The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-07-11
THE LITTLE SON :.
:. :. OF ANITA.

buc CdmiSO1c, tuo Single BdA mcut VI uCl
people, but her brown, bare arms were
strung with bracelets; silver beads and
rings and earrings set off her rich, ripe
beauty and accentuated her charms, and
corals made the dull black Of her I'M
bound hair take on the soft effect of
velvet against the rosy red of her oval
cheek. Her perfect chin was dimpled,
a rare type in New Mexico, but ex-
planned by other traces of Castilian
blood And she was married to Nava-
jo Indian-poor Anitai
Why the girl should have selected
him from among number of more de-
sirable and richer suitors no one could
tell. He was an inferior man even
among his own people, of squat figure
and most disagreeable features. She
was already widow when she married
Manuel Ascham, having espoused old
Jesus Martin when she was 10. He had
died when she was 30, leaving her mon
ey enough to say masses for the repose
of his soul and boy of years, who
was as beautiful as his mother-and
that is saying great deal
We saw them often and never tired
of feasting our eyes on the wonderful
bodily graces of the two-the boy like
some wild thing, his perfect limbs I'M
clad, save on fiesta days, his great
dreamy eyes always full of slumber,
his red pouting lips ever warm with
his mothers kisses. She loved him as
such women love one human thing out
of the whole world, and she cared not
at all for her husband or any other
man. Only little Jean, the rosy rogue |
One day we found the little fellow
tumbling in the sand with small va
grant dog that had been beaten and
starved, but which was at once chosen
by little Jean to be his comrade.
"Wait me a little, thou, expostu-
lated his mother. 81 thee will make tc
have 'bijuela my son, and thou
canst play the so sweet moosic. .
Anita was as good as her word. She
let the Americanos watch her long
brown fingers fashion the native jews
harp from weed stalk and linen
thread, and then she taught the boy to
put it between his small white teeth
and fan it SO that sweet strains would
come. Even the babies of that wonder
full land can learn the tempo.
But Jean was soon displeased with
his ''bijuela'' and wanted the brown
dog that was like skeleton dog, but
very good and loving and, after he had
eaten several 'frijoles, =" could play like
a little brother. And we. coming from
a land where the dog is always the hon
ored guest of the family, prevailed
upon her to keep the cur and give 1t a
trial If it should prove troublesome
we showed Manuel, before we left, how
he could easily dispose of it. And there
by the Americanos became participators
in very strange tragedy.
Anita gave us some idea of why she
made such an unequal marriage. She
chose Manuel Ascham because he had
the cunning to make love to her little
son. He had taken him to the fiesta pick
aback, he had danced for him and
sung "El Carbonero" and taught him
to ride burro like cavalier and
brought him sweets from the shops in
the city. So, as it was lonesome with
no man to come home from the orchard
or the herding, she married Manuel
and gave Jean father, for it pleased
her that the two were SO fond of each
other. Besides she trusted Manuel But
whoever trusts Navajo Indian must
keep both eyes watching. He will not
mistreat his wife. for the laws of his
people forbid that women should be
treated as interiors, and he will not or
der her to saddle his burro or do any
mental work for him, but he thinks,
and an Indian of that country who
thinks is dangerous and INSCRIPTIONS.
When Manuel began life. he had
only spade, but he was going to show
the other lovers of Anita that she did
we'll to marry him, and he worked hard
and now had goats and chickens, oats
growing six feet high and fine herd
of the small, lean sheep of the country
that have long horns and whose flesh il
sweet and juicy.
Manuel hated little Jean, whose fla.
ther was dead and could not help him.
He was jealous to the death of the poor
baby, and each kiss Anita gave to the
boy planted fresh sting in that Indian
heart.
But outwardly he was as kind as
usual to Jean, and when the pretty boy
would cling to his treacherous hand
and coax to walk half way up the slope
among the cedars with him on his way
/ to the goat herding Manuel would fon-
die and caress the little brown hand,
and all the tins he was thinking his
Indian thoughts
One day when Manuel went, Jean
wanted to stay at home and play with
Teja, the half starved cur that was
now as round and plump as Jeans self.
go, thou, then, dear little one,
said his mother land take thou the
poor Teja; thou lowest him so. .
She kissed the rosy boy until he
elowed like red rose, but he hung
back and fretted for Teja, who would
not 90 and had even hidden himself in
the adobe hut, ungrateful beast that he
wasl
"Thou must stay with Manuel until
shutdown; then come thou home to-
gether. Thou wilt come then, mic
amigo?' y This to her husband.
''If naught should happen he re
piled indifferently in his Mexican
speech, and she answered, "Bueno, ,
and went about her work.
Up, up, the Indian climbed over thu
long slope that led to the herding, NJ
to where the mesa breaks into cliff
and in the deep trough filled with sof
sweet grass to where the sheep ant
goats were herded. The last wer,
| browsing on the very edge of the cliff
among the rocks of many colored clay
which are so beautiful that some on
! has said of them that, like the deares
woman, they can never be adequatel.
photographed
OF what was the Indian thinking
| Not of the grandeur of his native coun
try nor of the time when he would b
one of the sheep kings of the territory
| No; he was thinking where he coul
make little grave.
In his pocket was the bottle of color
less fluid the Americanos had left 70
use on the vagrant cur, and if it woul
SO nicely kill dog why, then, the chill
should not suffer. and Anita would 500
forget if he was found asleep-that Lii
tie Jean-where he had wandered. A
for himself he would go at Easter an
give himself 800 blows with the peni
tentes, and he would whip much harde
than if he had only stolen cow, an
he would carry the heaviest cross an
after the discipline of castigation ther
would be the masses for the repose {
little Jeans soul. Ii would be allrighl