Local Color 285 



and laughed and joked and smoked, some throw- 

 ing themselves down and enjoying a siesta. 



It has been said that few people are really 

 happy in their labor, or satisfied with their posi- 

 tion. If Seiior Gonzales is not, then all signs 

 fail in the California vineyards. Dolce far niente 

 side by side with active, indeed strenuous labor, 

 is the order here. Now they are standing be- 

 neath a group of fan palms, laughing and talk- 

 ing, passing merry jest. There is not a man 

 there who has a possession in the world of any 

 value except rugged health and happiness; not 

 a woman who owns much more than the clothes 

 she has in a bag in the tent. The really riotous 

 extravagance in the ramada is the baby car- 

 riage, a purely ornate American production cost- 

 ing a week's wages of mother and father. Some 

 of the younger men appear to own nothing but 

 a tin basin, and this they share; yet having 

 happiness and peace of mind they are the real 

 millionaires of humanity. Taxes, interest, the 

 increment earned or unearned do not worry 

 them. To-day is to-day; let us live it well, and 

 be happy, is the philosophy of Seiior Gonzales 

 and his friends. To-morrow well, to-morrow is 

 manana, it will care for itself, particularly if 

 we attain the habit of enjoying each day as 

 though it were the last. You may search all 

 the philosophies of the world and you cannot 

 find one that is more perfect, more ideal than 



