Los Angeles. The Spanish had built a town there of sun-dried bricks, and called it the City of the Queen of the Angels. Now it was a great, rich American city of three hundred thousand people.
No wonder the Spanish people called it that! For hours and hours the train ran south through fairy land, and into summer weather, although it was Christmas time. It ran through orchards of orange and lemon trees, through grapes and figs and plums, through groves of almond and walnut trees and olives. The towns were hidden by trees, the houses covered with roses. There were palm trees, and hedges of ger-an-i-ums, ten feet high.
Right over the city of Los Angeles were mountains with snow on them. A real Christmas tree was brought down from the mountains. On New Year's day there was a flower festival. Hundreds of carriages and au-to-mo-biles were covered with roses. Flower fairies rode in open cars. Alice was a white orange blossom in a bride's wreath of little girls. Thousands of people watched the flower pro-cess-ion. Alice was so happy she couldn't sleep a wink that night. She wanted to live in the City of the Angels forever. See California, page 308, San Francisco, page 1671, and Los Angeles, page 1116.
