She trained her ear to catch the strains Of all the harps on Sion's Hill; Where Jordan's sacred valley drains The tiny streamlets as they fill. The Homeland, cumbered round with care-- Trees, flowers and rivers--useless things-- No voices on the evening air, No twilight and the peace it brings-- A clump of trees, a scarp of rock, A long, low valley, colourless; Clouds in a heavy sky, that mock Thoughts tinged with their own bitterness. But, passion-hushed, the quiet mind, Attuned to Wisdom's sweeter way, Hears, even in the sobbing wind, The promise of a better day. Thus higher wisdom teaches still A lowliness of mind and heart; The sweet subservience of the Will, The gladness of that better part. [Illustration] CHRONICLES OF AN ANGLO-CALIFORNIAN RANCH. BY MARGARET INNES. CHAPTER I. It has been suggested that the experiences of some English people in search of and on a ranch in California might be of interest to others, especially, perhaps, to those who are looking about more or less anxiously to find some promising opening for the future of their boys, and who, seeing the Old World so crowded, and realising the difficulty of finding a possible niche at home, may desire to try an altogether new life in the New World. Many fathers and mothers, also like ourselves, would fain discover, if possible, some way of keeping their boys beside them; some business which they can work together, and in which they may find a satisfactory livelihood for all. Of course, I am speaking of those who have no well-established family business or firm; for them many difficulties and anxious questions are solved. These were the reasons, together with the delicate health of our two boys, and my own long-standing lung trouble, which, after much thought and study, led us to pack up all our worldly goods, label them "Settlers' effects," and start off on the weary long journey of 6,000 miles, to the land of sunshine, on the Pacific coast. Having some acquaintances living at a little summer holiday place on the coast, and within some seventeen miles of the busy and enterprising town of Los Angeles, we decided to go there, and, if convenient, make it our headquarters while looking about and getting all possible information on the important subject of ranching. We arrived about the end of October, when the heat of summer was over; for even on the coast, the glare of full summer is trying to people coming from northern latitudes.