San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-09-03
Santa Clara Wheat.
By FRANCIS BRET HARTE.
Copyright. All rights reserved.l

W ~ bdCh W NDuIIlul SOEuSSl Ldl It.
called some of the independence of that
period. He looked up and quietly said:
If his conclusions are as clear and salts
factory tomorrow as they were today /
shall certainly t"y to secure his services"
Then | can only say | would prefer the
water witch. He at least would not repre-,
sent a class of neighbors who have made
themselves systematically uncivil and dis
agreeable 10 u.s."
81 am afraid, Josephine, we have not
tried TO make ourselves particularly agree
able TO them" said the major.
"Lf that can only be done by admitting
their equality l prefer they should remain
unciyil. Only let it be understood, major.
that if you choose to take this Tom, the
plOwboy, to mend your we'll you will at
least keep him there while he is on the
property"
With what retOrt the major would have
kept upthis conjugal discussion, already
beginning to be awkward to the discreet
visitor, is not known, as it was suddenly
stopped by a bullet from the rosebud lips
of the ingenious Adele.
"Why, he's very handsome when his face
is clean, and his hands are small and not
at all hard. And he doesn't talk the least
bit queer or common"
There was a dead silence. "And pray
where did you see him, and what do you
know about MS handsl" asked Mrs. Ran
Lolph, in her most deSiccateG voice. "Or
AS tie major already presented you to
him? shouldn't be surprised"
NO, bus hesitated the young girl,
with a carlain mouse like audacity, "when
you sent me to look after Miss Mallory |
came up to him just after he had spoken
TO her, and be stopped to ask me how we
AL were, and if Miss Mallory were really
frightened by the earthquake, and he shook
hands for good afternOon-that'S all"
And VINO taught you to converse with
common strangers and shake hand with
them" continued Mrs. Randolph with mar
rowing lips.
Nobody, mamma, but l thought if Miss
Mallory, who is a young lady, could speak
20 him so could |, WHO am not out yet
We won't discuss this any further at
present. said Mrs. Randolph stifly, as the
major smiled grizzly at Rose. THE earth
quake seems TO have shaken down in this
housa more than the ~chimneys."
It certainly hid shaken all power of sleep
fronl the eyes of Rose when the household
at last dispersed to lie down in their clothes
on the mattresses which had been arranged
under the awnings. She was continually
starting uD from coT$used dreams of the
mound shaking under her, or she seemed
% be standing IN the brink of some dread
.ul abyss, like the great chasm on the grain
.;eld, when it began to tremble and crum-
bI+ beneath her feet.
It was Near morning when, unable to en-
dure it any longer, she managed without
disturbing the sleeping Adele, who occu-
pied the same curtained recess with her, to
slip OIt from the awning. Wrapped in a
thick shawl she made her way through the
ancompassing trees and bushes of the
garden that had seemed to imprison and
sulfocate her TO the edge of the grain field,
where she could breathe the freer air be-
meath an open starlit sky. There was no
moon and the darkness favored her; she
had no fears that weighed against the hor-
ror of seclusion with her own fancies. Be-
sides, they were camping out of the house,
and if she chose to sit up or walk about no
one could think it strange.
She wished her father were here thai
she might nave some of her w kin to
talk to, yet she knew not what to a to
him if ne were here. She wanted some
body to sympathize with her feelings-or
rather, perhaps, some one to combat and
even ridicule the u~neasiness that had late
ly come over her. She knew what her IA
Their would say: "Do you want to &C or do
you want to stay here? Do you like these
people or do you nOt?" She remembered
the one or two glowing and enthusiastic
accounts she had written him of her visit
here, and felt herself blushing again.
What would he think of Mrs. Randolph's
,,o,;,. ,,l ,,zy-nrinr tho ta1auram9
Wouldn't he find out from the major if
she had garbled the SENSE of his dispatch?
Away to the right, in the midst of the
distant and invisible wheat field, there was
the same Intermittent star, which like a
living, breathing thing seemed to dilate in
glowing respiration, and which she had
seen the first night OF her visit-Mr. Bent's
forge. 1t must be nearly daylight now.
The poor fellow had been up all night, or
else was stealing this early march on the
day. She recalled Adele'S sudden eulogium
of him. The first natural smile that had
come to her lips since the earthquake broke
up her nervous restraint and sent her back
more like her old self to her couch.
But she had not proceeded far toward
the tent when she heard the oun of low
voices approaching her. 1t was the major
and bis wife, who, like herself, had evil
IDENTIFY been unable to sleep and were up
Jctimes. A new instinct of secretiveness,
which she felt was partly the effect OF her
artificial surroundings, checked her first
natural instinct 20 call to them, and she
drew back deeper in the shadow to let
them pass. But to her great discontinue
the major in a Conversations emphasis
stopped directly in front of her.
You are wrong, I tell you, Il thousand