IN CALIFORNIA 121 



together for a moment and to my astonishment his 

 hands were bathed in a foamy lather. Then he 

 rinsed them and spread them before me. 



"It does the work, you see," he grinned. 



I got down from the wagon and did it myself. 

 There was no deception. My hands were as clean 

 as the best toilet soap could have made them, soft as 

 velvet and fragrant with a spicy fragrance. 



The Calif ornian chuckled. 



"It's hard to beat the truth about this State," he 

 remarked complacently. "When our people lie 

 about things, it's just a perverted habit they don't 

 have to. There are a dozen sorts of these wild 

 lilacs in the chaparral, and all of them that I have 

 tried have the same soapy principle in the flowers 

 and also in the green seed-vessels. Now I'll tell 

 you something more. When Nature stocked us up 

 with soap, she didn't stop with one sort; she put 

 several brands on the shelves. Here's another one 

 more popular than the lilac flowers, for somehow 

 very few people, even Californians, seem to know 

 about them. But here's one most country people 

 know. ' ' 



He stooped and with a big jack-knife that he took 

 from his trousers' pocket, he began digging about a 

 stemless plant, whose broad, grass-like leaves, some- 

 what crinkled, were sprawling on the ground. After 



