Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1904-03-17

it much, senior, for it furnished
me meat. Why, only yesterday
morning two deer stood just over
there eating the corn, butt He
paused for an instant, then called
"Chonita, mia, come here.o
A girl clad in simple garment
of rough material passed from
the jacal, a girl whose supple,
rounded form possessed perfect
grace, and as she came forward
Rawlston started as he gazed on
her Latin-Indian beauty.
"My daughter, Chonita, senior"
said Juan. The girl raised her
dark eyes to meet his, and her
clear, olive brown skin became
suddenly tinged with her South
ern blood. "She can shoot" con-
tinued Juan, as he handed her
the rifle, Isl, senor,even BETTER
A flock of chattering parrots
passing overhead caught his eye.
CHANGING at them, then at Rawl-
ston, he cried: Zone shot, senior,
permit her."
Rawlston nodded then watched
the girl as she raised the gun,
saying: "See, the one in the
lead" A report, and the bird
fell, a mangled mass of flesh and
feathers.
She handed the rifle to Rawl-
ston, her lips parted, and her
bosom slightly heaving with the
momentary excitement. Again
their eyes met; then she turned
and hurried back to the jacal.
His gaze followed her, and half
unconsciously he was dreamingly
comparing her with another--a
blue-eyed, fair-haired woman of
the North, who suddenly he
noticed that she was bare-footed.
He seated himself on a,bench
near the doorway, vaguely watch
ing his men as they unpacked
and removed the saddles from
the steaming mules, and gazing
even beyond, out over the mount
aims to where rested a dense bank
of clouds, from which darted &C.
casional flashes of lightning, fol-
lowed by low, believing peals OF
thunder that rolled with great
hollow echoes across the heavens.
The rain fell on the matched roof
above him with a muffled, patter.
ing sound, and he rested there,
lost in reveries, dreaming of her,
who awaited him in distant
city-his promised wife.
After awhile Chonita came te
the door and told him that his
supper was ready. Dreamily he
heard her voice and raised his
head. She stood with her dark
hair falling in a disordered mass
over her shoulders, one bare arm
half raised and resting on the
door sill, her body partly turned,
showing the beautiful lines OF
her figure as she hesitated, as
though fascinated by his look,
and gazed into his eyes as a little
child might, and yet not, for
there was to her strange at
traction about this Americana,
this man of the Saxon race who
was so unlike the men of her own,
that caused her heart to flutter
wildly. He looked at her for a
long while, and then arose. She
drew aside to allow him to pass
into the house, and as he did SO
a gust of wind blew her hair
across his face.
During the month that followed
Rawlston became frequent Wis
itor at the little rancho, stopping
over night while travelling be-
tween the mines and Guadalupe
Y Calvo.
One afternoon, as the glory of
the sunset spread slowly across
the valley. Rawlston rode up to
the rancho, where, finding no one
at home, he left his mule and
climed the trail that led to a lit
tied spring in a gulch back of the
house. Chonita was there filling
an ola, but she did not hear him
as he approached, not until he
stood at her side. Then she start
ed, and as she arose she slipped
on the wet clay and would have
fallen had he not caught her in
his arms.
He felt her tremble as he held