The Brown Family in California 



By JASON BROWN 

 CHAPTER FIFTEEN 



IN WHICH NEIGHBOR SIMPSON TELLS ABOUT OUT-OF-DOOR LIFE IN CALIFORNIA FOR BABIES 



AVE you heard the news?" asked Simpson, flicking his team 

 gently with a whip. 

 "What news?" I asked. 



"Whoa, boy, whoa," replied Simpson. "Strange how this 

 team wants to be up and doing. But that isn't it. There's a 

 stranger on the old Estudillo Rancho grant." 



"Well, that's good. I'm glad Eastern people are beginning to learn 

 a little about the opportunities for farming in California," I said. 



"But this isn't an Easterner, and he isn't going to be a farmer — at 

 least not yet a while," said Simpson. "This young man came in with the 

 storks. Mr. Paulsen has a ten-pound boy." 



"Oh, isn't that just lovely. I must go over and see him," said my 

 wife. "I do hope the little fellow will get along ever so well." 



"Of course he will, ma'am," said William Simpson. "I'm not a-going 

 to exaggerate about California, but I do say that it's a good country to 

 bring up your children in. You remember that Schoolteacher Bradshaw 

 sent his wife and baby back to her mother's in Des Moines, Iowa, last sum- 

 mer. It's pretty hot traveling through the Middle West in summer, and 

 by the time they got to Des Moines the little one was pretty near dead with 

 the heat and teething. Then it kept hot all summer, and, you know, that 

 isn't good for babies. The little chap fretted and had prickly heat and a 

 lot of other things that babies have and men don't know much about. 

 Well, Mrs. Bradshaw couldn't come back to California, for it was too hot 

 to think of traveling on the train. And she hated to stay there, for the 

 baby kept getting sicker all the time. By and by she thought she'd just 

 have to make the trip and take the risk. Well, when she got to Kinney's 

 Corners I thought I never saw such a poor, peaked young one. But the 

 schoolmaster up and said they'd have to take him to the seashore, and so 

 they did, and now, sir, that little fellow is the healthiest, happiest, fattest 

 little chap you ever did see." 



"Yes, indeed, the change did him good right away," said my wife. 



"Of course it did, Mrs. Brown," replied Simpson. "You can't find 

 a fatter, healthier baby in the township than this one." 



"And of course Mr. Simpson is such an enthusiast that he thinks it's 

 all due to California," said our Ethel. 



"Perhaps not all of it, Miss Ethel," said Simpson, "but at least a great 

 part of it. You see, children in California can play in the open the year 

 round. The out-of-door life is the natural life. All children need is a 

 chance to grow and they will grow. Here in California the children are 

 not kept in the house most of the time in winter. Some one has said that 

 California babies are the prettiest babies in the world. I think it's because 

 they're healthy, for in my opinion perfect health is a synonym for good 

 looks." 



"Well," I said, "here comes Mr. Paulsen himself. Perhaps he will tell 

 us something about that new baby of his." 



Paulsen, you know, worked for me with his team when I first started 

 our California farm. Paulsen is a fine young Swedish man. He owns 

 twenty acres of land and the way he earned it is one not unusual in Cali- 

 fornia. He and a partner had earned enough to make a first payment on 

 forty acres. The partner stayed home and worked the ranch and what 

 Paulsen made by working around they paid on their property. Then 

 Paulsen and his partner each took twenty acres, and when the little home 

 was built, Paulsen and his sweetheart were married. I recalled these 



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