Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-28
WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING STAR BY L II BUBEa
Copyright. 1908, by L. II. Burns.l

The mule Shultz roue piioheu Wy 80
Down the trail there doomed an appai,o
AT first it looked like a bunoie Vi ~
ray-colcred rags. Then he saw 1t was
squaw. Ito, n
'Who-o-o you-u?' she chauenseu n'ii' 49,
a high, sing treble.
"Who your returned Shultz good-natur-
edlv. II was his disposition to learn more
than he told. So,
.Ata bix chief sauaw Him heap dead!
Long time woman met
7, sounded like a dirge. Shultz DID not
doubt that she was a hundred. She was
uplv and SQUAT. Her head was thatcheo
with ash-colored hair. and her cheeks were
scanned with a thousand wrinkles.
shultz had never seen a creature so un--
couth and pitiable. He thrust his hand into
his pocket.
Want a quarters"
She chtched it In her claw-like hand.
Her bright eyes glittered-it might nave
been with gratitude She laid hold OF MS
bridle. Her quavering falsetto was low
cred to an eager whisper.
"You know Mamie R? You know him?'
Shultz was startled. The Mamie r was
the mine he had come to inspect-pernaps
TO buy. And Ii was not his custom 10 ao-
yertse his mission. .
you know Mamie r? You know him?
Mamie r heap sell you"
With a warning shake Of her gray head
she loosened the rein and trotted on Sne
trotted faster than the mule could walk.
When Shultz reached the town she was al
ready gloriousy drunk So apparently was
the rest of the camp. for 1t was Sunday,
and the day of rest.
Shultz put up his mule and engaged
room in the Forked Tail hotel" He
strolled about a little ana phiosopnlZeu
Then he returned to his room, lit his pipe
rit 70 ha
ma am.
Schultz was a mining man. who Travelled
about with money in his bootleg, decent
share of 1t his own. For the rest, he was
a sober, methodical German sort of fellow,
whose Sunday habit was to write to the
Denver schoolma am to whom he meant to
propose marriage some day.
The intention was not new one, nor
dsquieting. II any one was anxious IL was
not Shultz
The letter, headed at Forked Tail. which
Shultz wrote to the Denver schoolma' am
began with the elevation and mean annual
rainfall. Then he told about the shrewd
old squaw with a renewed wonder at her
penetration. Tine incident gave tone to his
letter, and carried him away from sta
tistics
eve got into-and out ola lot of mining
camps" he wrote, but Forked Tail is the
real thing. This Is a good day to study
social customs. Religion here consists or
taking a bath on Sunday, and there be
those Uhat DaCkSlQe. NO WOHuet. Iue-S
isn't white woman on the river. The men
seem content enough, though. Now, there's
Romero my landlord. He isn't Spanish
though his name Unfortunately for his
daughter. He sent her away to school, and
Is as proud as you please OF her. They say
she's the belle OF the diggings, and Tevis,
the boss of the mine, dropped his fist on
man once on her account, and the man
well, ne didn't testify. I suppose she's
some black-eyed thick-bodied beauty that
will look like that old bag Of a chiefs
squaw in a few more years, but meanwhile
the men will fight over her till she marries
one of them.
..There's dance on for tonight, and
suppose one would see the beauty and the
ohivalry. I'm anxious to secure my sam
pies and get away. This mine, by the way,
Is reported promising, and I'm looking 1t UP
for myself. If 1t should really be as good
as they say and should buy 1t, you know,
and come here to develop it"
Shultz paused and pulled gently at his
pipe. There was romance in him, but 1t was
the romance inherited from generations OF
pipe-smokers, and did not interfere with his
heartbeats. The Denver schoolma'am would
make him an admirable wife. Through the
soft wreathes he could see her, sensible and
klssabls and kind, enveloped In ruffled
gingham and up to her dimpled elbows In
dough- A memory of the breakfast he had
eaten grIped him. and he laid down his pipe
with a look that might have reused the
interest of the Denver schoolma' am.
What he meant to write history does not
record. He laid his pipe on the window
sill. The window was rickety, and the
porch outside ratified and shook with the
highest step. Some one came tripping up
the window fell with bang, and Shutz's
meerchaum. companion and inspirer Of all
his domestic reveries, was ashes and dust
before his eyesi
Shultz uttered word not listed IN Ger
man grammars for the young. And then,
81 beg pardon he said vaguely.
face was framed In the windov-a cool,
slim sallow, soft-cheeked little face, with
eyes that bothered him. They were very
dark and very deep-looking, like green
water under a shadowing banl-the kind
one braces himself against lest he slip into.
And Shultz. who had all his life cherished
the belief that a woman's eyes are given
her to see with with speGtacles or without
as the case may be) clutched at his hair and
stared diZzly.
The girl laughed.
The laugh brought him back to the pipe.
He loved his pipe and he thought she was
laughing at his misfortune
Too bad" she murmured. Smashed!
All smashed"
There was nothing between them. Her
blue-black hair parted over her yelled eyes
like curtain, and a comb set with bar
barrie brilliants glittered on her crown.
lie had never seen a woman so small and
slight as She
TOO bad" she repeated sorrowfully.
"An' there isn't another pipe in town"
Her voice was soft and slurring, with a
element OF tenderness and pity, 1t was SO
untaught. His sorrow for himself began
to change to sorrow for her.
1T Is tough" he confessed. But don't
you feel bad"
She clasped her hands and looked at him
the dark-skinned 1.-the, little-boned thing.
II mus feel badi What can / do? Oh,
I knowI mus make you cigarette!"
She disappeared from the window and ap-
peared at the door Shultz sat mute and
wrathful in his chair, in too great rage
to speak. He had q healthy vanity, and
no one ever before had dared to make
game of him like this. The impudent hussy.
he thought resentfully to attach herself
and make him cigarettes against his Will
But of his ire the girl was innocent. She
got down tobacco pouch and matches, and
then. with a pleased little gesture which
included him, she lit upon his writing
pad. and tore a neat parallelogram from
the very sheet Wherein he had commenced
his momentous message to the Denver
echoolma'a am.
Shultz was paralyzed.
Now, II is pretty art to make cigar
cite. He followed her motions curiously.
How judiciously she sifted the tobacco into
the followed groovei How cleverly her
fingers wound the paper around the weed!
How slim her facile fingers were.
Suddenly, on her quick-moving fingers,
he noticed stain Of yellow. A CALLING
bad slipped from his outraged ego She
vas not making game Of him. She also
was smoker OF cigarettes!