STORY OF RAMON AND DOLORES.

185

with the native courtesy of all Californians, and invited me to alight and accompany him to his temporary encampment. It was near at hand, and consisted of a sylvan bower of a picturesque form, and made of boughs; its leafy shade making it quite a pleasant residence during the dry season. Being pressed to remain all night, I consented to do so, with many thanks.

Our supper was cooked by an old lady, the mother of the young man whom I had met at the ruined house. Early the next morning, while the old lady was preparing breakfast in the absence of the young man, who had gone with three or four Indian servants to the ruins of the house to commence cleaning up the rubbish, and get ready for rebuilding-my curiosity being excited by the strange spectacle of Spaniards coming apparently to establish themselves in a part of the country so distant from their compatriots, I questioned my good hostess concerning their history, and as delicately as possible inquired why the young man appeared so downcast and unhappy?

"Ah! señor," said she, "my poor Ramon has good reason not to love this valley, although it looks so beautiful ; and if it were not that he has papers taken out for this tract of land, and that his brothers and he cannot agree on the family rancho near the lower Pueblo, we should never have come to this distant and solitary place."

She then, with many "gritas" (bewailings), and with frequent pauses-being interrupted by agonising emotions of grief and anguish-related to me her sorrowful story, pretty nearly as follows:

"I am the widowed mother of nine living children. Three years ago, Ramon Sepulveda, my son, whom you see at work yonder among the adobes of the ruined house, came of lawful age. Although he is the third of my sons, he was always my favorite. My two eldest boys, though handsome and dashing fellows enough, and brave besides, as well as excellent vaqueros and skilful rancheros, were

reckless gamblers, and thriftless in their management of our paternal rancho, which was the sole dependence of our numerous family. They frequently spent in a single week, when started on their course of dissipation, all our means for the whole year. We relied for support on the hides and tallow produced on the rancho, and those were sufficient to have made us independent with the least frugality,

"Ramon, on the contrary, who was steady and prudent, would remonstrate with his brothers, and beg them to remember that our rancho was much in debt through their extravagance and waste, and that the cuereros, when they came to the rancho at the time of the August matanzas, were pressing for the payment of their debts. The elder brothers would often listen to these wise counsels, and for a few days, or even weeks, be more industrious, and seem anxious to do better. I would fondly imagine that all was going on right again at Los Alizos.** But at length, getting weary of work, and giving way to their evil propensities, they would ride off to the Pueblo, pretending that they only wanted to rest for a while and see their relations. But very soon they would be enticed away and take to drinking and playing monte, forgetting that the best throw at dice is no throw at all,' and finally come back to me stripped even to their clothes and saddles, and much in debt besides.

"At length, in consequence of frequent expostulations, my dear Ramon, the only support and comfort I had among them, began to be regarded as a mean-spirited fellow and a sneak, who had not the spunk to go to the town and drink and gamble among the caballeros.'

"Thus matters went on, until one day after the feast of Santa Clara, Juan and Antonio returned from the Pueblo. After hanging around sheepishly for a day or two, evidently conscious of guilt, and hardly looking either Ramon or my

"The Sycamores," the name of the rancho.

self in the face, they mounted their horses and rode off, as they said, on a visit to Santa Barbara, where a ship, with goods, was lying. They said they were going to purchase a few pieces of 'manta,' (coarse cotton,) for Indian shirts, and to propitiate me they took advantage of a wish I had expressed a day or two before, to have some of the same goods.

"The very next day after their departure, an American came to the rancho and put into our hands a 'libranza,' (draft or order,) for one hundred head of vaquillas, (heifers,) and two horses, one of them a noble iron-gray, a favorite of my son Ramon, and an animal which he prized above any other horse on the rancho. And why should he

not? That horse was his familiar friend. He had frequently lassoed bears with him single-handed, and used him exclusively in any feat among the cattle on the place requiring great dexterity. Indeed, El Rey' knew his duty better than many men, good vaqueros too, dumb beast though he was. No wonder then that Antonio and Juan kept out of the way, for the horse was un caballo conocido," (a well-known horse.)

"Ramon was in despair at this last, most ungrateful, unprincipled blow, dealt by brothers for whom he had vainly toiled; and, although he took pains to conceal from me his dissatisfaction, I could see very plainly how keenly he suffered.

"The custom of the country made it necessary to acknowledge the order, signed as it was by my two eldest sons; and Ramon gave the necessary orders to our mayor-domo to drive the cattle up to the corral to be ironed with the mark of a sale (venta ') on the shoulders; and he himself mounted El Rey for the last time, to see in person that his orders were properly executed. Custom, señor, forbade the non-payment of the debt, for all our relatives in the country would have scouted us for not assisting those of our own blood with the last vestige of our means.

"On the return of my prodigal sons, I complained bitterly to them for depriving me, a widow and their mother, of my little support, at a time when we were in debt already far beyond our resources, and I dwelt particularly on the turpitude of their robbing poor Ramon of his favorite horse. They seemed ashamed and penitent for a short time; but before many days, they openly expressed their regret that they had not procured more money while they were about it. In fact, they had not received for the cattle and horses which they sold, more than a third of their real value. It is, indeed, ever so with the bargains of the avaricious foreigners, who are always awake to the faults and follies of our young men, and are greedy to advance them money when they get excited by play and drink, as my sons were in this instance. Although they are your countrymen, señor, you know as well as I do that this is the case in California, and that they enrich themselves by administering to our evil passions, and taking advantage of them to our ruin.

"Well; Ramon came to me one day after this last occurrence, and said, 'Mother, I have resolved to leave this part of the country, and go to the north side of the Bay, and I am going to the capital to-morrow to get out papers for a rancho there. Every one who has been there says it is a much finer country than this, and I would go anywhere rather than live here any longer, exposed to the dissipated and gambling habits of my brothers. I have asked Dolores if she will marry me and go along with me, and the dear angel has made me strong and happy by saying that she will accompany me to the world's end.'

"Maria de los Dolores, and her sister Anita, were the two beautiful daughters of Don Fernando Soto, who owned the next rancho of San Nicolas, and was an excellent old man. Ramon had loved Dolores for two years, and her sister Anita was engaged to José Antonio, my second son; but, owing to his scape-grace habits, they could not be married,

and old Don Fernando was trying to break off the match altogether.

"Ah! señor, you should have seen the beautiful Dolores at this spring-time of her life, when she gave her warm heart and willing hand to the son of my hopes, and was ready to follow him joyfully to the ends of the earth. She was very beautiful, too beautiful for this wretched earth. She was taller than most women, but lithe and graceful as the willow. When she came into a room, the grace and cordiality of her salute, went directly to one's heart. She was just fifteen, which, with us, is a mature age for marriage. In the dance she moved like a celestial vision, and ravished all who looked upon her. She was not dark, like most of our maidens, but her skin, as soft as any satin, was almost a pure white, with just enough of a faint flush of the olive mingled with the rose, to relieve it from any sickly look. You should have seen her hair, so long, so thick, so glossy, and so jetty black, and hanging around her lovely neck and shoulders, in a thousand raven ringlets. Her great almond-shaped eyes were as blue as yonder heaven; and the long black lashes gave them a strange and more than mortal expression. I never saw such lips-so full, so fresh, so ripe, so rosy red. And when she smiled, what sight could be more beautiful than her white and even teeth, more radiant than pearls, every one of which appeared to laugh at you. Why should I speak of her admirably rounded arms, her exquisite feet, her beautiful neck and swelling breast?

"Her dress was always light and careless, but everything she put on, seemed to borrow beauty. Everybody that saw her said she must have lived abroad, because her manners were so perfect and easy. The very hide-seekers, who have no souls, were awe-struck in her presence, and treated her as if she had been a superior being. And so she was, señor. All those exquisite outward charms were only baubles and dross compared with the soul within, and