The Mineral argus., 1884-02-14

~ -%N - 80 0A0 AA4 4
with a puzzled look, twisting and un-
twisting the ends of a soiled rose-cOlored
shawl that hung about her shoulders.
At length she staggered heavily up. to
the bar.
"Gimme some water!"
The crowd of men laughed and ieered.
The ~barkeeper seemed spell-bound.
"Curse you'll Quit yer foolin. Gimme
a drink of water, l tell you"
shelf back of his counter, and went
slowly to large a ola, into which he
dipped it. He ventured only n re-
mark in a tone of mingled inquiry and
timld expostulation:
"Wnl you take it straight, Moli"
The woman did not deign to reply,
but deliberately drained the glass to the
last drop. The cold, pure drAught
seemed to clear the mists away from her
brain. She fingered the tattered shawl
with intelligent recollection. Standing
in the entrance to her tent that after
noon, and looking, with bleared eyes and
befogged brain, off in the direction OF
the E~loridas, she had seen something OF
that same color moving through the
meuuisite. To her drunken fancy it had
first seemed a bird of brilliant plumage,
then a warm-tinted tropical flower,
blown about by the wind. A slow intel
ligence seemed to dawn upon her.
"How was the kid dressed?"
The men looked at her in dull amaze
ment. One of them vouchsafed an an
swer:
"Some kind of a pink frock, all rufles
from top to bottom, Looked like a rose.
| seen her playin' round the ear this
mornin'," he added. half alphabetically,
as if to extenuate his poetic smile.
'"Twere a t~hree-year old girl"
His closing information was addressed
to the crowd. The INT was forgot
ten and turned to the door with a sud-
den determination. The d m recollec-
ton bad taken shape Ind form at last.
The men sprang to their horses and set
out to scour the country IN various dlrec-
tons.
Over the trackless plain, with its
clumps of mesquite n g~reAsewood, a
woman went swiftly along. Stumbling
over the rough ground, her feet pierced
the minute needles oil cactus or stabbed
with the harsher thrusts OF
Spanish bayonet, she never
once faltered. The cool night
winds played about her bare head, and
refreshed and restored her heated brain.
Her step grew firm and steady, and, ere
long, she left far behind her the circuit
within which a hundred men were beat
Ing every IoOJ OF grOunu.
She had progressed several miles up
on her rough pilgrimage, when her pace
slackened and she commenced to wan
der to and fro, her head bent in anxious
scratiny, ceiling out at times in a soft
low voice, which her rough companions
would never have recognized. But she
ever moved on in the direction of the
Big Floridas.
"She was taking a line as straight as q
bee," she said to herself. 81 see it all
( she was running away to the mountains
Don't [ know? | must have been jus
{ about her age when | set out for Noun
KatahdIn. | had gone down to Aun
Jones's on q visit with mother
: Something choked her with that word
forbidden herself ever in thought for 81
: many years. Yet she pronounced ]
= over and over again, moaning all tn
s time, Out upon the desolate plains, ia
3 from any hum II habitatiQp, with onl,
the mountains, the sky and stars II
l sight, she was nearer the old life thai
: she had been for years.
A sharp cry In the distance, multiplie'
Y until it became a discordant chorus, az
rested ner attention.
r "The C swardly coyotesr" she muttered
"They'd never harm the child, bu
l they'd brighten the little thing to death
out here alone"
/ A sudden recollection made her shud
der. The Floridas out there were sal
q to have lately harbored another foe
cowardiy and treacherous as the wolve
: of the plain, but sparing neither bah
4 nor woman. A band of maraudin
Apaches had been lurking in the neigh
q borhood. What if, attracted by tn
r bright raiment of the child; they ha
swooped down upon her? The fra
mother, helplessly wringing her hand
4 as she wandered up and down the Cal
or sobbing as she placed to her lips som
d battered toy or little garment belong
ing to the lost child, hardly felt a deer
err anguish in her heart than swayed tn
n abandoned woman at the terrible visiol
It she had conjured.
v Suddenly she stopped short. Wins
! was that faint wall that echoed in tn
distance? The moon had risen an
d stood high above Cooks Peak. a silve
h globe in the sky. lighting up every clum
r add bush. Hardening a moment, sh
then went swiftly toward a small objel
% she deserted afar of, and came at last
n where q little child sat, frightened an
Is exhausted, beside a bunch ofsage-brusl
# and lifted her tiny arms Rppeallngly.
mammal me want mammal"
eyes, darling, 1 will take you straigl
d to her.''
The woman's voice Was fine and loy
a with a strange, affectionate thrill.
She took from her shoulders the ia
tered shawl and wrapped it around tt
little one; then lifted her
/. her arms, and, with soothir
n words and tender Ieassuranc
turned back toward the town. In til
bright moonlight her path was plain
b day, and she picked her way CAREFUL
a. Lila wv soIf 4
d Jar. From time to time, as she locke
20 dnun nnnn the litfIa craafnrR,a face an