The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-03-18
On A MOUNTAIN.

looks" Garcia wondered. She was in.
r,inej to give man credit for vanity OF
any other little idiosyncrasy he might
possess.
Joe Mascara did not know that he
might have posed successfully for a
charming bit of south country life. He
knew Of course. that he was handsome,
and that the water he drank from Juan
Sepulvada's ola was cool and very clear.
The water jar hung in a huge pepper
tree, and the fern.like foliage with its
ieathery blossoms drooped nearly to the
ground, framing Jose in green arbor
through which the sun glnted. Jose
wore a snowy white shirt, and the vivid
scarlet and 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 Garcias 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
grandiloquen. bow. Guilty? Perhaps.
She had spent more hours than she liked
to remember iounging on the wide gal
iery 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 a 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 buzz.d aud la.
bored, he brought out his choicest store
Of sweet sayings for Garcia's delectation.
Years ago, before Miss Walio's blue
eyes had looked very far into life's mys.
teriss, both her parents had died of con.
sumption. The care OF the little girl
had fallen on her fathers eldest sister,
who was in constant fear that Garcia
should suffer the samo 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 auuts pale
ness Of age, her own dimmed beauty,
aud she refused to 60 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 to-day?-
she demanded, and Garcia came out
from the ruins of Alhambra, where she
had been wandering in Imagination, and
recognized the hostile gleam Of her auut'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,
it is very disagreeable to be reminded
Of it," She fell to wondering how
Stephen would look in sombrero and a
red muffler. She shuddered at the
thought.
Fancy him at bull fight with a gui-
tar tied on with red and yellow ribbons.
Oh, dear! why is his hair such a pale
brown and his mustache so feeble What
a very unpleasant height six feet three is
for a man."
At any rate she was glad she had only
partly promised to marry him How
could girl threatened with tubercies
marry anyone? She looked at the noun
tains. How Garcia loved those noun
tains! 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 sof. purple
haze; when the "clouds came down to
rest" and shrowded them in a green
mist; ever changing, yet always the
same, Garcia loved them and had
dreamed dreams Of the happy time when
she should explore those hidden canyons.
At hotel down the street, lively
widow and her sister boarded. Garcia
considered them charming acquaintances,
Dut llcT duut ltlu lnciil III cOlu ulSpledS-
ure, mostly on account of what she
termed the widows "flirty" ways; but
she had been beguled into promising, in
n moment OF weakness, that some time
Garcia might accompany the unobjec-
tionable widow on mountain excursion.
The aunt never intended to keep this
promise; reconciling it with her con-
science that "some time" was 80 vague
that it might be indefinitely postponed,
and the journey never accomplished.
Mysterious business took her to Los An.
geles one day.
This was the widows opportunity She
swooped down upon Garcia, and before
the bewildered 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
ha1 Cft