The children were seldom indoors unless it rained. There were no
schools; there were few ranches where there were teachers, and the
fathers and mothers generally had their hands too full to devote
themselves to their children's education, so in the early days it was
all playtime. Later, schools were started for boys, and dreadful places
they were.
As General Vallejo describes them, they were generally held in a narrow,
badly lighted room, with no adornment but a large green cross or some
picture of a saint hanging beside the master's table. The master was
often an old soldier in fantastic dress, with ill-tempered visage. The
scholar entered, walked the length of the room, knelt before the cross
or picture, recited a prayer, then tremblingly approached the master,
saying, "Your hand, Senor Maestro," when with a grunt the hand would be
extended to him to be kissed. Little was taught besides the reading of
the primer and the catechism.
Ranch boys early learned to ride, each having his own horse and saddle.
Every year there was a rodeo, or "round-up," held in each neighborhood,
where cattle from all the surrounding ranches were driven to one point
for the purpose of counting the animals and branding the young.
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