CHAPTER XX 



THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD 



LOMPOC is famous for two things, its mus- 

 tard and its steelhead trout fishing. I 

 discovered it one day with Robert Burdette. He 

 was going to lecture to the mustard raisers who 

 claim to raise two thirds of the mustard of the 

 United States, and I was going on a scientific 

 mission, to discover when to go a-fishing in the 

 attractive little river that glides down between 

 the plains of gold, and also to fish. Instead, I 

 went to the lecture that I had heard before and 

 wanted to hear again, and saw this inimitable 

 preacher sway the Lompocians from tears to 

 laughter and back again. I secured a seat at 

 the back of the house behind a large angular 

 woman who seemed an authority. Finally some 

 one asked her who the speaker was. 



" Why," she replied, " he 's the silver-tongued 

 orator of the golden West," and I can attest 

 that my companion filled the part and instead 

 of trout I caught wisdom and lessons of laughter, 

 philosophy, and piety which I needed more than 

 trout. But sometime I am going a-fishing in 



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