Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-23
A SILLY FOOL.
rnest H. Ross, Santa Fee, N. M:

One evening last week l was sitting in
my room at the boarding house smoking
my second best pipe and thinking of moth
ing when the door was banged open and
my chum, Bill! Morse, flung himself into
the room, slammed his valise on the floor,
threw his hpt on the bed, and cursing
himself as the greatest fool alive dropped
into a chair.
For two weeks l had been envying that
fellow. Engaged to a pretty girl, who had
not made the omnlon mistake of being
born Of poor parents, he had gone to pass
q whole months vacation in the same
Connecticut village where his sweetheart
and her mother were staying.
1 was too surprised to do more than
stare at Bill in establishment. He looked
too Disguised with himself for me to offer
sympathy, and 1 waited patiently for the
story l knew was coming. I'll omit the
preliminary blessing on himself and start
with the facts.
"This morning. said he, 'Alice and
some of her girl friends started up the
mountain for a hen picnic. Mount Riga,
the people in Salisbury call it. l wish it
was a hole in the ground. About 10 / de-
cided to take a walk and accidentally
meet them. I took a roundabout way,
because there was sure to be more or less
giggling when l made my appearance, no
matter how nicely it was managed"
Here Bill helped himself to my first best
pipe and heaped u few more blessings on
his head.
"Well," said he after a few strong pulls
at the pipe, 81 soon reached a cursed little
hill which sat up against the mountain
like a pimple beside a mammoth wart and
perched on the side of the measly bunch
of dirt was an enormous rock, left there
by a glacier, 1 suppose. The day it was
dropped there was cold, but the day Bill
Morse found it was still colder. Climbing
up to the lower side and leaning back
against it, l took a look around. Just
then some one set off a blast or they began
~cannonading off Mole st. Nicholas. Any
way the jar seemed to shake the hill, and
that stone moved. l ! raced myself against
it instinctively, the motion stopped, and
then came one of those flashes of intelli-
gence for which / am famous, as you know,
old man.
"You have seen a sohoolteacher take
his class into the yard and demonstrate
that one boy can keep u ladder upright by
looking out for the center of gravity, etc.,
and that it takes them all to stop it's fall
ing when you let it tip. Oh, 1 knew all
about it! Bill Morse knew. If l let that
stone get started, it would crush me, for it
was SO broad I could not spring out of the
way. l bored one shoulder into the dou-
BILE dyed thing and finally twisted round
SO as to face it, worked my way to the
edge, the cold sweat standing out all over
me, and jumped clear. Things were dark
for a moment, but l soon Strengthened out
md looked to see where the rock had fall
en-. 1t hadn't budged."
Twas going to ask Bill if he was angry,
but he had jumped up and was kicking
his valise around the room, and l thought
it unnecessary.
Bob" he cried between the kicks,
words are poor things, ! agree with the
man who said language was intended to
conceal your real thoughts.
After a few more kicks and a fresh pipe
full Bill resumed: II rushed round to the
top of that Internal rock, determined to
push it over If it didn't intend to take a
drop itself. l moved it about IN inch, and
to do more than that would require all of
the kings horses. Oh, but Solomon was a
wise one! He said all men were fools.
That stone, Bob, was a rocking stone.
When l realized what it was, l wondered
why Solomon had not mentioned me par
ticularly. / began talking to the stone
and was just beginning to do myself and
that beastly chunk justice when that hen
picnic came screaming down the noun
tain side. They had seen the whole circus.
Alice gasped out, ooh, W-Will, it's too
fu-funny,' and then put her hand to her
side and absolutely shrieked with laugh
ter. I gave her one look and then told
her a plain truth that l know she'll never
forgive. Then / rushed back to the hotel,
got my things, and here l am. It's all
over. I'm II fool, and a wretched one, my
boy"
1 agreed with him, but didn't mention
1t. Then the light was turned out and we
turned in. slept, but | don't think Bill
did. He moped around the house and ate
precious little. The landlady was sure he
ought to see a doctor. If l tried to cheer
him up, he only scowled and cursed him
self, Connecticut, the big hill, the little
hill and everything except the girl-a
mighty sensible girl, too, as you will see
for a few days after, as l was entering
the house, out rushed Bill as happy a man
as you would want to meet. He had re-
ceived a note from Alice and was on his
way to see her. This is what she said:
"DEAR WILL-We reached home today.
I told mother I simply would not stay
there another hour when l found you were
not coming back. DO come and see me
and bring your forgiveness with you. I
know Twas just what you said, "a blanked
silly fool, for laughing SO, and if you had
not been angry you would not have been a
sure enough man, and l would not have
cared II bit for you. AS 1t is l love you
more than ever. Yours only,
ALICE.
"P. S.-But it was too awful funny to
see you save your precious life in that
manner and then hammer that poor, help.
less old stone"