The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-08-17
TROOP KS PRACTICE MARCH.


The girl sitting in The long shadow of the little
away the blazing where the
river ealiente disappears Of hot and
dazzling sand Her cotton gown slipping down
her shoulder skirt she had
been sewing lay Her lips wrined brows.
her wondering eyes expressed wonder.
alarm. She Is. She had been born there on the
sun-baked margin of Rio Caliente knew every
within Of its parced breeses Of its shifting sands of its
quveng mrages but never before had she seen cloud
OF dust against the breeze the dun wastes
that lay the eastward.
She stood up and watched it. rising like yellow smoke
from a cloud-ike blue that rolled along tbs
sand gone Ysidro. miles away.
to sell a kids the butcher. II mile and
half Conception, the warped which
passenger trains never stopped There nobody 10
tell. the girl stood alone wondering. while the hank
of blue rising and drifting pumes yellow spread
the plain. moving toward her till she
squadron all in blue with tiny Of white
and yellow held aoft and at their back train of wagons
drawn by sweering In her short life the girl had
sight brave S this Sometimes, Sundays,
she had walked far the little railway station at
Conception watch the full of Americans swim past
in cloud OF binding She had caught glinpses
of fair and in strange garments the
windows. but the stopped.
Morning San Ysidro had been thus far the
sum and crown of each weeks holiday Thither she
each Sunday with her father sit in the cool shad
ows and watch the black-haTed and swarthy
who worship kneeling the pewless
Ell floor, while Padre Miguel sang the Latin mass and
preached in Spanish Once a great while strangers,
tourists from the states would wander in. and
when she small the girl had strangely
beautiful woman with like gold eyes like
quoise praying the old church But that long
ago that she longer certain that it not
dream At home there nobody but her father. No
body at Ysidro spoke her except Father Miguel the
god old priest who taught the catechsm and
smattering of English that she knew. Now she
the garden the coming this strangely
glorious of another world her heart beat with
eXpectant delight and through her mind flashed
awed hope that she might know of the wondrous
people who dwet beyond the dazzling dust of her plains
away in the dim, cool land where the norheners come
from.
When the father came home the girl
watching the soldiers They had halted grouped
the bottom land the mesquite hcke and she could
hear their trumpets the CLEAN of their white
cone-ike shining through the graysreen of the
trees She would have gone the guns and
the horses and the little futterng flags but her father
who was stern man. said and babe her make
fos him.
they sitting in the garden behind the
house soldier blue suddenly the
o. the great magnolia and his cap his hand
inc at the girl He would buy eggs he said, and
little butter if they could it, She had
anyone like this soldier His eyes blue the
morning sky; his hair goaen yellow. curled like
the assels of his cheeks smooth and fair
his smile radiant and his voice the
vhich she had heard She
den as she looked him. and then she pueked her
faded gown across her bosom.
They had eggs. her father said. but butter.
He would fetch the and cheese if the soldiers
cared for cheese The soldier said yes cheese
thing for change from beans. but as he
the father his bright eyes upon girl
and she felt strange frightened happiness in her heart
and there the of unheard but most
melody to her lips When her a--.-r the soldier
the table, christening magnolia bloom
that his breast.
This is for you little woman said his
was low and tender. You preter than any
VIII you It, little woman?
Nobody had talked to her like that She had
So No VOicp O1IpdQ N
her willingly kind. She could remember her
mothers. "Prettier than any hower She wondered IL
that and wondering hoped Her small brown
hand took up the glorious blossom an instant
her scared delighted eyes looked into his Then her
father house. sur
prsed that the tears her cheeks.for she had
never been happy till then She watched him go singing
across the field his camp. and when the came
big and red dim through the
the east she crept of the house terrified
audacity. follow him.
Adds little woman" he said few nights later when
Boots and saddles sounded. kissed and,
coming back for you. sweetheart preter than
any flower. I'm coming the train for you"
The bugle spoke again and the troop went jngng
away into the night
The railroad conductors who have known the little
station at Conception for the five have all
seen the brown little woman. with her
child twice day TO watch the Limited Fly past There
water tank there and sometimes dispatches come
from up o down the road. Sometimes cattle are
eaded from the nearby corral but nobody leaves
the train at Conception. The woman who every
morning and evening watch the trains dash by is
peaked and bowed her great sunken and very
the old black shawl she upon head is
and frayed. is not pleasant look upon her
naf-naked lusty boy, and yet she prettier
han any flower JOHN H. RAFTERY.
The Charm of Dickens
The century would have been UNNECESSARILY poorer
without Dickens: let rejoice with Mr. swinburne)