Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1883-03-21
THE POTTER.
BY IDA H. Adds.

eddy whirl1ng his little lathe day ate
day, loving his labor, eager to advance
In his art, but otherwise unambitious
unasplring, with never a dream hey ont
a simple, homely life and never dread
deeper or darker than that Tiburci>
Fuentes' last load of wood from Pino'
Altos might prove delusive juniper in
stead OF sturdy oak, and that so thu
contents OF his kiln might be lost in til.
firing.
His father wished, urged, commanded
the young man to prepare himself TO-
the church, but Ramon Gutierrez stur
Oily and steadily refused to obey the
paternal mandate. The priesthood wa:
not for him, nor he for the priesthood
he said, much to the disa appointment
and anger of the senior Gutierrez.
One day Father Gumecindo, the gooi
old village priest, put into Ram on's
hand coin of gold, and said:
Tonight goes Marco ViIlega hence
with his boats; to-day they will be laden.
Go, then, to Marco with my commenda
ton, and take passage hence-for thy
father will have thee priest whether OF
no. But-hear me, hoy-tbink not
would counsel child to set at naught
the wishes of his elders. help thee to
depart, not for pity on thy puny pain,
but for churchly zeal. 1 were loath to
have thee as my successor, for naugnt
were worse for the church than the re.
luctant service of an unwilling minis.
ter"
And so that night Ramon arose from
his little bed, which Was only a sheep.
skin spread on the hard earth floor, and
carrying his rawhide sandals and his
treasured knife, he stole away between
high hedges whose thickets OF great
roses of CASTLE made the air rich with
heavy odor, down past the rock-ledged
hill where crapy pink nallates swung
out their trailers of bloom amid flaming,
brilliant tav0ckines; and among all the
village houses, on whose red-tiled roofs,
tenantless now in the cold, pale moon
light, oy day, in the sultry noontime,
great green, and bronze mailed lguanas
lay basking; there through groves OF
guavas, glossy. leaved and waxeu. BIOS
somed, and piumy palms, and rustling
plantains, down to the rapid liver,
where half.score of canoes, dug out Of
once stately forest growths, were putting
of for the seaport, forty leagues away;
and there Ramon Gutierrez came to
anchor in the great harbor. In a
wretched peon quarter, far out along the
Ptaza del Estero, the boy pursued his
simple trade.
He was always conscious that even in
80 common andmechanical craft as his,
there might be many degrees Of excel
lence beyond the skill that wrought rude
playthings and domestic Utensils. He
never dreamed OF the marvellous poreu-
tia'ities OF concet ton and execution
comprised by the masters OF his art, bur
he OWNED that training aud experience
might develop powers and talent IN
known here; and OWNING, there grew
upon him an I'D quel,able longing to he
in the wonderful land yonder, away
northward, OF whose attalnments and
enttrpr,ss iu science he had heard from
chance American travellers such &C counts
as seemed fairy tales indeed.
Moved by some vagrant or nomad in
stinct, he at last wandered northward
along the rock-bound coast of the west
ern gulf, over many painful, weary
league OF burning desert sand, and
many chain and spur of mountain
heights. It seemed to Ramon that he
was standing by the gates of Paradise
when he stopped on the crest of the east
ward hill, footsore and tattered to look
down upon the hybrid habitations of
Silver, nestled among scant growth OF
clustering cottonwoods, vlvllly green
from grateful shower that had swept
over the town, and that even now hung
down dense, gray curtain on the hither
side of Plnos Altos.
And here, in the remote frontier min
ing camp, overlooking with abuses and
absurditles and anomalies, Ramon found
a poor dwelling place, and with bis own
deft and slender hands set up modest
kind of adobe, and built himself prim-
tive lathe, and sent it whirling under
the clay that for want of even burro
the patient, kindly donkey of the
country-he carried down from his dis
tant bed of deposit in rawhide sung
over his own graceful shoulders. He
was an atomic was less than an atom
in the organization of Silver. The
money getting population knew not even
OF his existence, save as they came, hay
ing tested the grateful use of great wa
ter-cooling ollas when summer heats set
the earth agasp, for the sake of creature
comfort, to hector and haggle over his
large porus vases of correct and classic
shape, such ss mayhap, the marriage
feast of Cana knew. Naught cared
Ramon for their indifference or their
contempt. Little knew he, little rocked
he, how they held him. Only when
penurlous greed beat down the price of
his wares until no margin of profit re-
NAMED for his labor, only then be MUIR
INJURED, half protesting, half-grumbling:
" Dios! how they are hard, los Ameri-
conos!" The very Incidence of Mexi-
can nature is in measure wholesome.
since it's imperturbability is superior to
the scOrn of narr, " minds.
So Ramon wrought on, at his oven by
the great adobe church, in contentment,
and what to him seemed comfort, un-
shaken by tremor of trouble, unpierced
by pang of passion ate pam, until the
day that Charlotte P]eyel came to stand
beside his kiln, to awaken, all unwit-
tingly, the slumhering heart of the man
~ LID OOoOAA, auu IcdCu u1u TIC DlGGer.
ness of fate.
It had rained in the night time, and
the sky, clear washed, was cobalt
behind it's cumulose curd- white clouds;
the cotton woods shook their leaves
with q sound like the clapping
of myriads of tiny elm hands;
the blackbirds were caroling their own
gurgling roundelay; the boom of blasts
in the neighboring mines was less sharp
~ resonant than usual; and the thunder
of the stamp mills down in the gulch
drifted up the valley, subdued till it
might have been far away surf dashing
on oceans shore. -.., .-- -
Charlotte Pleyel and Miss Harrod
were fast friends and firm. Both had
been trained to broader reach and
higher aim than the petty gossip and
narrow purpose that surrounded them
here. Charlotte, with all her mental
force, had the artless enthusiasm of a
child, with child's WE'LL believing and
crednlous faith in the whole word. Up
on this ingenious trust Miss Harrod's
intense consciousness and keen reading
of motives, seen by the light Of expert
onCe. acted n a re0kraint The two no.