Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-12-18

that moment Jesus, mercy-my Je-
gus, mercy-nay poor head
Her grandmother had kept Jesus by
| her. Had he done something for her?
Would he do something for yico? She
could not bear to look at him even in
the dim light, but she laid him on vi
co.'s breast and took Vico's hands and
put them upon him.
Babe could not breathe Her face
! burned. Her bare breast burned. She
felt her way to the back porch, heavily
overhung by Towering bean and balsam
vines, but the night air did not cool
her, though her clothing had slipped
/ off her arms and fallen down from her
belt, and her wet skirts chung to her
| limbs.
! Her father sat there in low, wide
rccEer--her father, stupid with heavy
/ food and sour wine-and another form
was coming up the black adobe walk.
1t was not mist only nor shadow nor
cloud, yet Babe knew not what else to
call il, and it came to the railing and
stood without and spoke to him, her ia
Their, "The step is fallen, husband, and
the porch is falling with the thick vine,
and my child is fallen"
"What business is it of yours?" re-
! oiled Gavina Espinosa with sullen bra
vado Then he burst out wrathfully :
tBy God, in the course Of nature you
have no right to be here. You are dead
and useless.
Dead? / am not dead" said the
|
Deaths oothes pain, but am bond and
weary and | suffer.
Anyhow, your grave is over there,
fiat under the myrtle. I"
"Ah, y said the mist, II did not know
what Inow perceive. ] am dead, praised
be God, and he is God, and now that
you have cast me out and told me there
| is no bond between you and me / am
indeed free and my grave is over there,
but not flat under the myrtle. Don't you
remember asked you not to pat it
down? And it has never fallen. Lift the
myrtle and you will see. / go to my
grave. The earth is calm and soft and
kindly. Nature has made it so. Tell my
daughter that / went to my grave.
In the gray of morning Babe came to
ssJrself in the old porch. She looked for
her father He was not there, neither
was the wide rocker Had they really
been there? Babe lay and thought.
When she got up, she was a changed
woman.
She bathed Vico's face and hands.
Ie could not rise. She brought break
fast for him and served it with the only
pure womanly tenderness that had ever
been spontaneous with her. Vico ate
and afterward slept. She mothered him
all day. He did not understand Babes
new within. Late i'll the afternoon he
rose and dressed. wondering what her
evening mood would be.
She would not let him go till he had
eaten food brought with her new grace.
They ate together, and when he felt
new again and wholly well fed and
comfortable he put his arms around
Babe and kissed her. She put her arms
around him and kissed him, too, as a
good woman might have done.
81 am going to be good, Vico, she
said. Vico had felt her strength when
she was bad to him, and he was not i'll
pleased. LETS both be good, Woo,
she went ON. LETS go to the priest
and be married. F"
Vico was so much astounded that he
took her arms from around him. He
looked at her. Yes, she meant it. Vico
was as much an inheritance as any one
of his traits. He was the product of an
ancestry of inconstant men.
Vico laughed.
That the accustomed anger did not
blaze from her eyes made him laugh
consumedly, and when tear stole
down her cheek the situation became
amusing beyond all things.
Vico laughed.
The echoes Of his evil mirth came
back to the grieving woman as he went
down the street to tell his boon compan-
ions of Babes latest madness.
How Vico laughed "A. Kalfus Spe-
70 in Argonaut.