Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-05-17

strange, melOulOuS JafgOn greeted
my ears; musical caramboI I'' Kissed
between the teeth. This could hardly
be the accent of seraph. Looking
down, saw fleet of gayly painted
boats, from which throng of red
half.naked islanders climbed like
monkeys up the sides of the ship. They
gesticulated, they chartered, they hur.
ried agile about the ship, chattering
their delicious Spanish melliluous
cornucopia of vowels with angles
without sharpness living expires
sion of the strange scene upon which ]
had fallen.
"Porto Rico!'' said Captain David, as
he pass ed busily on his way. I
But busy as the captain was, he had
not forgotten me. Before night-fall a
snug little " casa," owned by kindly
Spanish woman, received me. A quiet
place a little way beyond the busy
town, white floors, vast rooms open to
the roof, with here and there in wide
perspective O chair, table, a flower
wreathed niche for the Virgin. Such
was my new home. a- ts.H 8
Though apart from the town, it was
not isolated. Past its windows, whose
,jalousies only yelled, but did not hide,
the outer world, drifted daily the char
acteristic sights of a tropic town. Over
laden mules and sleepy Spanish ponies,
bearing panniers of fruit-oranges, ba-
nanas, mamraee-apples, and l know not
what of shining and nameless things
moved leisurely down to the quay be.
strobe byssullen slaves, their dark faces
set off by now and then a scarlet vest
or great overshadowing "sombrero =
or lazy, halfnaked native loitered by
with picturesque load of dried plan.
tain leaves for thatching his mountain
hut, where he lived free, independent,
and, in his expressive phrase, " solemn
ly poor"
My landlady, the Sonora Marie, was
a great, motherly, kind-hearted woman,
a widow with broad of olive-skinned,
wild-eyed little ones to look after. For
them she was very ambitious for their
sakes she made the dainty "pates" OF
guava and cocoa-nut, which her slave
Liza took down to market, posing them
on her head after the ancient fashion
which is the only fashion of things in
Porto Rico for their sakes she rented
the pleasant rooms in her casa to
the tides and winds brought
her from sea; aud for their sakes, no
doubt, had she been an American
woman, she would have set herself to
active industry and labored diligently
with her hands, AS it was, she cared
for them and planned for them afser
her own sort, and loved them hugely.
She listened delighted while they clus.
tered round me, chatteripg their dainty
lingo, wondering over my light locks,
my foreign dress, and coaxing me with
a winning witchery to talk to them in
t-...r-s zfa-..t setea.I
Sometimes the captain dropped in
upon us he was taking in cargo. Great
of sugar must have been a
load on his mind, but he found room
for me also. Sometimes he took me
out before sunrise for stroll on the
hills. Sometimes we rode on horseback
to some distant sugar plantation, or we
visited some oleander-hid hacienda
whose owner he knew. I was getting
along famously, he said; the sonora had
told him with all her fingers, eyes, and
tongue how she liked me, how golden
my hair was, and how | got on with the
children. Would / like to live in Porto
Rico? :7a Az p5- tf .}r3t .aeg
Oh, liked it unspeakablyI The red
soil, the hills, the struggling roads, the
cocoa-trees, the far sugar-cane planta-
lions with their tall chimneys looming
against the sky it was all beautiful
even this lazy life that lived itself with
put effort, and seemed to put to shame
the busy, undignifed scramble we had
called existence. .ns .rre
7 love it all, captain p | exclaimed.
WE'LL" said the captain, laughing,
'we must huLt up our engineer and
see what can be done about it"
But Sonora Marie had new idea. sr
"The little senorita is happy here;
doubtless some of her people long ago
we're Spanish, eh? She tells me she is
not rich--money no muche, eh? Let
1er stay with me in my casa; will give
ner plenty mucho to eat and to wear !;
will take her to my friends. They
nave haciendas, plantations, plenty
laves. She shall teach the children
md be happy. En-, what say you, senor
,apitan?' ,sre. .--..s. ~..ft. ,.,,
Senior captain said nothing for some
ime. He wiped his forehead with his
ed bandana; he looked over at me
With searching glance; he knit his
,rows. Finally he rose in his abrupt
ashton. "She might do worse" he
aid, and betook himself to his ship.
The hot day grew hotter it famed to
close; it died with gorgeous burning
,ehind the hills; the sudden blackness
# tropic night came on but he did not
;ome again.
l lay awake long that night listening
o the wash of the surf on the distant
hore, and hearing the lonely cry of the
vatchman calling out the hour in the
olitary streets of the town. How
TRANCE it would be to grow familiar
With all these things, and live in this
trange land forever!
| said nothing more to Sonora Marie
bout her proposition. People in these
stands are in no such haste for decis-
on. Perhaps | had miscalculated the
,aptain's kindness-it might not pay
,im to carry me back. And what did
want to go back to? To the struggle
or bread again? To the narrow room
lnder the roof-to the narrow life OF
Here I was rich, or might
De; even the poorest here had his plan
ain hut and his patch of banana.
Yet something in me ached at the
hought that the good ship with Its tidy
,abin, its kindly captain and crew,
would go out from me, sailing throus IN
he nlists of the great ocean. and leave
ne drifted among the palms and cocoas,
worthless, unmissed thing, not worth
aking home.
/ tried to be sensible, to look the
natter in the face, and to rejoice that
ate had provided for me SO unexpect-