The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-05-25
JACiNTHA'S LOVE STORY,
BY Mary Kyle Dallas.

In it's glIded cage and peckel at the
lump of white sugar sparkling between
the bars, and at the cuttle-fsh slls-
of chickweed peeping through the wire
work at the top of the cage, or now
and then hoped down to the lowest
perch and drank from it's glass basin,
lifting it's head heavenward as though
1t were thanking God, and then, flying
higher again, sang long and sweetly,
quite happy in world a foot and a
half square, little, prison-born being,
who had never even wished to fly sky
ward. III
But as for Jacintha herself, she sat
beside her window, restless and miser-
able.
She also had a gilded cage. An up
per room in the most expensive hotel
Observation-Disclosures to eat-lll she chose
to buy of dresses or jewelry. But she
hated the city streets, the din of traffic.
She, who had lived where wild, green
plains spread about her. and over all
a great space Of sky, blue or cloudy by
turns-still always the sky.
There the little town lay, and great,
bright flowers opened to the golden
sun, and in their gay dresses the girls
1at at their doors, or walked with arms
around each others waists down to the
market place, where old women sat
selling fruits and vegetables and pip
klns and baskets, and butter made as
Hebrew women made it in the old
hy Oh,
SKINS fastened between two sticks,
Where men brought donkeys to sell
and servants waited for masters, and
little yellow tortillas were baked and
sold and ears Of hot corn Or on Sun
DAY they went to church and saw the
blessed pictures of saints and angels on
the wallis and said their prayers. sH
On the pretty VILLAGE! How strange
20 think that there was not wall of all
lhose that used to look as white as
snow against the dark-blue sky, now
standing. One night, as they slept in
their hammocks, the air seemed to
grow hot as furnace, and the earth
qulvered beneath them, and shrieks
and groans were heard from all the lit
tie homes. The earthquake had come.
and all the white houses toppled down,
and even the beautiful church fell. and
In the morning her parents and her lit
tie brother Leon were dead They lay
half-covered by rubbish.
Almost every one in the town was
crushed to death; even the old padre
lay with his crucitix in his hand
amongst crowd of poor folk who
seemed to have been praying. -''
Sick and faint and wounded, Jacintha
sat watching the faces Of her dear
ones. and thinking of Jose, who must
0e dead also, or he would have come to
ner: Tor she knew he loved her dearly,
until she lost consciousness. 49, -,,..-'.%
When she seemed to awake she was
IN place she knew nothing of. A
handsome, middle-aged lady sat near
her; stout old gentleman rubbed his
chin with Il gold-headed cane; a fair
young man WIS there Also @:s:.6.@5
: NO one left belonging to her; all
dead, she heard the lady say. in En-
sgnsh, Which Jacintha knew very well.
because an old gentleman who Lad
once boarded with her parents had
taught her. "All alone in the world,
land so beautiful! When we heard
what the earthquake had done, we
drove doWn-my son and Ito do what
good we could at the Posada, which still
stood, for it was a stout old building,
and q little out Of range. They told lis
OF this girl-she is named Jacintha.
She would have married some one
named Jose, but he must have been
&llled. The house where he lived with
mis- mother was Il mere pile of stones.
parents, brothers, betrothed husband,
sail gone-I was so sorry for her that
brought her away. And size will get
well, doctor?' -..as,,
"Oh, yes,' said the doctor-''yes, mad
anne; see no reason why not. And in
three or four days it will be safe for
ner to travel, since you are so anxious
to leave this place."
"Yes, indeed! A place where the
ground may open and swallow you any
day. the lady replied II *hall re-
turn to New York and stay there
Then the doctor and the young man
went away.
Jaclntha was too weak to do more
than cry softly to herself. st :
But one after the other the faces
of her dead seemed to rise before her;
her mother, her father, little Leon,
handsome Jose-dead, dead, dead! the
earth-mounds above their bosoms-
dead!
Oh, how could people die-how could
1t he that they who were so hopeful,
so bright and brave, were nothing and
could be found nowhere any 'onger?
The terror Of the thought, the desola-
ton, pierced her heart again and again,
like q vertiable dagger, and soon she
tossed about in a high fever, calling
all those lost ones by name, reproaching
them with having left her, begging
Jose, good Jose, to come back for her,
because she knew not how to ind the
way to them. q 49,
Oh, miserable hours but that was
not two years ago, and how good these
strangers had been to her! How Mrs
Everton had cared for her as for a
daughter, and dressed her in fine
Clothes and taught her what to do,
and given her masters in music, and the
fashionable way of dangling.
Before that she danced well enough
for Jose.
And her son, Mr. Ralph Everton, so
kind, so handsome, so like a prince,
had asked her to marry him, and his
mother had not cried out against it,
but told her that she would welcome