



Produced by Al Haines.




[Illustration: Cover]




                                  THE

                           SAN ROSARIO RANCH


                                   BY
                               MAUD HOWE



                                 BOSTON
                            ROBERTS BROTHERS
                                  1884




                           _Copyright, 1884_,
                          BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.



                           University Press:
                    JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.




                                   TO
                           My Beloved Sister,
                           LAURA E. RICHARDS.




                           SAN ROSARIO RANCH.



                               CHAPTER I.

    "Welcome her, all things youthful and sweet,
    Scatter the blossoms under her feet!"


The house was a large square building, simple and hospitable in
appearance.  A wide veranda ran about the four sides, heavily draped by
climbing roses and clematis.  There were indisputable evidences that
visitors were expected. Old Tip, the dog, knew it as well as everybody
else about the house.  He had been routed out from his favorite spot on
the sunny side of the piazza, by Ah Lam, who had given him a shower-bath
of water and soap-suds, because he did not move away to make room for
the scrubbing-brush which the white-clad Celestial plied vigorously.
From earliest morning the inhabitants of the simple house had been
busied in making it ready.  The very kittens which played about the
steps of the piazza had licked an extra gloss upon their shining coats
in honor of the expected guest.  Only Tip, the old hunting-dog, the
spoiled child of the household, showed