Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-04-01
MD. FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL /, 1892.
ON A MOUNTAIN.

charming bit Of south country life. lie
knew of course, that he was handsome
and that the water he drank from Juar
Sepulvada's ola was cool and very clear
The water jar hung in a huge pepper
tree, and the fern-like foliage with its
feathery blossoms dropped nearly 10 the
ground, framing Jose in a green arbor
through which the sun glinted. Jose
wore snowy white shirt, and the vivid
scarlet aud yellow handkerchief knotted
loosely around his throat gave a richer
coloring to his swarthy cheek. A wide
sombrero covered his black hair. but did
not hide the flashing glances the dark
eyes cast toward Garcia's hammock.
The hand that held the gourd was small
and shapely, and there was in his salute
all the grace of the Spanish cavalier,
whose blue blood, much diluted, flowed
In his veins.
Miss Waldo flushed little under that
grandiloquent bow. Guilty? Perhaps.
She had spent more hours than she liked
to remember lounging on the wide gal.
lery or swaying lazily in the hammock,
strung up in the big blue gums, listening
through the drifting, sunny days to the
love tales of old Spain, retold with many
embellishments by this young romancer,
who had never journeyed hundred
miles from his mountain home.
Jose's bee ranch up the canyon did not
occupy much Of his time, and while his
many-legged servants buzzed aud la.
bored, he brought out his choicest store
of sweet sayings for Garcia's delectation.
Years ago, before Miss Waldo's blue
eyes had looked very far into life's mys.
teries, both her parents had died of con.
sumption. The care of the little girl
lad fallen on her fathers eldest sister,
who was in constant fear that Garcia
should suffer the same fate. They had
come from their eastern home in search
of health, in the pretty village at the
foot of the Sierra Madras. Here nature
ran riot in glorious profusion, and sky
and earth were alike brilliant in bright.
est hues. Garcia had been tired of her
colorless surroundings; of the gray sky
the snow covered earth, her aunt's pale
ness of age, her own dimmed beauty,
and she refused to go back home,
though the October days had come again,
with their wealth of fruit, and her health
was almost entirely restored.
Miss Waldo's aunt did not take kindly
TO the gallant Jose. and his occasional
performances upon the mandolin she ut
terly disapproved. She came to the door
on the afternoon in question with evil
dent depreciation of the pretty tableau.
"Have you written to Stephen today"
she demanded, and Garcia came out
from the ruins of Alhambra, where she
had been wandering in imagination. and
recognized the hostile CLEAN Of her aunt's
spectacles.
Jose departed with alacrity, and Gar.
cia prepared unwillingly to enter the
house.
"When an unpleasant fact is three
thousand miles away" she grumbled,
lit is very disagreeabe to be reminded
Of it," She fell TO wondering how
Stephen would look in sombrero and
red muffler. She. shuddered at the
thought.
Fancy him at bull fight with gui-
tar tied on with red and yellow ribbons.
Oh, dearl why is his hair such p.,le
brown and his mnstache so feeble. What
a very unpleasant height six feet three is
Tor man.
At any rate she was glad she had only
partly promised to marry him. How
.ould a girl threatened with tubercles
marry anyone? She looked at the noun
tains. How Gar,.ia loved those noun
tainsl When their highest peaks caught
the first smile of the morning; when sun
and shade flashed at MONDAY over their
brown sides; when the sun said "good
night, and hid them in a soft purple
haze; when the clouds came down to
rest," and shrowded them in a green
anist; ever changing, yet always the
Iame, Garcia loved them and had
dreamed dreams Of the happy time when
she should explore those hidden canyons.
At hotel down the street, a lively
widow and her sister boarded. Garcia
considered them charming acquaintance,
out her aunt held them in cold displeas-
ure, mostly on account of what she
termed the widows "flirty" ways; but
she had been beguiled into promising, in
a moment of weakness, that some tima
Garcia might accompany the unobjec.
tionable widow on a mountain excursion.
The aunt never intended to keep this
promise; reconciling it with her con-
science that ~some time" was so vague
that it might be indefinitely postponed,
and the journey never accomplished.
Mysterious business took her to Los An.
yeles one day.
This was the widows opportunity. She
swooped down upon Garcia, and before
the bewiIdered girl realized the situation,
she was mounted on burro. in company
with two ready cavaliers and the widow
and her sister. Their destination was a
tent on the mountain side, occupied by
the employees Of an irrigating company,
who were tunnelling the mountain in
search OF water Garcia had often
looked longingly up to the eyrie abode,
which she had liksned to a great white
bird perched upon the mountain side.
They wound slowly upward through sage
brush and chapparel, pausing occasion
ally to look back over San Gabriel valley
away to the distant ocean, showing
through rift in the hills.
By-andby Garcia felt strange and
unpleasant qnalm as her burro crept gin.
gerIy around the usually steep precipice.
The distant tent looked more than ever
like bird ready to wing. and oh, SO fan
.evaw