Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-08-22
MATER PURISSIMA BELLS

Captain Simon Matthews did some
times quote the Bible, but always in
a sighting, colloquial phrase and
merely TO suit his private purposes.
For instance, that there apple
business" was thrown at Josefa, his
granddaughter, as an unanswerable
reason why she should not be given
the liberty of his orchard.
To lrrigate, TO spray, to annoint, to
.umigate his few trees was the anx-
iouS delight of his life. He accounted
for his enthusiasm over some fine
perSimmOnS in words that might
EASILY have had a human application.
I've watched that there fruit"
ned say, ''pIckin' its way along from
bud"
Josefa, too, or ''Chepa," as she was
nicknamed, had been picking her
way along" under his eyes.
She had pretty, caressing tricks,
would lay her soft. round cheek down
upon her grandfather's arm. But
children do not choose convenient
times. Old Matthews attention was
absorbed by thousand trifes. II
he was busy, the arm Chepa pressed
remained as irreSpOnSive as bone
under its tapping gingham sleeve.
Chepa had feeling that her grand
.ather locked her out Of his heart
with the same key clicking sharply in
the paddock of his orchard gate.
Indoors there was always her Aunt
Porhrlo, representative Of the Mexi-
can element of Pueblo Viejo, where
Matthews had been settled these
thirty years.
The sonora secretly called the Cap
Tain that robber." Had he not been
ready to snap up 4 bit of property
whenever her improvident country
men were forced to sell?
With a mans dullness the Captain
enemy, or how Chcpa's life was EN-.
bittered by her.
She hated Chepa as the heiress OF
nalf the Pueblo.
When Chepa's last and dearest
playmate, Pablo Mcnamara, left the
dead town to seek livelihood else
where the girl would have run away
from home; but, profoundly ignorant
as she was, vague terror always &C
cOmpanied her speculatiOns upon such
course.
At l6 she had touches Of beauty
about her fit to dream upon; a rich
sculpture of the lips, dewy fire deep
in her dark eyes, CLINT Of ravishing
color where her somber hair ridged
itself to the sun.
But she pondered too deeply about
he-Self There was much in her
lonely habits to draw her to forSaken
places. Such place was one Of the
many ruins in Pueblo NiejO. ''Mer-
cedes' house it was called, after a
bride killed there by the falling Of a
tila through a weak place in the
thatch.
The dwelling. with all it contained
had been superstitiously abandoned.
Such rooms as were open had been
robbed 10y Indians, but the death
chamber at one end Of the row, her.
metically sealed by the weight OF tie
sinking roof, remained untouched.
4 footpath leading from the placita
10 the little Catholic Chapel on tho
outskirts of the town would have
Lccn shortened by going past Mer.
cedes' house, but curved of widely in.
stead.
A thfcket Of castor-bean and wild
tobacco grew rankly around it.
Chcpa could be sure Of solitude there.
One afternoon she fled to Mercedes
house in bitter revolt. Ssegave vent
to her feelings with childish abandon
by tearing at the braids Of her hair,
into which black strings had been
tightly woven-a hideouS Mexican
fashion
She flung the string on the floor,
Her two braids divided into six deeply
waving strands; she attacked each
strand, whipping it about. Her
thoughts went even faster than her
fingers.
My grandfather will do what he
pleaseS with his own," she declared,
addressing her aunt, Luise Porflrio,
in Imagination. "You cannot stop
him."
lscr loose locks spread gradually
into rich mass. She flung them
around until her head swan and an
electric life awOke in each airy fla
mcnt.
The sunshine pouring down through
the broken roof of the room where she
sat took this magnificent mist of fhair
to itself, setting it attire.
Chepa was diverted from one cause
OF anger to another
rs this Indian hair?" she asked, ip
transport of scorn and delight.
For the Sonora Porftrio had mt
hept from her the ugly old rumor that
he; granufather's first wife. her yerit.
able grandmother had been. not a
Mexican woman, but an Indian
squaw.
Little birds accustomed to make free
With Mercedes house, could not wait
Tor the disappearance of that glorified
eppartltion
Sitting silent on a rubbish-hea
EIIen in from the roof. Chepa felt .