"
"You couldn't call her 'Santa Francisca,' eh?" said Colonel
Pendleton, doubtingly.
"Not much," said the woman, with a seriousness that defied any
ulterior insinuation.
"Nor Chrysopolinia?" said the Mayor, musingly.
"But that's only a FIRST name. She must have a family name," said
the woman impatiently.
"Can YOU think of something, Paul?" said the Mayor, appealing to
Hathaway. "You're a great reader, and later from your classics
than I am." The Mayor, albeit practical and Western, liked to be
ostentatiously forgetful of his old Alma Mater, Harvard, on
occasions.
"How would YERBA BUENA do, sir?" responded the youth gravely.
"It's the old Spanish title of the first settlement here. It comes
from the name that Father Junipero Serra gave to the pretty little
vine that grows wild over the sandhills, and means 'good herb.' He
called it 'A balm for the wounded and sore.'"
"For the wounded and sore?" repeated the woman slowly.
"That's what they say," responded Hathaway.
"You ain't playing us, eh?" she said, with a half laugh that,
however, scarcely curved the open mouth with which she had been
regarding the young secretary.
"No," said the Mayor, hurriedly. "It's true. I've often heard it.
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