She thanked me for the kind and, as she called them, greatly
exaggerated compliments I had paid her; and her daughter told me
that all travellers who came to Santa Barbara called to see her
mother, and that she herself never expected to live long enough to
be a belle.
Mr. Alfred Robinson, our agent in 1835-6, was here, with a part of
his family. I did not know how he would receive me, remembering what I
had printed to the world about him at a time when I took little
thought that the world was going to read it; but there was no sign
of offence, only cordiality which gave him, as between us, rather
the advantage in status.
The people of this region are giving attention to sheep-raising,
wine-making, and the raising of olives, just enough to keep the town
from going backwards.
But evening is drawing on, and our boat sails to-night. So, refusing
a horse or carriage, I walk down, not unwilling to be a little
early, that I may pace up and down the beach, looking off to the
islands and the points, and watching the roaring, tumbling billows.
How softening is the effect of time! It touches us through the
affections.
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