The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-01-28
COYOTE-THAT-BITES.


y these delightful ends, and
OF all the happy savages on the Col
orado desert he was the most riot
ously, unanimously happy. With
what keen delight he had drawn his
sharp blade across the throats of
Jose Sanchez and his wife after he
had stolen into their wagon in the
gray dawn, and what thrills Of Joy
shot through his breast when he
silenced the yells of their two little
children with the butt end of their
fathers own rifle. And then, when he
had taken what gold was in the
MeNican's bag, what mescal was in
his demiJohn, and had strapped Jose's
rather loose fitting cartridge belt
about his sun-brown belly, with what
fierce pleasure he stole away from the
scene OF his bloody work, and with
the Mexican's rifle on his shoulder,
had wandered far down the dry
arroyo, slipping from the den1ijohn
the Supplying juice OF the agave from
time to time, until he felt that he was
growing drowsy.
Then he dragged his uncertain way
along until he came to the railroad
track. He stared stupidity at the
bright steel rails, and looked up at
the humming wires in an awed sort OF
way. He would like to lie there be-
hind the rocks, he thought, until
some one should come along the track,
and then try a shot at him with his
newly acquired weapon. The demi-
John was growing light and the rifle
was growing heavy. Well, it YVES get
ting toward noon, and rather warm,
even for an Apache, and he would lie
down in the shade of the rocks over
there and rest
The hummirg of the wires is a sooth-
ing sound, and no sooner had his head
touched the earth than sleep took a.
mighty hold upon him, and wiped out
his realizing sense OF JOY, as sleep has
way of doing with everybody that
has anything to be joyful for. And so
he lay. with the rifle by his side, and
his unspeakably hideous face turned
up toward the blue that arched the
desert ~
it was quiet there and restful-no
sound save the music Of the wires.
Stay, there were other sounds; but
they came some time after COYOTE
That-Bites had thrown himself upon
the sand, ond gone off to the Land of
NOD. They came family at first. and
mingled with the murmurings of the
wires. Surely they were the voices OF
children
Had the red beast been awake he
might have imagined that they were
the haunting voices of the wee Next
can children whose blood he had SO
ruthessly shed that morning. But he
heard them not. They were very far
from being ghostly voices anyway
those tones that now piped forth so
merrily as Dubs and Gay trudge d down
the line. They were walking in the
scoopout along the road bed-not on
the track, for that was forbidden.
There we're other things that were
forbidden, too, and one Of them was
straying so far away from the station.
But Dubs was talking good CARE OF
his three yearold sister, and in. the
pride OF his SIX full years he was equal
to the care of half q dozen such as
Gay.
TO give Dubs due credit, he did not
know he was half mile from home,
and he really was going to turn back
pretty soon. But the children had
found many interesting and beautiful
things to claim their attention. First
there had been a chase after q young
owl that could not fly, and that made
it's way along in the most haphazard
manner imaginable. Then a horned
toad had been captured, and Dubs
had dragged the diseusted prisoner
along by a string, until he had tired
OF the sport and had let him go again.
Then, always keeping close to the
railroad, they had entered a great
field OF cacti, where Dubs had tried
very hard to pick "toonies" without
getting the insidious needle-like spines
in his fingers. He was fairly successful,
but he would not let the fruit OF the
cactus go into his sisters chubby
hands until it had been stripped OF it's
dangers by his ready jack-knife.
Of l on'y had tum matches to
build a fire wiv," sighed Dubs, I'd
burn of vese priekles, JUS like We
Iniuns does" Il.
"O-o!" came suddenly from under
Gays sun-bonnet, "Wot's dat?'
IVY it's 9 iug!" and Dubs left the
"toonies" and started toward the
pile OF rocks where also lay the Coyote
himself.
The two trudged up the little slope.
and Dubs grasped the handle of the
demijohn, only to let it drop again