Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-02-13
Inns WIFE.

I.never saw his face, nor hers. But !
sometimes saw his hands, long and thin
and white, with that pallor peculiar to
plants grown in the dark and human
beings shut out from light and air.
It was midsummer, and the broad
street, that ran down the open plaza
around which Comanche is built, was
white with dust, and already reflected
back the hot glow OF a scorching sun,
although it was yet early when / drew
back the curtain that draped my little
window and looked out, on the morn
ing after my arrival. The heavy
shadows of an immense live-oak cooled
all the front Of the low ,irregularly- built
Lighthouse into which I had come as a
summer guest, but the big, square
county Jail. nearly opposite, stood max
ed and bare to the light, absorbing the
heat into its solid white stone walls and
casting it out again in quivering rays
that thrilled all the breathless air.
Everything was still just at that mo-
nent; she herself was so motionless
standing there in tho middle of the
street with the child lifted in her arms,
his little bare legs showing white
against her rusty black dress, and his
head almost hidden beneath the faded
yellow sunbonnet that covered her face
the sky was of so deep and strange a
blue and the shadow of the single
scraggy mesquite beyond her lay so
sharp and black upon the dazzling
sand, that I had curious sensation as
If were looking into picture. But
only for moment. A Gathering group
of horsemen, booted and spurred, rode
past; she moved step or two out Of
their way, stopped and placed the child
upon The ground, then stood erect and
lifted her face again toward the dark,
narrow upper window Of the jail. And
I, too, looking up, saw for the first
time those long, pallid hands folded
about the rusty iron bars!
1 dropped the curtain md turned
to be smothered in morning kisses, as
the children, glowing, rosy, bright,
came trooping in from their early
breakfast.
Toward noon of the same day !
stepped out upon the vine-hung gallery.
A glad life giving wind was blowing
down from the great purple fat-toppeel
mountains, just over beyond the bright
sweep of open prairie set about the
open town, and the mesquite groves up
on the hillside were tossing their feath-
cry branches in it joyously. The won
derful lapis-lazuli blue sky was fecked
with white masses of slow moving
clouds; one of these laid half the village
square in shade, in the midst of which T
could see the town we'll, with it's broad
stone curbing, and tho knot of men and
boys grouped about it., their hats
off and foreheads barred to the
wind. "A cowboy in picturesque cost
ume came riding across the sun-it half
OF the plaza, and his gay laugh foated
on to me as he answered mellow hal
low from far off in the distance. It
was pretty scene, and stood reach
ing for the flower that swung above my
head, and letting my gaze wander in
delight from purple mountains to gold
en- valley and back again, until it fell
suddenly upon q black spot in the
street close by, and realized with o
shock that she was still there. The
child lay at her feet, apparently asleep,
a little white heap in the dust; the
hands had disappeared from the window
bars above, but just where I had seen
her first she stood, straight, slender, 81
lent, motionless. The flower fell from
my hand and the heart seemed all at
once to go out OF me. .
She was always there. When lifted
my curtain in the wee gray OF early
morning, found her there, or 1 saw
her trudging down the sandy road, with
the child in her arms, toward her drea-
~ post. @
Day after day the pitiless August sun
beat down upon her as she kept her sta
ton before that gloomy facade. Some
times, but not often, she sat down prone
in the dust, but always in the
same spot--the spot whence she best
could see those clinging hands. People
!, went up and down the street: the tide
! OF labor back and forth; men rode in to
! the various courts and rode out again -;
wagons creaked by, covered with white
eyes Of sallow women and shock headed
I children peered down at her. But none
of these things seemed to enter into her
consciousness; she looked neither
: to right nor left, and the weeks
wearing away found her with
face still turned upward to the mar
row window. patient, quiet, fixed, the
child always beside her, mute and
motionless as herself. Sometimes a
second pair Of hands grasped the bars.
That's Jim's younger brother" they
/ told me. "It's nigh about six years
/ sence they dropped Their man and
Es'tWant cool blooded murder neither.
They've trailed about God knows how
and He only knows when, keepin' outn
the Sheriff way. and wherever they've
went she's went too. and sence they've
been here she comes in every little
while and stays round like this yer.
jim her husband, You know. Al, as
II L didn't know 33 UGH 81.
NY heart ached for her and / used to
+ long. Yet dread, to see her face. But I
never did, though once she removed
/ che faded sunbonnet as she assed me