Page:Helen Hunt--Ramona.djvu/499

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RAMONA'S HOME.
3

we are not the ones they wish to see. We remember when Mrs. Jackson came. She did not remain long; and our Señora, who, we are told, is so much like the Señora Moreno, was then away."

THE SOUTH VERANDA.

The verandas about the inner court are long and deep. The grape-vines clinging about the supporting posts are now just coming into leaf, but the flowers are all in bloom. The south veranda, "H. H." says, was a delightsome place. "It must have been eighty feet long, at least, for the doors of five large rooms opened on it. The two westernmost rooms had been added on, and made four steps higher than the others, which pave to that end of the veranda the look of a balcony or loggia. Here the Señora kept her flowers; great red water-jars, hand-made by the Indians of San Luis Obispo Mission, stood in close rows against the walls, and in them were always growing fine geraniums, carnations, and yellow-flowered musk. … besides the geraniums, carnations, and musk in the red jars, there were many sorts of climbing vines,—some coming from the ground, and twining around the pillars of the veranda; some growing in great bowls, swung by cords from the roof of the veranda, or set on shelves against the walls, … Among these vines, sinking from morning till night, hung the Señora's canaries and finches, half a dozen of each, all of different generations, raised by the Señora. She was never without a young bird family on hand; and all the way front Buena Ventura to Monterey, it was thought a piece of good luck to come into possession