Austin's Hawaiian weekly. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1899-190?, 1899-07-08
AUSTIN'S HAWAIIAN WEEKLY.

with fresh complexion such as is not often seen
in the rainless, windy West, and spoke English
with what she said was French accent. Miss
McCracken was popularity supposed to be as
much of All attraction as the bazar.
There was another woman at Maverick that
day who told herself that if she had known of
the bay show she would not have come. She was
the wife of the owner of the Minnietta, and her
husband had sent her down to Maverick for the
summer because the doctor had told him if he
did not get his wife out of sight of the cliffs of
Las Vegas he would soon have no wife. There
grave at the foot of Las Vegas, tiny
grave that wolnan's arm might we'll cover, dug
there because about the Minnietta there was not
soil enough to cover the smallest grave The
cliffs of Las Vegas showed white from the mine
on the further side of the canyon and the owners
wife watched them days long with wearying eyes,
and could not sleep of nights hearing the coyotes
howl and thinking of what lay at the foot of them.
When it was moonlight the spectral cliffs were
terrible in their loneliness, and when there was
no moon the darkness was still more terrible, and
one night when her husband had missed her he
found her at the foot of Las Vegas covering the
grave with her arms. 1t was then that he sent
her to Maverick because she would go no farther.
Now SHE sat and watched the mothers of children,
and her heart was very bitter
The balloting for the prize baby was at it's
briskest early in the afternoon. with the station
agents plumpest twin in the lead and rose-leaf
morsel of humanity from the river farm a close
second.
The man who expected to be sheriff had dis
tributed his votes impartially among all the can
didates and was now trying to tell Miss Nc
Cracker that if the prize had only been for the
handsomest young lady he could make close
guess at the winner. Miss McCracken had heard
something of the same kind a good many times
that afternoon and was not particularly attentive
ooh, look" she cried; eff there isn't that Cas-
tro woman from the Six-A[ile house. and she's
brought her baby. do believe she thinks it will
take the prize too Just see the way she has it
rugged up. Do look, girls. Did you ever!' The
girls looked, everybody within hearing of Miss
McCracken's contagious giggle looked, to see the
little Mexican mother. sitting shy and bewildered
against the bunting draped wall, clad in the
thinnest of black cotton dresses with the shabby
reboso that preserved dingering tradition of her
race The baby in her lap was ptifully quiet. it's
tiny. claw-like hands clinging to the mothers and
the black eyes in the wasted little face dull with
pain as they uneasily blinked "For all the world
like little brown OWL" said Miss McCracken.
but suppose she thinks it is perfectly lovely"
The baby had on its best frock and about its
thin throat a string of large blue beads that had
been the mothers most cherished ornament for
years. and to the front of its dress she had pinned
bunch of limp and fornless artificial flowers,
part of her wedding 6nery, carefully preserved
Nobody knew this-tfe flowers told their own
story.
Then strong voice took I'D the tale "The
woman is fool" said the bluff DOCTOR who knew
all the secret sorrows of Maverick. "A perfect
fool Walked all the way here in the blazing
SUN lust to show off her kid. when it won't live
week at the outside. and she knows it. They're
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