The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1894-09-06
MATER pURISSIMA BELLS

MATER PURISSlMA BELLS
f.:
Captain Simon Matthews did some
tincS quote the Bible. but always in
L! 4 sighting, col!oQuial phrase and
merely to suit his private purposes.
For Instance, that there apple
business" was thrown at Josefa, his
granddaughter, Us an unansWerabIe
reason why she should not be given
the liberty OF his orchard.
TO lrrigate, 10 spray, to annolnt, to
iumigate 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 d human application.
"I've watched that there fruit, !"
ae'd say, 'plckin' its way along from
a 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 grandtather's arm. But
children do not choose convenient
times. Old Matthews attention was
absorbed by a thousand trilles. II
he was busy, the arm Chepa pressed
remained as irreSponsiye as a bone
under its tapping gingham sleeve.
Chepa had a 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
Porfrlo, a representative Of the McXi-
can element of Pueblo Eiejo, where
Matthews had been settled these
thirty years.
The sonora secretly called the Cap
tain that robbcr." Had he not been
'ready to snap up a bit of property
whenever her improYidenJ country
men were forced to sell?
With mans dullneSs the Captain
mad never discovered this domestic
enemy, or how Chepa's life was EN-.
0ittered by her.
She hated Chepa as the hciress 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, a vague terror always ac-
companied her spcculatiOns upCn such
q course.
at she had touches Of beauty
about her fiji to dream upoa, a rich
sculpture Of the lips, dcwy fire deep
in her dark eyes, CLINT of ravishing
color where her somber hair ridgcd
itself to the sun.
But she pondered too deeply about
herself. There was much in her
lonely habits to draw her to fOrSakcn
places. Such a place was one Of the
many ruins in Pueblo Viejo. "Mer-
cedes' house" it was called, after a
bride killed there by the falling of a
tile through a weak place in the
thatch.
Tr: dwelling, with all it contained,
had been superstiti0usly abandoned.
Such rooms as were open had been
robbed by Indians, but the death
chamber at one end Of the row, her.
metically sealed by the weight of tie
sinking roof, remained untouched.
A footpath leading from the placita
to the little Catholic Chapel on she
outskirts of the town would have
been shortened by going past Mer-
cedes' house, but curved OF widely ill.,
stead.
A thickct Of castor-bean and wilc
tobacco grew rankiy around it.
Chepa could be sure of solitude there.
One afternoon she tied to Mercedes
house in bitter revolt. Shega vent
to her feelings with childish abandon
by tearing at the braids Of her hair,
into which black strings had been
tightly wOycn-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
plcases with his own," she declared,
addressing her aunt, Luise POrtirio,
in imagination. "You cannot stop
him"
I1,r loose locks spread gradual!
into rich mass. She flung them
around until her head swan and IN
electric Life awOke in each airy fla-
ment.
The sunshine pouring down through
the broken roof Of the room where She
sat took this magnificent mist Cfhalr
to itself. setting it aiire.
Chcpa was diverted from one cause
Of anger TO another.
is this Indian hair?" she asked, ip
! transport of Scorn and delight.
For the Sonora POrtirio had not
kept from her the ugly old rumOr that
ae; granQfathcr's first wife. her verit-
lblc grandmother had been. not q
Mexican woman, Lut an 1ndlaD
rQuaw.
Little birds. accustomed to makefree
with Mercedes house, could not wait
Tor the disappearance OF that g!orided
appartltion.
Sitting silent on a rubbish-heap
fallen in from the roof. Chepa felt q