Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/72

60 "Just the same I should think your Common Council would force them to put these tracks in some sort of shape."

"I suppose they will, some day," rejoined the Colonel, cheerfully. "We are sort of used to it."

"Where are we going over here?" asked Boyd, "I thought you said we were going to meet the ship."

"Plenty of time," replied the Colonel. "Here we are."

He drew rein beneath some wide overarching peppers before a picket fence. The sidewalks in this part of town—for that matter in any part of town off the main street—were of hard earth. Behind the picket fence was a small, white one-storied house of the commonplace box architecture of the early 'eighties. It was glorified, however, by a riot of bright flowers, growing in the lavish profusion that only Southern California can show. The Colonel fumbled in one of his hampers—which had been replaced—captured a flat basket of oranges lurking in its apparently inexhaustible depths, and pushed inside the fence. His tall figure with its "stove pipe" hat seemed to stoop in order to enter the tiny house. He did not ring or knock, but entered the sitting room, which he found empty. Thence he proceeded to explore, prowling about the premises, until at length in a little shed back of the kitchen he found a young woman in an enveloping apron, her hair covered by a mob cap, her sleeves rolled up, busy at a wash tub. She flushed a little when she saw the Colonel. The latter was quite unconscious and unembarrassed, however. He perched his long form on a work bench, thrust back his tall hat.

"So here you are," he cried, cheerfully, "looking fresh as a rose! I brought you a few oranges, my dear."

He perched, swinging one leg, for a few moments, chatting; then bade farewell and rejoined Boyd.

"Nice little couple, there," he told the latter as he took the reins. "Friends of mine. Came out from the East last year. Husband has just a touch of lungs, I think though that's just a guess. Happy as a pair of turtle doves. I like to drop in to see them. Does me good."

He turned around and headed back toward Main Street. But on the way they passed a very imposing place. It occupied a