El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-28
PAGES 9 TO IL.

sociability was too generally the doubt
full gold of clamlike silence.
And now they were all gathered on
the steep hillside up near the barns,
overlooking the deep worn coulee, al
most filled to it's brim with heaped brush
and debris, from which a mighty tower
of flame rose high against the blackness
of the night. But although the dinner
had been irreproachable throughout its
| many courses, with nothing to mar its
success, barring a certain despairing un-
certainty observable now and then on
the part Of the guests in respect to the
multiplicity of forks and spoons allotted
them, and although the bonfire was all
and more than its architect had planned,
| both host and hostess were heavily OPP
pressed with a growing consciousness
that the occasion was something of a
failure, after all
For, in the first place, anxious to dis
charge all her social obligations at once,
Nelsine had overlooked long standing
GOODNESS between the Coverings of the
Lowering Baker ranch and the Camp
bells of the 1873 outfit, and the bringing
of these irate ladies together must in it
self have cast a certain gloom over the
function. Mrs. Lowering was supported
! ny icI SOus d stout, Jou06
fellow, whose round, vacuous face sug
gested nothing beyond a lifelong asso-
citation with good beef, and daughter,
sallow, giggling girl of 16, while be-
hind the trio sat a widowed sister, erect
in stony silence, grim and unbending
as monument erected to the memory
| of her loved and lost.
Mrs. Campbell sat alone, her hus-
band, as it seemed from force of habit,
| keeping as far from her as circum-
stances allowed, but she appeared alto
gether equal to the emergency. When
| Mrs. Ellery addressed this lady of the
| 1913 ranch, the Coverings, who at other
| times never appeared moved by any
| thing to say, always drew together with
! animated remark, as though repudiat-
| ing any smallest suggestion that they
could be supposed to take part in that
particular conversation, while when
| their hostess turned her attention upon
them Mrs. Campbell always pointed1y
addressed Edith Ellery, who, in truth,
found something of wicked enjoyment
i'll the situation. Between these two
fires, as it We're, Mr.. and Mrs. Dennison
of the 1 X Bar ranch lowered uncertain
ly, while Hugh, with the good humored
blindness peculiar to his sex, moved
about in herculean effort to infuse
spirit of general sociability into the
company
Another element of disturbance had
been introduced by Mr.. Campbell, who,
naturally of a cautious temperament,
was full of wild anxiety lest the flying
spark should fire the range, or, with a
change in the wind, should endanger
the barns, until Ellery, who had, in fact,
builded rather better than he knew, was
wholly disquieted and unhappy. A fire
in earnest tonight was not a cheerful
possibility to contemplate, when of all
the men belonging on the place not one
was at hand save Paul Brown, all the
others having begged the day off to as
sist at picnic and dance a dozen miles
away.
Edith, who said she was sure that in
some previous state of existence she had
been Parsee, was finding an exquisite
enjoyment in the wild reveIry of flame.
Her breath came quicker; her nerves
tingled with excitement as her eyes
followed the writhing red arms which,
with almost diabolical prescience, were
ever reaching out higher and higher in
wider and yet wider range, unerringly
snatching at the furthermost twigs with
derisive cries and misses of mad triumph,
gnawing tearing and beating down the
mighty mass, scattering sparkling
shower of burnt out husks into the
glowing abyss, each falling branch for
the instant glory of flame, as though
the subtle touch of life passed in guise
of new beauty from its erstwhile hold
on earth.
eve might imagine ourselves ship
UraoGol Cai1nvS - no l-ol TO
Campbell, who was beside her, gingerly
holding up the ends of the garment she
called "a polonay'' from contact with
possible dew, 1.-THE rest of the world
seems so far away
''Twould be kinder sociable to see
something besides the light of the moon
an stars by night now, wouldn't it?
Not that there's much moon tonight
Goodness knows, hope it's goin to get
up in time to light us home,'' the good
woman returned, anxiously inspecting
the blackness of the sky, as, wholly OBJ
Hvious to Hugh's feelings as the author
of the entertainment, she sat with her
back squarely turned to the blaze. Its
more'n 30 years since 1 lived where I
could see neighbours light by night
Seems kinder lonesome sometimes, for
a fact, especially in time of sickness
But 1 don't feel to complain, she add
ed, swapping meaning glance at the
Lowering party. Land knows, I'd want
to weed out my neighbors some before
I went to gettin 'em any nearer -
ooh, did you say your boys had gone
to the picnic?" Edith irrelevantly de-
half laughing as she caught
sight of Nelsine's despairing face.
Yes. They just natchelly had to