mud for adobes, and that is all. So the governor said?"
"The man who has the love of land in his heart, the man who makes a home, and spreads green fields and vineyards around him, he is the man to build a colony to the king's glory. There are such men in California, the governor wrote, good soldiers, valiant men, faithful servants of the king, many of them retired from age and wounds, but not too stiff to plant a vineyard, not too old to be the fathers of families. But to have a family, even a soldier must first have a wife. Send me, then, the governor requested of the viceroy, a shipload of women, to be wives to my soldiers in Alta California."
"What a fool!" said Magdalena.
"And his blacksmiths, his masons, his tilers—let them go to the devil! said the governor."
"No, I think there was a general provision, with soldiers first, certainly soldiers first. When the ship comes, I am sure you will get your lady, Mr. Blacksmith, along with the rest of us."
"What a fool!" said Magdalena again. "As if any women would leave Mexico to come to this wild country only to marry men!"
"But you are here," the sergeant said, "and it appears you are married to a man, one to be envied by all men, by the garment of Our Señor!"
"It is another thing, "Magdalena returned, bending her head, pleased with the vehement compliment.
