The Worthington advance., 1900-04-06
therefore no one unjustly condemned

therefore no one unjustly condemned
her. z :.s 81. Z. n, sjF.s
7 Now, in the great tenement house
just across the street, this same
chicken-pampering process was secret
ly being gone through with by pretty
Panchita, save that her fowl was fed
solely on white zapotes and ight-col-
ored tortillas. AS in the case of Dona
Anton1a's chicken, which Aourished
andday by day waxed fatter and fatter,
her white chicken also throve and grew
plump until, by the end ct the fourth
day, you wonld not have recognized
either of these "charmed chickens"
On the evening of the fourth day,
Dona Antonia arrayed herself in her
best purple skirt and black lace man
tilla, with the announcement to the
dumfounded Carlos that she was going
to the house of Panchita for the pur-
pose of asking her and her mother to
eat the midday meal with them the
next day, since it would be q fiesta and
Panchita accordingly at leisure.
For many months it had been the
custom of good. hearted Dona Antonio
to invite Panchita and her blind old
mother to her own savory feast.day
dinners. In view of last weeks quar-
rel, however, Panchita's mother was
even now tearfully lamenting that
their dinner would have to be of tor
tillas and beans. So that, driven to it
by her mothers tears and her own
urgentdesire to break bread with Dona
Antonia, Panchita was about to start
on mission of peace, when that per-
son herself appeared, with jovial ex-
pressions OF sorrow that any misun-
derstandings had arisen between the
two families, and her desire that her
two good friends should join her next
day for the usual fiesta meal. OF yer-
ity they must come. Carlos had prom
ised to go with some companions to the
Naucalpam bull-fght, wherefore she
would be all alone and sad if they did
not come to eat with her.
Peace was restored in full, and soon
Dona Antonia hustled home to prepare
for the next days feast. Poor Carlos
was hustled incontinently out of the
house, while Dona Antonia, doors and
windows carefully shut and locked, pro.
ceeded to kill and boil the black chick
en-, first carefully burying it's feathers
and bones. All that night the mortal
remains of that charmed chicken SIM
mered away in tiny ola. The result
ant broth was carefully collected next
morning by Dona Antonio, and, with
the black fluid from the little bottle OF
Madre Maria, was mixed into very
savory soup, favored with sherry, and
garnished with aguacotes-of which
there was only one plateful. Not that
any of the trio had to do without soup,
however-far from it. Soup of the very
best, also made of chicken, with sherry
and tiny bits of garlic flavoring it, was
to be served to herself and Panchita's
blind mother.
The dinner was a great success, de-
spite the fact that only three women
were present, and that the hostess was
called away from the table at least four
times to speak to customers out in the
shop. The first of these calls gave Pan.
chita her opportunity, for Panchita
also had killed chicken the previous
night, and in small bottle, carried in
her pocket, was the boiled-down result
thereof. The door between the dining
room and the shop had been carefully
closed by Dona Antonia, SO that her
guests might not be molested by noises
from without-never was there a bet.
ter chance. In two seconds Panchita
had uncorked her bottle and emptied
it's contents hastily into Dona Anto-
MAS soup. Then, concealing the bot.
tie, she was unconcernedly swallowing
her soup when Dona Antonio returned
to the table. Neither of the two women
for moment suspected that they were
partaking of charmed soup, made in
identically the same manner, from the
charmed chickens of Madre Maria, and
warranted to kill the love of any man,
woman or child on the terrestrial
globe.
Now, few of us place overmuch cre-
dence in signs, tokens, and, least of all,
charms. For which reason am loath
to tell you of the final result of the
charms so ingeniously and unsuspect-
ingly exchanged between these two
jealous women; still, if you are incred-
ulous, it is not my fault.
That very same night, reaching home
late and in a somewhat intoxicated con-
dition, poor Carlos tasted the first
fruits of the charm. For, in spite of
all Establishments and words that
should have melted the heart of even a
stone image, Dona Antonio fell upon
the luckless torero and, with abuse of
the strongest, literally smote him hip
and thigh, after which she cast him
forth into the outer darkness of the
Street of the Little White Fish. cruelty
boiling the door in his face and an
nouncing that she had now washed her
hands of him and his shiftless com.
rades.
This from the woman who had
udored him during three long years;
this from the very woman who had
that very morning given him all her
available money and entreated him to
come home early. Poor Carlos! For,
even though he returned several times
to tearfully beg for mercy, there was
shown him only freezing contempt and
coldness, with at last the announce
ment that his next call would be
watched by the gendarme at the cor
ner, for which reason he had best keep
away for good and all from the shop of
Dona Antonia.
Being as it were off with the old love,
the hapless torero bethought himself
of new. Was there not pretty Pan