of a canary or finch of Señora Moreno's raising." The south veranda is still popular. In the day-time one sits there to enjoy the prospect of the garden opposite, and during the evening the Señora visits it and has quiet conversations with her people, or with visiting friends.
THE RANCH-HOUSE.
Coming suddenly upon the Camulos ranch-house one might naturally mistake it for some military stronghold. The walls are thick and low, and are strengthened by heavy buttresses, between which is a passage-way to the cellar, and over which have grown honeysuckle vines that climb even to the overhanging eaves of the house. It was on the south veranda, in
THE RANCH-HOUSE.
sight of these strong, vine-clad buttresses and of the garden, that Felipe rested after his illness, while Alessandro watched by his side. The westernmost room, leading off the upper balcony or loggia, was the room always given to Father Salviederra. Its window opens on the garden, and the doorway faces the east. "Between the veranda and the river meadows … all was garden, orange grove, and almond orchard; the orange grove always green, never without snowy bloom or golden fruit; the garden never without flowers, summer or winter; and the almond orchard in early spring a fluttering canopy of pink and white petals. … On either hand stretched away other orchards,—pear, peach, apricot, apple, pomegranate,—and beyond these vineyards. Nothing was to be seen but verdure
