Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-11-21

] LOOK IKE n tongue Oh IRE, anu III Col
ored the valley pink. and changed tn,
mountains from pink to blue and soft
purple.
The old man opened his eyes, and
! missing himself on his elbow, more now
( to himself than to any one else, told
, how the bells calling TO mathis would
awaken him, and when he went out to
work the whole world seemed full of
peace. But once-San Juan shook his
head as he told itZhe had to take
some sheep over the hills to keep for
the day, and when he came home that
night there were six missing. The
padres were much disturbed and very
angry. and they shut him up in the
mission prison. where you can still see
the iron bars at the windows. They
kept him there for ten days, and yet
San Juan could tell nothing of the
sheep. He confessed to having slept at
noon under live oak, but the sheep
were never found, and many weeks of
penance did hardly atone for his great
neglect.
San Juan would like to creep back
to the old walls once more and kneel
by the western windows, but he never
could go, and he sighed.
1t was hard to talk now He almost
whispered as he told Antonio to be
good to Isa and the children and stop
gambling. There were no padres now
to watch him. no mission where he
could 20 and pray, and TEN ptation was
great. but he would ruin his soul and
kill lisa, and make bad men out of the
children if he did not stop going down
to Moreno's. Antonio bowed his head
on his hands and did not speak, San
Juan had talked to him like this be-
fore.
The old man slowly raised himself,
and beckoning to Isa to give him a
blanket, crept through the narrow
doorway into the other room of the
house.
That was ALL The next morning they |
found him holding the crucifix in his
hands, but he neither spoke nor stirred.
San Juan was dead, and the whole
village was in mourning The women
walled and cried, and the men did not
go to Moreno's, but stayed at home
with the women.
For three days the dead San Juan |
lay wrapped in his blankets outside
Isa's house, and then they buried him
over on the hill where he had lived |
when the beautiful Spanish bayonet |
lifted its white head to the sun.
lisa went home, unfastened the black
shawl that framed her dark sad face,
with the large eyes, and put it away in
he box where she kept the earrings
md the beads that Antonio had given
Ter when they were married five years
before. Antonio was good to her
hen.
She cooked the supper, and stepped
outside the door to call little San Juan
md Pedro. She saw Antonio going
lround the house to the corral, and she
waited patiently for him to come in.
At length she followed him, and left
,he children eating their supper on the
bench by the little window.
lisa stopped, caught her breath, and
then walked with quick steps toward
the corral where Antonio was fasten-
ing a cord around sleeps neck.
Too we'll Isa knew what it all meant,
and she caught Antonio by the arm
ard begged.
"Oh, not tonight, not tonight And
the last sheep but onel Antonio, sure
ly you will not take that down to
He shook her roughly off. Because
that old San Juan died in your house
you are a coward Think you l care
for all he said, who thought himself as
good as the priest1 You women made
a fool of him."
80, no, Antoniow Isa's eyes were
full of tears. But see, wait, stay with
me now. And you will lose all, every
thing at Moreno's, and then you'll come
home and strike me and cursew
She had put her arms about his neck
and hung there, looking at him with
her sorrowful eyes.
The sheep pulled on the cord and
tried to get away. Antonio drew it
nearer, and with his other hand pushed |
Isa from him. She staggered back
ward, her bare ankle struck against a
gnarled root of wood, and she fell with
a cry of pain into the roots piled high
against the house.
Antonio hurried away down the path
bordered with sage brush; the horned
toads ran before him and the lizards
darted across the sand. The sun had
Just gone down behind the mountains,
and there was soft amethyst tint to |
sky and hills and valley, while the air
was freighted with the fresh smell of |
the sage and the delicate odor of tiny
flowers that blossomed in the sand.
Isa slowly crawled into the house.
The children had fallen asleep ON the
door by the bench. She covered them
with blanket, and then went into the
small, low room where old San Juan
had died.
Throwing herself down in the corner
she lay there, hoping that Antonio
might return, and yet knowing in her
heart that she would not see him again
for two days. She did not sleep, but
tossed and prayed until day began to
break, and then her baby was born.
The mother called little San Juan,