‘What do you want to hear? I am up on all the animal and vegetable life of Southern California, full of interesting information concerning its old customs, can give you Spanish names for all the things that come up in ordinary conversation, and am the only man present who can make a raw-hide reata,’ said Jack, modestly. ‘Go on and tell us how, O great and wise _reatero_,’ said Bell. ‘I’ll tell you that myself,’ said Elsie, ‘for I’ve seen him do it dozens of times, when he should have been studying his little lessons. He takes a big piece of raw hide, cuts a circle right out of the middle, and then cuts round and round this until he has one long continuous string, half an inch wide. He then stretches it and scrapes the hair off with a knife or a piece of glass, gets it into four strands, and braids it “round.”’ ‘Perhaps you think braiding “round” is easy to do,’ retorted Jack, in an injured tone; ‘but I know it took me six months to learn to do it well.’ ‘I fail to see,’ said his mother, ‘how a knowledge of “braiding round” and lassoing of wild cattle is going to serve you in your university life and future career.’ ‘Oh yes, it will. I shall be the Buffalo Bill of Harvard, and I shall give charming little entertainments in my rooms, or in some little garden-plot suitable to the purpose.’ ‘Shall you make a point of keeping up with your class?’ asked Mrs. Winship. ‘Oh yes, unless they go too fast. My sports won’t take any more time than rowing or baseball. They’ll be a little more expensive, because I’ll have to keep some wild cattle constantly on hand, and perhaps a vaquero or two; but a vaquero won’t cost any more than a valet.’ ‘I didn’t intend furnishing you with a valet,’ remarked his mother. ‘But I shall be self-supporting, mother dear. I shall give exhibitions on the campus, and the gate-money will keep me in luxury.’ ‘This is all very interesting,’ said Polly, cuttingly; ‘but what has it to do with California, I’d like to know?’ ‘Poor dear! Your brain is so weak. Can’t you see that when I am the fashion in Cambridge, it will be noised about that I gained my marvellous skill in California? This will increase emigration. I don’t pretend to say it will swell the population like the discovery of gold in ’48, but it will have a perceptible effect.’ ‘You are more modest than a whole mossy bank of violets,’ laughed Dr. Paul. ‘Now, Margery, will you give us your legend?’ ‘Mine is the story of Juan de Dios (literally, Juan of God), and I’m sorry to say that it has a horse in it, like Polly’s; only hers was a snow-white mare, and mine is a coal-black charger. But they wouldn’t tell us any romantic love-stories; they were all about horses.’ STORY OF JUAN DE DIOS.