Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-02-26

"And so, Maria" said Gllmour, on the
evening preceding his departure
"our pleasant visit comes to an end. Well,
I have improved my Spanish; and you,
little Madonna. if ever the fates take you
| to England, will recognize the abbeys and
the churches from my descriptions.''
Maria Ignacia did not reply, but stoop-
/ ed to pick up an abalone shell, which, wet
and sheeny, lay in the sand at her feet.
s'And now, Maria, | have only one re-
| quest to make, which our charming ac-
| ouaintance warrants. 1t has three parts,
| however, s0aIUelar from this dark hair
| of yours; letter, now and then, when
| YOU weary Of your Monterey lovers, and
| wish to talk to me across the water; and
| "a kiss
Still no answer from tie girl, who, with
| ewes cast down, strolled along by his side
"Then [ take it for granted that nv
! PRAYERS prevail, Maria?"
Her soft eyes were raised to his, and
| he was surprised to find how pale the face
was. and how moist the rounded cheek.
He raised her lips to his with halfsigh,
| and then, as if new thought had sudden
| ly struck him, said abruptly, half to him.
| self and half to her:
"Good God! it can't be so, Maria,
| Tell me-do you love me?"
The wonderful passion in the full
brown eyes, so tender and despairing,
told him all; and then, like a foolish
Young man, he took her in his arms. and
swOre all the oaths that all lovers have so
often sworn and so often broken: and
when they strolled back over the sands
Maria's tears were gone, and James Gil
mOur clasped the hand of his promised
wife
This was all the romance in Maria's
life The next day the Delight sailed, and
for ten wears neither ship nor supercargo
was heard of in Monterey But she
never married. She had a strange way
of every evening walking to the hill
top where the old fort stood, and look
ing wistfulIy out across the water; then
sorrOwfully and resignedly returning to
her home, nursing her invalid and sour
tempered mother, and training the roses
about the adobe walls.
On this Christmas eve, Maria Ignacia,
kneeling before her Old-fashioned engrav-
ing of the Madonna, thought Of the
Manager in Bethlehem centuries ago, and
wondered sorrowfuliy if James Gilmour
was enjoying in his English home the
Christmas-tree and the mistletoe, and all
those games he had told her of when they
then her thoughts went back to that June
evening when he kissed herlips and called
her his wife.
Boom! boom! boom! through the still
night air.
Maria opened her window and looked
out. A party of Portuguese whalers went
rapidly by, and she learned from their eX-
cited explanations that ship had gone
ashore on the Point PinOs rocks.
"May God and the Virgin succor themp
she murmured, piOusly, as she hurried to
wrap her shawl around her, and was soon
in the street.
Every one was astir. Men on horse
back with ropes rode furiously along the
beach and toward the Point; the whalers
manned their boats, set their sails, and
sped before the blast through the moon
lit water. They were all too late The
cruel, pointed rocks had torn the Inflated
vessel to fragments; and the breakers DIAL
lied with spar and mast, now f1inging
them high up on the beach, and again
drawing them back to hurl them once
more against the brown cliffs. But not a
single body did the waves throw up that
night
Christmas Day dawned, and when Ma
ria Ignacia Gomez looked from her win
dow down to the crescent beach, she saw
a crowd Of men standing about some
thing. They lifted it up and bore 1t
through the street, and to her door, for
hers was the house nearest the beach.
as he dead?" she asked, fearfully.
"When we first saw him." said a
whaler, che was clinging to spar, and
before we got the boat out he was washed
ashore"
They laid him on bed. Hisdark beard
was full of sand and weeds, and white
froth issued from his lips: finely built
man-handsome, no doubt, when those
eyes, now staring so blindly, had light
and life and those well-cut lips moved
and smiled.
'Maria-Maria, what ails your"
She was standing by the bedside, her
hands crossed over her breast, her eyes
as fixed and vacant as the dead before
her.
90, my beloved" she moaned, laying
her white face on his bruised and stained
breast; Eat last, after so many years"
And then she smOothed back the tangled
hair, and wiped the foam from the livid
lips, and strai ghtened out the limbs of
him who had come to seek her after so
long.
For it was her great consolation that he
had been true even to death. They buried
him behind the old fort, and Maria took
up the thread Of her life again. And now
the roses were doubly dear to her, for
they were for his grave. = Overland
Monthly.