BURR CLOVER. 



Is there any thing more lovely than youth? a young girl 



just coming into womanhood ? It is in California you find the 



.loveliest girls in the world, large in stature and graceful in form. 



I have watched them by the hour, laughing and chatting, all 



unconscious of the great charm of their beauty health. 



There is something about the air of California that is exhil- 

 arating. It gives a kind of champagne pop to every thing. Men 

 and women walk faster, ricle faster, and live faster than in the 

 East. Girls marry younger, and boys become men while yet in 

 their teens. It is the climate. 



Two young girls at my hotel interested me; they were 

 great friends, and I found them well-informed and ever ready 

 to give me information about their State, with a pride all possess 

 who live in it. 



I met them one clay, their faces flushed and their hands 

 full of great bunches of burr clover. " Where did you get 

 them?" I asked. "They are beautiful." The flower was new to 

 me, and consequently of great value. "At the mission 'Dolo- 

 res.' You can get just lovely ones there," they answered. 



The next day found me at this wonderful mission, founded 

 by the Spanish Friars in the year 1776. The sexton points out 

 the three little bells in the three square openings, and assures 

 you they were brought from the Castle many years ago. The 

 long narrow aisles lead you to the altar, and here we see what the 



