The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1903-03-20

he:e ,u.,Dki..r -a,e liza : ny
garden" S. id nc S...cJ.eG.a ~
the establishment o. TIRE ..,'s, ii.;r'.i
Letting fall to the ground a buno.,
which he carried in his hand. he
stopped down, kneeling until he sat
upon his feet, and began to TRANQUILITY
unite the knotted ends of the hand
kerchief.
The curiosity of the councillor, of
the retailer and the crowd rose to the
highest pitch what is he going to
get out of there?" they all asked.
At the same moment there arrived
new curiosity-seeker, attracted by
the crowd. The retailer caught sight
of him. and exclaimed, 81 am so glad
that YOU have come, Uncle Fulano!
This man says that the pumpkins
which you sold me last night are
stolen. Answer him!"
The newcomer turned as yellow as
wax. and started to withdraw; but
the bystantiers interfered. and the m
spector himself commanded him TO
| remain.
"Now you shall see about it!" ex-
claimed Uncle Buscobeatas. face to
face with the supposed thief.
You are the one to look out for
what you say" replied Uncle Fulano,
having recovered his .omposure. If
| you do not prove your denunciation,
and you can't prove it, l shall send
Won to Jail as a slanderer. These
pumpkins were mine, for l raised
them in my garden of Egido 3, and
no one can prove otherwise!"
..Now you shall see!" said Uncle
Buscobeatas, untying the handker-
| chief and tossing its contents to the
| ground.
Scattered about the ground they
beheld multitude of fragments of
pumpkin vines, still green and drip
ping with sap: the old gardener, seat
ed upon his heels and shaking with
laughter, addressed the councillor and
| the crowd as follows:
| Gentlemen, have you ever paid
taxes? And have you ever seen hat
big green book which the taX-col-
lector carries, from which he cuts off
receipts. leaving there a stub by
means of which he can tell whether
such and such a receipt is false?"
You are speaking about what il
called stub-book," gravely observed
the councillor.
THAT is precisely what l have here
the stub-book of my garden; that
| is, the ends to which these pumpkins
were Joined before l was robbed of
them. Now, if you don't believe it,
look! This stub belongs to that
pumpkin yonder; no one can deny it.
This one belongs to that pumpkin;
this to that one. Exactly. Now. this
belongs over here"
While speaking, he had been fitting
n peduncle, or stub. into the excava-
ton of each pumpkin, and the specta-
tors saw with establishment that the
| irregular bases of the stubs fitted
exactly into the whitish cavity of the
pumpkins.
The bystanders all squatted down,
including the policeman and the coun-
| cilor himself, and assisted Uncle Bus
cobeatas in his singular verification,
calling out to each other in boyish
| ioy, There's. no doubt about it!
See? This one goes here! No, that
belongs to this one!"
Their bursts of laughter and the
shouts of the grandees mingled with
the whistling of the small boys and
the imprecations of the women and
the tears of the old gardener. The
policemen were already impatient to
take the convicted thief to Jail.
1t is unnecessary to state that they
had this pleasure; that Uncle
Fulano saw himself obliged then and
there to return to the retailer the
SIS he had collected from him; that
the retailer delivered the sum over to
Uncle Buscobeatas, and that the lat
ter returned to Rota supremely hap.
py, saying to himself on the way
"How beautiful they were in the mar
ket! 1 ought to have brought Manu-
Ella home with Inc to eat tonight and
to save the seed!".Translated from
the Spanish of Pedro Antonio de Alar.
con. by Edgar Allen Forbes, in Farm
and Fireside.