Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-01-26
STEPHENETTE.

while I was watching the animals
in the Luberon country I was alone
whole weeks in the pastures with my
dog Labri and the flocks, without see-
ing a living soul. From time to time
the hermit of the Mont de l'Ure would
pass by looking for herbs, and OCCASION
ally I saw the black face Of Piedmont
ese charcoal burner. But they were sim
pie folk, silent from habit and from
having lost the taste for talking, and
ignorant Of what was going ON below
in the towns and villages. So every two
weeks when I heard the mule bells com-
ing up the road which wound up the
mountain ! was very joyful. Then the
sprightly head Of the little farm boy or
old Aunt Norade's reddish headdress
would appear over the hill, and with it
would come my fortnightly provisions.
I always made them tell me the news
Of the country below-about the hap.
tisms, the marriages. But what inter-
ested me the most was hearing about
the daughter Of my master and mis-
tress, our dear Mile. Stephenette-the
prettiest creature for miles around.
Without seeming to take too much in
terest l found out how often she went
to the fetes. or the evening festivals, or
if she had any new lovers. II they ask
ed what difference all that made to me,
/ replied that I was 20 years old and
that Mile. Stephenette was the most
beautiful thing / had seen in all my
life.
"Now, it happened on one of the Sum
days the provisions which l had expect
ed did not arrive until very late. In
the morning when they did not come !
said to myself, 1t is on account Of high
mass. Then toward noon there came a
great storm, and I thought that the bad
condition Of the roads must have Kept
the mule from starting. But at 8
o'clock, when the mountain glittered
with the raindrops in the sunshine, l
heard the mule bells mingling with the
sound Of dripping leaves and the oar
Of the swollen streams tearing down
tuclI poLhe-tA0 muAo UCAAo 40 AlO4Ay
and as gay as the great chimes on an
Easter morning. But it was not the lit
tie farm boy or old Norade.
1T was-guess who-our Mile. Steph-
enette, my friends-our young lady
herself, sitting there among the wicker
bags, all pink from the mountain air,
so refreshing now after the storm.
1.-THE little fellow was i'll. Aunt No
rade was homo with her children for a
holiday. The lovely Stephenette had
told me all this in alighting from the
mule, and also that she was late be.
cause the beast had lost his way. But
to see her SO beautifully dressed in her
Sunday clothes, with her Powered rib
bons and her gay skirt and laces, she
seemed to have come home late from a
ball, instead Of having just made her
way through the woods.
"Oh, the dear little creature! My
eyes could never tire of looking at her.
I had never been so near her before.
After the f1ocks had gone into the val
ley in the winter she would sometimes,
while I was eating my supper, cross the
DOL quickly, rather stifHy and perhaps
= little proudly, scarcely speaking to
the servants. And now she was before
ME. All my own! Was it not enough to
make a man lose his head?
when she had taken the provisions
out of the basket, she began to look
about her curiously. Lifting her beau
tiful Sunday skirt a bit lest it should
be spoiled, she went into the fold. She
asked to see the corner where I slept,
with its bed Of straw and a sheepskin.
She saw my great cape hanging on the
wall, my crook, my flint. It all amused
her.
"'And you live here, my poor shep.
herd? How tired you must grow Of liy.
ing alone always. What do you do!
What do you think about?'
II wanted to say, OF you, mistress, !
and I should not have lied. But my em-
barrassment was SO great that I could
not find a single word. l think she no.
ticed it and took delight III doubling
my uneasiness with her mischief.
"tAnd your very good friend? Does
she come up to see you sometimes? Or
the fairy Esterelle who fits about here
on the top Of the mountain"
"She might have been the fairy Ester
ellie herself, az she tipped back her head
and laughed merrily. And she made
her visit seem more likoSan apparitiul
by her haste to 60.
"sAdieu, shepherd
"sYour safety, mistress
And she was gone, taking the emp
~ baskets with her.
when she disappeared down the
steep path, 1t seemed as though the pet-
bles rolling under the mules hoofs drop
ped one BY one on my heart. ! heard