The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1902-07-04
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The Mountain of TRANSPORTATION
By FREDERICK HALL.


ae -
Dwight Van Vert was not deformed
In any way, and ye. he was fearfully
and wonderfully made-there was no
denying that. His iuxuriant crop Of
hame-hued hair took on quite without
culture. indeed despite an culture, the
contour Of a f~ull-blown prize chrysan-
freckles resembling a sepia map 0f
O~ceanica. His nose rose like the
tower Of Lebanon that looketh toward
Damascus. To right and left a spread
ing ear tapped defiance TO any threat
ening head wind and this was but the
cupola, so to speak. for an assortment
Of legs and arms that had apparently
been selected quite at random from q
pile Of %left-overs In some forgotten
corner OF the creators workshop. All
Of which description Is grossly exag-
gerated, Of course, but in no way mis-
leading, for I found out long ago that
In portraying Van It was absolutely
necessary to e%xaggerate in order 90
make one realize how far from beau
tiful he was.
From the day he entered school he
was the legitimate prey Of tease and
bully. 1 suppose it was hard on Van
at first. for at home his mother had
not called him Bricktop nor his father
tainted him with the upward tilt Of
his nose, but he took it all with
stoical heroism, thrashed whom he
could, diverted whom he could, helped
some with their lessons and bribed
others by judicious outlay Of his spend
ing money until, at graduation, he WAS
as popular as any fellow in the class,
howbeit as far from handsome as when
a little tad Of six.
At college he came out at the head
Of his class. He took a year In Eu-
rope after that; then he came home,
went in with his father and fell in
love with Grace Serene.
OF course, he fell in love with Grace.
Grace had a nose Phidias could not
have bettered, a complexion like the
blending Of the wild rose and the lily
of-the-valley, a figure that was the
glory of a tailor-made and the apo
theosis of a ball gown, hair she could
let fall in lustrous pillows to her feet,
eyes so big and brown and deep it
made you dizzy to look into them. It
was simply heartbreaking to contem-
plate, and all the more so when the
victim was a personal friend.
Van never took me into his conf
dence, but 1 suspect Grace had figured
in his plans ever since his first day at
school, when she had asked to have
her seat changed because it made her
feel so bad to look at that little Van
Vert boy" Anyway. h3 had always
done things for her; written to her,
sent her presents, and now he went at
It deliberately to pay her every cour-
teous attention affection could suggest
or money furnish means for.
II you have ever done anything in
v~ivisection, you remember how you
felt the first time you saw a live ami
NAL cut to pieces. It is not a pleasant
sensation, but with some Of US it came
to be almost chronic while we watched
Vans courtship drag out its sickening
length.
Ho was such a good fellow and Nshe
Euch a nice girl. To pour his soul out
In her service and yet never bore her
seemed to have become the purpose Of
his life; to let him know the truth and
yet spare him all she could seemed to
be hers.
Grace and her mother spent the sum
mer at the lakes, and so did Van. In
the latter part Of November she went
into the city on her aunt's invitation,
and Immediately Vans business took
him In at least as often as once a week.
When she returned early in February,
and Van was as attentive as ever, /
knew that that blindness-of-love bust
ness (man's love- is a true story, for
Van never seemed to realize that she
had been running away from him, and
the whole miserable thing was worse
tangled than ever, because we saw that
she had got to strike hard. which was
not going to be pleasant for her, and
Van was going to be cut up to beat
everything.
It was up In my room one night IN
March that Ken and T%renchard and 1
got to talking it over. We had heard
a rumor that Grace and her mother
were going to Europe, and we knew
that meant one Of two things-either
Van would be reckless and get his
q%uietus right away or else, on some
cooked up excuse or other he would
follow them.
"Of course" said Ken, as he gave a
vicious pull at his cigar. there's M