It Pays to Smile

the outbreak of the war of 1914 did wa

ly provoked, especially as my collection of the flora of Europe was far from complete. I had been gathering specimens whenever opportunity afforded, pressing them, and pasting them in a blank book. Then I would write in the proper names, both Latin and popular, in a neat letteri

ho as a rule was so free in pouring out exact statements regarding her inmost emotions, was absolutely silent on this most interesting subject. I had fully expected that she would make a sort of confessor of me and postpone my nightly slumbers to the point of ultimate endurance upon every possible occasion, as she had duri

e crime, if any, of which our gallant Sandy was accused, we tried the government officials, the American consul, and even went so far as to drive to the hom

n-to wit, because they knew nothing. If only some definite fact concerning Sandro could have been ascertained even though it had been to his detriment, Alicia's mind would have been

hat the police were just too reticent for anything. Foreign police are that way-not a bit like democratic America, where, Richard,

any that annoying war broke out and spoiled everything. A rush of appreciation of America seemed all at once to overwhelm even the most ardent tourists, and Mr. Pegg did not escape being affected by the contagion. With his usual decis

e a curious look which took me in from my newly waved hair to the tips of my high-heeled slippers, and I do verily believe that he observed them for the first time. My dear father used to say that men always

change his mind about something or other in the transparent m

g home at all. And what I mean to say is that I think it would be awfully good for you to spend a few months in California. It would sort of round out your European experiences by giving you a real genuine standard of com

the war's having interfered with our trip and being so sorry that we must

d, I shall be most pleased to remain in your employ and to see Golden California. The

an end. "Good! And you can get a lot of specimens for that dried-flower morgue of yours

German

ude and encouraged it. You see she had been traveling with us, and Mr. Pegg had quite unnecessarily, I thought, offered to get her back to Am

ow. I've lived there twenty years and it's part of me. We'll go into this war an

, and we all upheld her in so doing, I'm sure. It was a fine sacrifice and we all admire the

car. After the first night I entirely abandoned the hope, and therefore was more sensitive to other impressions. A great many people had, it seems, decided to go to California that week, and the war had necessitated Mr. Pegg's immediate return to the coast, as he called it, though I would have said we had landed upon the only real coast-well, at any rate, he had to go on at once, and Peaches insisted that we all go with him, but we were unable to obtain staterooms, and Mr. Pegg's attempt to buy up an entire car was a complete failure. Indeed he was abl

left Chicago behind us, and then, not unnaturally, the fi

car, and that one of them was a well-known motion-picture actor. But Peaches paid them absolutely no attention despite that before we were two hours out Richard was growling at them

suspicion some sort of card game was in progress, and he hardly r

ch was foreign to me. Indeed, I was glad of the opportunity, for though I had been several times from Boston to Plymouth, and

find it really existed. One had been told about Kansas plains and the northern Arizona deserts, but the statements made by travelers were somehow not convincing. Nobody's statements about travel ever are. But now I saw those, as I may call them, illimitable spaces and stupendous mountains

olonies were America; that I had actually once entertained the supposition that that portion of the country situated west of Buffalo was something to be vaguely apologetic for! It made Europe seem small

ow I began to be impressed with the stupendous fact of

r because there was no reality present to hamper the imagination.

Peaches or her father except in disparaging comparison to the Californian equivalent. And now upon the train, from the moment of

ited anticipation of a degree scarcely to be endured. Never shall I forget the first morning when casaba melons appeared in the dining c

n the same tone in which Euphemia mi

Wait until you have a Sa

alifornia is divided again

tionship with the family, even to the point of eating with us; a fact which seemed curiously without offense. "You said it, Aun

"Why, Free, southern California has nothing but the climat

hard promptly; "

e!" said Peac

his Kansas City paper. "Hey, you two-you was b

t the south," replied Peaches. "You know it's just on

kers!" retorted Dick. "Burning up in summe

has kep' me unprejudiced, what with owning orchards in both ends of the State. Let me tell you, Miss Freedom, that

e green, at least. You anticipate great groves of trees, wooded hills and flowery dales with

ent when we branched north I looked in vain for redwoods such as I had seen pictures of in geography books and other printed sources of information. Indeed, I began to fear that there existed but the one redwood I had seen pictured and that it was not situated near t

nd her eyes glistened. Her eager golden head turned this way and that. Sh

e, which I discovered to have been named after a famous Boston confection called Black Jack, and stood upon the rear

d then all at once I realized what it was. When California is wet she is green and they were looking at her through a veil of happy tears that tra

much home, just as big and bountiful and full of promise. Want to see it green? When the time co

man whose acquaintance I had made when he first got on the train the evening before, and with whom I had had a mos

hing up to the roots of his t

rge in her turn astonished.

lied. "Got on last night! What luck

on," said Peaches sweetly. "Mee

he exclaimed blandly. "

ast night," I said as primly as th

picked him up! I tell you I'll breathe ea