The Annals of the Porch Club 171 



It was Barney's son, a chip of the old block, according 

 to these veracious annals, that sat trembling in his seat in 

 the little school one day when a great revivalist came and 

 began to question the pupils. 



" Who," he demanded sternly, " led the Israelites into the 

 land of Canaan ? " 



No one answered. 



" That boy in the corner," said the revivalist, pointing his 

 finger at Barney, Jr., and repeating the question. 



" It wasn't me," cried the son of his father, rubbing 

 his eyes. " We've just moved over from San Pedro last 

 week." 



You may have heard this story before, it has gone over the 

 world, but it was born on this angling island. It was this 

 same young Barney who hearing the teacher say that God 

 was everywhere, asked solemnly, with troubled air, if he 

 was sitting on him. That and many more were told by 

 Barney of his offspring. 



Barney the elder occasionally went to Los Angeles, to 

 place in more complete circulation his savings, and once, it 

 is said, he rolled up to the ticket office, and bracing himself 

 as became a man of the sea, three sheets or so in the wind, 

 demanded a ticket. 



" Where do you want to go ? " asked the official. 



" What trains have ye to-day," replied Barney, " an' I'll 

 make me selection." 



It was Barney who illustrated the goodness of heart of 

 the people of Portuguese Bend, a hamlet hard by the island. 

 One day in Lent he took a fine striped bass and, thinking 

 to inflict upon himself a penance, as he craved the fish with : 

 fierce appetite, he sent it to the family of Pedro Carmelo. 

 Pedro, having heard that the Fienzis, a Portuguese family, 

 were poor, carried it there with the blessing of the Virgin; 

 but Vincente Fienzi, though dying to eat the fish, also be- 

 thought him of the penance, and sent it over to Father 

 Malone, who was visiting one Romero Carzone, an abalone 



