Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1894-08-22
bird Crop lightly down beside her.


OF a tile-shard nearer to that mvs.
Selious summons. He twisted his
nead with Unsuitable curiosity.
AS the Kissing whistle went on in.
9uisitive twitterings fell from ragged
lrihges OF thatch overhead, exclted
shadows wInked across the sunshine:
olrd after bird slipped down the gold.
en- chute and alighted.
In the midst Of this growing flock
Chepa was cautiously gathering nm
The hem of her gown so as to make =
deep bag.
Whistle, whistle. Aknot of snake
grass, stirred by Heaven knows what.
lor nothing else was stirring, rustled
with sound Of life trailing by; but
oot bird took fright. Whistle,
whistle. A wild tobacco tree, whose
top. dripping slenderly over the
wall, dipped deep into the sunstream,
sprang up suddenly, riding some flaw,
and sprinkled Chepa and her en-
nanced observers with sundrops.
Whistle, whistle. Swiftly Chepa's free
hand darted out to catch a bird, and
returning, whisk it into her improy.
ised bag.
The other birds flew wildly away,
but Chepa knew how to lure them
back until her game pouch was as
Iull as she cared to have it.
What did she mean to do? With,
'ut doubt the Cahuilla girl had kept
aer captives for the spit.
Chepa stood up, gathering the
Rirt OF her gown closer and closer.
She talked to her prisoners aloud:
"You will never, never fly again:
no."
An ever-recurring "no" from the
Spanish tongue was shaded to infinite
meanings on Chepa's lips; was defer
initial, gracious, wistful, from mood
omood.
''Only your feathers will fly when
pick them. One by one they will
iy away to the top Of the trees;
away high up to the sum-"
The imprisoned birds chirped fran.
;ically. Chepa was thrilled by the
.eel OF their tiny feet kicking and
'cratching.
"But you will be dead, dead, dead
With this dire repetition she gave
The tumbling, palpitating mass an
.cstatlc squeeze-and let her gowD
all.
The birds rolled downward as one,
out only far enough to catch then
wings, and whirr! They were slant.
ing madly up the sunbeam-up, up,
Is If not to stop short Of the sky.
Chepa's very heart rose with them.
She stretched up her arms as if tc
ihare in their glorious liberation.
Her rebellious mood had given way
20 an ecstasy Of hope.
This hope had some foundation. 4
corporation Of medical specialists
we're bargaining for thousand acres
II her grandfather's land. They
we're to build a sanitarium for con-
'umptives, to plant gardens and or.
;hards in which patients might worB
,ut their own cure.
The Captain thought it magnsfi.
:ent scheme. He had gone into it
heart and soul, raising his price en-
Enthusiastically from day to day. He
talked to Chepa incessantlv. with
iashes of youth in his weak, old eyes,
,f what he would do with changing,
ret always fabulous sums Of money.
The birds were gone. Chepa sat
1own once more on the rubbish heap
IN the midst of her red-gold bush Of
lair.
A dream of the future glittered
md spun like the sunshine, adorablY
pure, laden with balm and ozone
which men were coming to buy with
aer grandfather's land.
Out Of this dream Of the future,
advancing to meet the self she was to
De, came her lost playmate. Pablo
Mcnamara.
He turned adoring eyes upon her.
"You are beautiful" he seemed to
av, land love you"
A sound not human broke upon her
ears with startling nearness. Just
,ne thrilling note, and at an omIn-
ous interval another.
The bells Of the Mater Purissima
had begun to toll.
Ineffably clear and right at hand,
and vet those tones had a singular
sound of remoteness. No material in
terposition produced this effect. 1t
was a spiritual quality, an aloofness,
in touch with the dead pueblo, with
It's summer-burned hills and the
,eeping away Of life.
Those vibrations as they wideneG
put toward lnhnity took Chepa's soul
with them. Her dream Of the future
passed into them as breath passes
into a wide-winged wind and Is lost.
She rose quickly and went to look
through the great blossom brushes Of
the castor-bean with an instructive
effort to lay hold upon some object
that would bring back the present to
aer senses, bring back her hopes for
The future.
Beyond the thicket, across a sun.
baked open space, stood the little
chapel. AS through a mist she saw
its side door standing open, its dark
Interior showing as niche Of shadow.
Rude figures which the sunshine
,ould not enliveE were crowding out
II this shadow. One OF them bore
4 tiny box decorated with gay tatters
Of cloth and paper.
sIt is only an Indian baby" Chepa
said, in a daze.
Behind the chapel rose UP austere-
" the bare posts and cross-beams
where the bells hung, or, as now,
rolled languidly against the blue OF
the deep sky.
Seen through these posts as In I,
frame, immeasurably perpectlves OF
wild land merged in the sapphire up
lift Of False Bay.
Upon this vacant water the after
noon was passing in fights Of gosden
arrows.
Would those bells never cease! Tht
priest who, only, had the right 10
ring them was tying back their con-
secrated tongues.
But whenever Chepa awoke thai
night their vibrations seemed TO DC