The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-10-07

'Stan0lng Dy the AT Wno0t-nOuSo, 1
found the Texan the next morning
throwing biscuits to the gulls and gazing
wistfully seward.
".Your first visit to EuropeP said,
steadying myself by the rail-
eyes, but I would give all last
years herd if had never como. for
Kitty is i'll. have travelled night and
day since the telegram reached me, but
La Junta is SO far away am afraid /
shall be too Late
II wish could give you an idea of
his manner: it was more like that of
person who had just learned the lam
guage and was afraid of making mis-
takes, 50 hesitated before each word,
giving every syllable its full value. He
explained this simply enough afterward
that Kitty had broken him of swear
ing by making him think before he
spoke"
"But you haven't told us who Kitty
was" interrupted the blue parasol.
''Was she light or darkp''-''his wife?"
she wouldn't have dared!'-''a
Texan wifeg' and Mrs. Brogden looked
very grave at the possibilities the fly
ing questions aroused.
"No, she wasn't his wife; only the
Yankee schoolmistress of La Junta. l
never saw her. She must have been an
angel, though, from his description; so
will leave the details for your &C
auaintance hereafter, Miss Brogden;"
which outrageous fattery was received
with contemptuous silence.
"She lived at Junta, and would
canter over on Saturdays to Trocalara,
the Texans ranch, to teach his herds
mems families. His partner, Parker,
and he had large cattle-ranch not far
from the Mexican frontier, and Kitty
could not have lived on a bed of roses,
l fancy. Raids, stampedes and other
border pleasantries were constantly
occurring. l remember we thought
him too gentle at first to have really
hailed from the Plains; but one
night, when Hamilton demonstrated
allowed himself to get in that state de-
scribed by the sailors as three sheets in
the wind, and the fourth fluttering,
and was met with rather an uncivil
reply, the Texas shut the offender up
like a jack-knife with his heavy grip and
the intimation that he proposed to set
tie the Bible-man's scores
HE grew quite intimate with Hamil-
ton and me, and proved delightful
companion. He would quote readily
from many of the later poets, and knew
whole pages of Milton and Shakespeare
by heart. Kitty had taught him these,
he said, after she married Parker and
came to live with him.
"She made us read history books
! first he said many, many volumes
but we soon got to like them better than
anything else. The poetry she read to
us; and so we never went to the shows
in Junta after she came. Kitty has q
good husband, as fine fellow as ever
lassoef steer, but she is too pure for
Junta. Parker loves her, and l love
her, too, but both of us do not make up
for her Eastern comforts. And so last
year, as we made 4 good herd and
there were no raids to speak of, came
to New York to get a few luxuries for
her. She wrote me then to go to Paris
and see the Exposition; so I went be-
cause thought she knew best, and
that if had seen the world a little
l should be nearer to her, and it
would not be quite so hard for her out
there. And now she is i'll, and-I am
herer'
He turned impatiently away to ask
the quartermaster what we were doing
by the last log. The speed appeared to
satisfy him, for he sat quietly down again
and told us how it was that Kitty had
come to live with them.
"'FOr two years, you knOw--assum-
ing that we did know-'she spent Sat-
urdays at Trocalara, teaching our people
how to read and write. They were very
rough at first-we all are out there--and
did not care much; but she interested
them, and brought picture books for the
little ones, and by and by she said she
would come out on Sunday and we
should have church, with triumphant
look at Hamilton and his Pan-Anglican
attendance. Yes, we had had priest
there before, but he was shot in row
at Bowler's Paradise, and no one cared
to apply for new one.
Kitty came up to the ranch the
first Sunday, and asked us to come with
her. We refused at first, but after a
while, when we heard the singing, we
went down to the quarters, and found
her sitting under one of the trees with
all the young ones clustered round her;
and we waited there and listened until
we began to feel very sorry that we had
played so late at BowleS's the night
before.
"'But Parker had been in luck, and
he swore he would get her as fine
piano as could be brought from the
States Che was alf-Mexican by birth)
if she would sing like that for us at the
ranch.
"'She stood up then, with all the
young ones looking on in amazement,
the light and shade playing over her
through the cool, dark leaves, and, turn
ing her large gray eyes full on Parker's
face, said she would if we would prom
Use never to 60 to Bowler's again.
"'1 think Parker expected her to re-
fuse to come altogether, because we
had no women there, and we had heard
the people in Junta talking of her quiet.
modest ways. But no, she never
thought of herself: she only thought of
the nights at Bowler's, and wanted to
save us from the end she had seen often
enough in two years in Junta. At any
rate, the piano came, and Parker had
it sent as sort of halfway measure to
her house in Junta, where she and her
mother lived, and we were as welcome
as the light there always.
90 You have no idea of her music.
They told me at concerts in Paris that
| was hearing the finest musicians in
Europe, but they were not like Kitty.
They played for our money-Kitty play
ed for our pleasure: it makes so much
difference he added, as his fingers
drummed an accompaniment to the air
he whistled.
"'One night Parker and Iwere sitting
in corner at Bowler's when we heard
a Greaser-a Mexican, you know-that
Parker had refused to play poker with
the night before ask who the senorita
was that had taken the spirit out of
Parker.
"' We both started forward instantly.
but as the man was evidently ignorant
OF our presence, Parker checked me
with Hovco Lob h, n~,rc Z Lc< u \