Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-05-07
S&Sssg%>Hz1R
- - l|| Is NhaAiAG.
lz H$Ngh3ZRH STORY Of
49, XAZHdB BEk1bUM DAYS,
,:I@ JEAnhB7B HeWAhW0IhHs
ooyncar 1897 a Ne AurnoH
COPYRIGHT, 1897 sY THE AUTHOR

III SOL LII yOAA VIVA NSe
able detestation Of your course which
now has full possession of my perverted
senses.
"You spoke Of being a born pariah,
with no class prejudices to conserve or
to defy. / loved Strong Martin the
overseer's son, l abhor Strong Martin
the Federal officer"
She was trembling. He could detect
the passionate pain beneath the meas
ured GOODNESS Of her tones, and he smil.
| ed, quite sure that he would be on the
winning side.
He stood aside and opened the door
for the little cavalcade in homespun.
Seth lead the way, then Mamie, and
finally his mother. She turned wistful-
~ upon the door sill.
"Strong, my boy Strong, I hate to
leave you here all alone, but it's your
own doin. You oughtn't to have flew
In the face Of Providence so brash. Ma
mics words sounded mighty severe,
and I could see by the culver of your
mouth they was cuttin you like a whip
lash. Strong-I-think-I'll kiss you
JUS once, my. boy. But we don't want
nothin Of you"
Was he on the winning side? He
questioned it that night, sitting alone
on the small roofless balcony that jut-
ted from the window easement Of his
headquarters and gave him the full ben
eft Of a starry night. He knew just
how those same stars grouped them
selves about the tall trees that shelter.
ed Sans Souci.
In that long ago past, @ons it SEEM
ed, when he and Adrien Strong had
been good boy friends, they had climb
ed to the rallied roof gallery countless
times for the pure joy of ignorant star
gazing.
From out the cool, dark stiffness Of
the starlit night there f1oated to him
scraps Of song and laughter. It came
from the clustered tents that sheltered
the troops under his command. He felt
them to be aliens tonight as never be-
fore. In their songs and their laughter
he had no part.
The tethered beasts under the shade
trees. in the little courthouse square
munched their evening rations with III
dible gusto. The unlimbered cannon,
which in it's unchanged formidableness
had caused such panic to the rural Ses-
sumsport urchins, showed darkly where
it had been rolled under the spreading
arms of a sycamore. Sessumsport was
an encampment, and its subjugated in
habitants hid themselves behind barred
windows and doors. Not even by the
dull CLEAN Of their homemade tallow
candles would they countenance the
presence Of these invaders
No assurance from "Strong Martin,
the traitor" could relieve their appre-
tensions Of impending doom. He would
have to convince them by the logic Of
events that he had not come to bring
fire and the sword into their peaceful
precincts.
And SO the garden dahlias and the
starry eyed phloxes that nodded their
friendly heads at him over the picket
fences were the only things in all Ses-
sumsport that had no dart to fling at
"Strong Martin, the traitor"
He fell to calculating, sitting there
under the quiet skies, utterly alone
with his mighty heart hunger.
Given the acknowledged slowness
Of a good woman's moral revolutions,
plus her p~rejudices, how long would 1t
&ol,o %o ooorovk b;,o fuo,, n kros%ou into
= respectable member Of society, &C.
cording to Mamie Colyer's mental pro-
cessP
The solution to this problem had moi
been satisfactorily reached when a soft,
slow voice foated toward him from the
grass plot beneath his feet in a hesitat.
ing question.
Mars majuhl Is that you, sittin up
thar smokin, Mars Majuh Strong?"
Strong flung his half smoked cigar
over the balustrade and leaned across il
eagerly in search Of the speaker. The
voice was strangely familiar.
"Isn't that Dolbear, old Dolbear from
Sans Souci?"
"It sho' is, subj"
"And they have sent you to me with
a message?"
"Who, boss?"
my mother, Mrs. Strong, my sister,
Miss Colyer-some Of them," with hun
CRY volubility.
"No, sub, nobody didn' send me. ]
jes' come Of my WI cord. I wanted
to hear eff the tale were true"
A heavy sigh, almost a sob, escaped
the officers lips, but he chung eagerly
to this one clumsy link in the chair
that must eventually be welded afrest
and bind him and his beloved togethe,
once more.
"There are steps there at the end Of
the old balcony. Sit down, old man,
and tell me about the old place. Die
you ride or walk?"
II walked, sub. Thar amt but two
beases lef' on that place, and by the
time they got home today from fetchir
your nanny and your bro Seth back
'erds and fo'erds they was plum give
out. You see, they dom get non TOT
much con these days. But I was 'bleeged
to come. I SEE, 'Lucindy, l carn't sleeI
q wink tonight less'nI veriies it."
Verify what, old MANI"
He was conscious Of his own duplici'
ty. He knew quite we'll what it wal
old Dolbear wanted to make SUR Of.
Verify the blessed insurance Of free
dom, sub. Mex sho' ef the story that
goin the rounds of the folks as how ole
Eben Martins second boy, Strong-hiu
a. was named after ole mars-is be'r
made head Of Mars Lincoln's soldier,
and sent here to fetch we all the free
dom and the sartain promise Of the lane
that flows with milk and honey? Ell III
true, ! wants to dus' out the ole meetir