to
have been there then? I think not."

"You remember well," answered his companion. "That was over twenty years
ago. There are many more people there now, and the Indians would
not dare do such things again. Besides, these children are going to
Monterey, and that is a large town, I have heard."

The children boarded the ship, and were soon standing by the taffrail,
watching the busy scene below, as the men hurried with the last loads of
the cargo. Presently all was done, the vessel weighed anchor, and
slowly making her way out of the harbor, set her course for the distant
northern country.

During the three weeks' voyage these children lost much of their shyness
at their strange surroundings, made friends with all on board, and had a
generally royal good time--probably the first they had ever had in their
short lives. Under charge of the sisters of the asylum whence they
came, they had had the best of training, which, although lacking the
individual love of the mother for her own children, was one to influence
and increase their religious instincts, and to make them good, pious
Catholic men and women. The children, almost without exception, were
docile and obedient, venerating the sisters in charge, and quick
to respond to their slightest word. Among the girls was one to be
especially remarked, from her face and its habitual expression.
Indistinguishable from the others in general appearance, it was only
in glancing at her countenance that one thought to look at her a
second time with close attention. She was not handsome, or even pretty,
although not by any means homely; but her face was almost transfigured
by its expression of earnest piety and goodness, remarkable in one so
young. Quiet and sedate as was her habit, she was ever ready to enter
freely into the fun and play of the other children; but even in the most
absorbing frolic, if any one became hurt from too much roughness, she
was the first to be on the spot to comfort the suffering one and to ease
its pain.

Apolinaria Lorenzana (for so