History of California | Page 4

kind of
merrymaking. Whole families joined together to spend days in the
vicinity of some stream, where they picnicked while the linen was
being cleansed in the running water and dried on the bushes near by.
Once before, when the world was younger, there was a land similar to
this,--sea-kissed, mountain-guarded, with such gentle climate and soft
skies. Its people, who also lived much out of doors at peace with nature,
became almost perfect in health and figure, with mental qualities which

enabled them to give to the world the best it has known in literature and
art. What the ancient Greeks were, the people of California may
become; but with an advancement in knowledge and loving-kindness of
man toward man which heathen Athens never knew.
What will be the result of this outdoor life cannot yet be told; climate
has always had an active influence in shaping the character and type of
a people. With a climate mild and healthful, yet bracing; with a soil so
rich that the touch of irrigation makes even the sandiest places bloom
with the highest beauty of plant, tree, and vine; with an ocean warm
and gentle, and skies the kindliest in the world,--there is, if we judge by
the lesson history teaches, a promise of a future for California greater
and more noble than the world has yet known.
Chapter II.
The Story of the Indians

"Run, Cleeta, run, the waves will catch you." Cleeta scudded away, her
naked little body shining like polished mahogany. She was fleet of foot,
but the incoming breakers from the bosom of the great Pacific ran
faster still; and the little Indian girl was caught in its foaming water,
rolled over and over, and cast upon the sandy beach, half choked, yet
laughing with the fun of it.
"Foolish Cleeta, you might have been drowned; that was a big wave.
What made you go out so far?" said Gesnip, the elder sister.
"I found such a lot of mussels, great big ones, I wish I could go back
and get them," said the little one, looking anxiously at the water.
"The waves are coming in higher and higher and it is growing late,"
said Gesnip; "besides, I have more mussels already than you and I can
well carry. The boys have gone toward the river mouth for clams. They
will be sure to go home the other way."

Cleeta ran to the basket and looked in.
"I should think there were too many for us to carry," she said, as she
tried with all her strength to lift it by the carry straps. "What will you
do with them; throw some back into the water?"
"No, I don't like to do that," answered her sister, frowning, "for it has
been so long since we have had any. The wind and the waves have been
too high for us to gather any. Look, Cleeta, look; what are those out on
the water? I do believe they are boats."
"No," said the little girl; "I see what you mean, but boats never go out
so far as that."
"Not tule boats," said Gesnip, "but big thick one made out of trees; that
is the kind they have at Santa Catalina, the island where uncle lives. It
has been a long time since he came to see us, not since you were four
years old, but mother is always looking for him."
The children gazed earnestly seaward at a fleet of canoes which were
making for the shore. "Do you think it is uncle?" asked Cleeta.
"Yes," replied her sister, uncertainly, "I think it may be." Then, as the
sunlight struck full on the boats "Yes, yes, I am sure of it, for one is red,
and no on else has a boat of that color; all others are brown."
"Mother said he would bring abalone when he came," cried Cleeta,
dancing from one foot to the other; "and she said they are better than
mussels or anything else for soup."
"He will bring fish," said Gesnip, "big shining fish with yellow tails."
"Mother said he would bring big blue ones with hard little seams down
their sides," said Cleeta.
Meantime the boats drew nearer. They were of logs hollowed out until
they were fairly light, but still seeming too clumsy for safe seagoing
craft. In each were several men. One sat in the stern and steered, the

others knelt in pairs, each man helping propel the boat by means of a
stick some four feet long, more like a pole than a paddle, which he
worked with great energy over the gunwale.
"I am afraid of them," said Cleeta, drawing close to her sister. "They do
not look like the people I have seen. Their faces are the color of