The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-08-12
THE BOY.

:"
the day the Navaioes rode up the val
| ley toward San Ildefonso. He was
chatting with the monks In the garden
of the old Salpointe House on the road
to Tusuque, and the child, astray in the
! loWwa!led garden, was watching the
| goldfish in q pond. Then came the Ma
| vajoes struggling along the dusty road
| that lies along the upper valley OF the
| Pecos. There were a hundred of them
! in gaudy blankets and feathers, with
| herds of ponies and laden burros, wag-
ons filled with farm implements and
grain--a sort of triumphal procession
OF the aborigine who has come to pre-
! fer the peaceful art of seven-up to the
bloody game of knife and rifle.
For, be it known, these semi-annual
incursions of the bold Navajoes into the
land of the Pueblos those house
dwelling blockheads of the foothills, in
which the game is seven-up or cinch,
and in which the willy, pony riding,
blanket weavin braves from the north
ern reservations usually contrive to
skin the plodding Pueblo out of his
last dollar, to ride northward at last
with all the Seed implements and RAJ
lions issued by a confiding government
to the house Indians, who are supposed
to farm, but who would rather sit In
the dust outside the agency and gam
BILE away their all than haul 1t home to
work out a living on the farm.
A Navaioe is a bigger thief than
Pueblo, and when the cavalcade of IN
dams had vanished into the cloud Of
dust that rose behind and settled over
it like a yellow veil the little son of
Or. Shafer had vanished with it.
The doctor was Wild with fear and
anger when he missed, the boy. At
breakneck speed he FASTENED back to
Santa Fe, and vefore dark Pat Garrett.
the sheriff, and twenty men were riding
into the hills with weapons and war
rants enough to capture or slay the
whole band. The conquering Navajoes
had tarried but briefly at Tusuque.
With added spoils of shovels, rakes and
hoes they were already two hours on
the ride to Idlefonso. There the posse
caught up with them just as the sun
flashed it's first signal across Old Badly,
and before the hand had been well
dealt Garrett and his men, with the
doctor leading them, searched every
tepee and wagon, pried open boxes and
cross questioned every buck in the
band but there was not trace nor
word about the missing boy.
That night the white men followed
them north to Taos, and the next night
to Quita, in the hope that some clew to
the mystery would appear. But when
the route lay in toward Albuquerque
Garrett sent messenger thither, and
at sun-up the fourth day out hun
bred possemen surrounded the Nava-
ioes and marched them into town.
They were coralled in the stockade
back of the hospital and then, like
sure enough civilized savages, they sent
for lawyer.
well. what did they Go with the
boy?" Garrett asked the lawyer as he
came out Of the corral counting his fee.
"Snakefoot lost him to a Bernalilo
Indian in a game of seven-up at Tu-
suaue the same night they stole HIM
Miquelly Baques farm lies flood
high upon the banks of the Rio Grande
above Bernalino, where the Spanish
flourish and the wine flows
red and odorous as Falernian. lie is
good Indian, a rich Indian, and there
are nails in his walls and glass in the
windows of his abode. Alone with his
squaw. he had titled and toiled in the
valley. till the one unpurchaseable wish
of their desolate hearts was for a boy
But not even an Indian will sell his pa
poose and Miguel would not steal.
Therefore, there was JOY in the Badue
adobe when he rode back from the viii
LACE on the Pecos with q man child on
the saddle before him and ten tethered
Navaioe ponies leading. For two days |
the brown wife was q mother, and the |
winds that blew across the ranges and |
wrirrcN among the vines about her |
door had I'm them the old music of long |
forgotten cradle songs. Miguel young |
again, would sit for hours coaXing the |
little white boy TO MUNICH the purple /
grapes or hold him ON the pony TIL |
laughter that fell upon their ears like
rain upon the desert made their gray
Did hearts both green and gay Two
lays that We're worth the combined
century of their silent lives, two days |
when every Bird sang an unheard OF
anthem and the whole world laughed
With the voice of a yellow haired boy.
they streaked his fair face with the
uice of nuts and slept upon his door