Mexico weekly ledger., 1894-02-08
PART II.
Ths Country Of the Saints.
CHAPTER I,

ON THE GREAT ALgAII rLAIS
In the central portion of the great
North American continent there lies
an arid and repulsive desert which for
many a long year served as barrier
against the advance of civilization.
From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska
and from the Yellowstone river in the
north to the Colorado upon the south
is q region of desolation and silence.
Nor is nature always in one mood
throughout this grim district. 1t COM
prises snow-capped and lofty noun
tains and dark and gloomy valleys.
There are swift-flowing rivers which
dash through jagged canyons. and
there are enormous plains which in
winter are white with snow and in
summer are gray with the saline alkali
dust. They all preserve, however, the
common characteristics of barrenness,
inhospitality and misery.
There are no inhabitants of this land
of despair. A band of Pawnees or of
Blaclfeet may occasionally traverse it
in order to reach other hunting
grounds, but the hardest of the braves
are glad to lose sight of those awesome
plains, and to find themselves once
more upon their prairies. The coyote
skulks among the scrub, the buzzard
flaps heavily through the air, and the
clumsy grizzly bear 1umhers through
the dark ravines, and picks up such
sustenance as it can among the rocks.
These are the sole dwellers in the will
derness.
In the whole world there can be no
more dreary view than that from the
northern slope of the Sierra Blanco.
AS far as the eye can reach stretches
the great fiat plainland, all busted over
with patches of alkali. and intersected
by clumps of the dwarfsh chaparral
bushes. On the extreme verge of the
horizon lies a long chain of mountain
peaks, with their rugged submits
fiecked with snow. In this great
stretch of country there is no sign OF
life, nor of anything appertaining to
life. There is no bird in the steel-blue
heaven, no movement upon the dull,
gray earth-above all, there is abso-
lutte silence. Listen as one may, there
is no shadow of a sound in all that
mighty wilderness; nothing but silence
complete and heart-subduing silence.
It has been said there is nothing ap-
pertaining to life upon the broad
plain. That is hardly true. Looking
down from the Sierra Blanco. one sees
q pathway traced out across the desert,
which winds away and is lost in the
extreme distance. 1t is rutted with
wheels and trodden down by the feet
Of many adventurers. Here and there
are scattered white objects which
glisten in the sun, and stand out
against the dull deposit of alkali. Ap-
proach and examine them! They are
bones; some large and coarse, others
smaller and more delicate. The for
mer have belonged to oxen, and the
latter to men. For fifteen hundred
miles one may trace this CHASTITY cara
van route by these scattered remains
of those who had fallen by the way
side.
Looking down on this very scene,
there stood upon the 4th of May, 1S47,
solitary traveller. His appearance
was such that he might have been the
very genius or demon of the region.
An observer would have found it diff
cult to say whether he was nearer to
forty or to sixty. His face was lean
and haggard, and the brown, parch-
ment-like skin was drawn tightly over
the projecting bones; his long, brown
hair and beard were all f1ecked and
dashed with white; his eyes were
sunken in his head, and burned with
an unnatural luster, while the hand
which grasped his rifle was hardly
| more heshy than that of a skeleton.
As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon
for support, and yet his tall figure and
the massive framework of his bones
suggested wiry and vigorous consti-
| tuition. His gaunt face, however, and
his clothes, which hung so baggily over
his shriveled limbs, proclaimed what
| it was that gave him that senile and
| decrepit appearance. The man was
| dying-dying from hunger and from
] thirst.
He had toiled painfully down the
rayine and on to this little elevation,
in the vain hope of seeing some signs
of water Now the great salt plain
stretched before his eyes, and the dis
tant belt of savage mountains, without
a sign anywhere of plant or tree, which
might indicate the presence of moist
ure. In all that broad landscape
| there was no CLEAN of hope. North
| and east and west he looked with wild
| questioning eyes, and then he realized
| that his wanderings had come to an
end, and that there, on that barren
crag,.h was about to die. "Why not
| o ba1 "
years hence" he muttered, as he seated
himself in the shelter of a bowlder.
Before sitting down, he had de
posted upon the ground his useless
rifle, and also large bundle tied VI
in a gray shawl, which he had carried
slung over his right shoulder. 1t ap
peared to be somewhat too heavy fol
his strength, for, in lowering it, i
came down on the ground with somt
little violence. Instantly there broke
from the gray parcel little moaning
cry, and from it there protruded ;
small, scared face, with very brigh
brown eyes, and two little speckle'
dimpled fists.
you've hurt me-" said a childisl
voice, reproachful1y.
"Have thought" the man answered
penitently; 81 didn't go for to do it.
As he spoke he u1Swrapped the gra,
shawl and extrieated a pretty little gir
of about five years of age, who's
dainty shoes and smart pink frocB
/ with its little linen apron, all bespok
a mothers care. The child was pal
and wan, but her healthy arms an
legs showed that she had suffered les
than her companion.
SLOW is it now?" he answered, anx
, iously, for she was still rubbing tn
towsy golden curls which covered tn
back of her head.
kiss it and make it WE'LL" she sait
with perfect gravity, showing the il
jured part up to him. That's wha
mother used to do. Where's mother?
Mothers gone. i guess you'll Sc
+. her before long"
I ''Gone, eh!' said the little CIR
Sunny, she didn't say good-by; sh
. most always did if she was just goir
over to auntie's for tea, and now she
been away for three days. Say, it
awful dry, amt it? Amt there n
f. water nor nothing to eat?"
mo, there amt nothing, deari,
You'll just need to be patient awhile
! and then you'll be all right. Put you
/. head up agin me like that, and the
you'll feel better. 1t amt easy to tai
| Il =