CHAPTER V 

 SUMMER DAYS AND NIGHTS 



Sunday Morning. My first cutting of alf- 

 alfa is safely out of the way and the irrigation of 

 the shorn fields is completed, and for the passing 

 hour I am at peace with the whole world. It is only 

 right, mete and proper that I should be in this 

 beatific state of mind, for the early hours have been 

 most unsabbathically employed. 



Juan was irrigating all night, and when at the 

 Sunday hour of eight or thereabouts I stepped forth 

 arrayed in whitest white with the ultimate intention 

 of attending church, I was confronted with a 

 spectacle which caused me to snatch my hoe from 

 the porch and hurl myself into a singlehanded strug- 

 gle with waters all too swift and strong. Far up the 

 ranch Juan was still racing back and forth, but 

 around the house one of the ditches had broken, the 

 drive was submerged and the insidious wave was 

 threatening my mud mansion. Sunday and snowy 

 raiment immediately became things of naught, and 

 for two mortal hours, the sun grinning ever wider 

 and wider overhead, I strove with weeds, lumps of 

 clay and finally gunny sacks ere I succeeded in stop- 

 ping the perilous leak. When Juan appeared an- 

 nouncing the completion of his task he stared open- 

 mouthed at the Senora, bedaubed as she was with 

 symbols of victory. 



