St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1904-02-17
A PIECE OF SCARF
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girls of twenty in the north. Marina
was but poor mans daughter, with
very little education. One evening a
stranger stopped at her fathers cabin.
He was a young man with fair hair
and blue eyes and above all winning
smile He asked Marina if he might
have one of her flowers growing in a
bed beside the door and when he did so
smiled at her. That was the last of
Marina's peace of mind. Edwin Coop
er, the stranger, a young civil engi-
neer on the railroad being built through
the valley below, had plucked her heart
as easily as he had plucked her flower.
But there is danger in picking hearts
in those tropical gardens. 1t is like
touching one of the beautiful insects
of the country. Marina did not sting
Cooper, but one Narvaez, a dirty little
Mexican, who had seen the engineers
smile and how it went to a heart that
he had in vain tried to appropriate, was
made his enemy, and such enemies, !.
who invariably strike in the dark, are
to be dreaded. When Cooper went the
next day he had cut an end from
faded many colored scarf Marina wore.
She followed him to the gate, chatter
ing as she went, and the last thing
Cooper said to her was, "See, I will
wear your souvenir in my buttOnhole."
Cooper had no sooner departed than
Narvaez, who had been present the
evening before-indeed he had been
hanging about Marina most of the time
entered and upbraided her for her
conduct toward the stranger This con-
duct had been without excuse, for Ma
rina was betrothed to Narvaez. She
had consented to be his wife not be-
cause she loved him, but because he
was the first man she had met since
she emerged from childhood. She did
not seem to be at all ashamed of hav-
ing been led aside so easily. She told
Narvaez in patois Spanish that he was
a miserable specimen of humanity and
the stranger was a god. Narvaez was
so beside himself with rage that he
was tempted to run a knife into her,
but was too much infatuated with her
to do so. He resolved that he would
take revenge on the Americana.
Cooper continued to wear the bit of
scarf in his buttonhole. Whether he
didn't have time to take it out or
whether he expected that he might
meet the little girl from whom he got
it and desired to let her see that he
valued it, no one knows. Several of
his associates asked him what it meant
was it the badge of a society, dec
oration-what was it? But he only re-
piled that he had got it from a girl.
One day Cooper was carrying a theod-
olite, which he occasionally set up
on three legs, looked through it at a
rod ON which was a slide and made
some figures in his notebook He
found it a tedious process, and once
while he sent his rodsman forward a,
long distance he sat down on the grass
to wait. There was no one else about,
and he sat enjoying the solitude and
listening to the birds. Suddenly
huge stone came down on his head and
crushed his skull The rodsman, not
hearing or seeing anything from him
for some time, finally went back to
find out what was the matter. Cooper
was dead
There was no clew to the murderer
Cooper's valuables had not been taken;
at least none was missed, and no one
could understand how any person could
have had any interest in numbering
him. Not long after the tragedy Mar
vaez renewed his attentions to Marina,
who, so far as he coula see, had for
gotten the handsome stranger.
when shall we be married?'' said
the little Mexican one day to Marina.
''Ill tell you," she replied. 1--WE will
be married when you bring me the bit
of my scarf / gave the engineer"
81 bring you the bit of scarf! How
could get it?''
''You must find it. Perhaps he left
it among his clothing. You might steal
it."
II will not do such a thing
''Then I will not marry you
From that time Marina would have
nothing to do with him. At last one
day he brought her the souvenir. Then
she. named day for the wedding.
On that day while Narvaez was put
ting on a new suit of clothes he had
bought at a store for his marriage he
was arrested and carried before the
judge. There were present number of
the men employed on railroad construc-
ton, and sitting in a conspicuous place,
wearing ON her bosom the bit of scarf
which she had made the price of her
consent, was Marina. Narvaez looked
at her in astonishment. She returned
his look with a cold blooded stare
Narvaez was accused of the murder
of Cooper. and Marina was called TO
the stand. She told her story, giving
an account of Cooper's visit and the
giving him the bit of scarf, ending her
testimony in this wise:
Il knew, senior Judge. that Narvaez
had killed the Americana. but 1 could
not make him be punished without the
proof. I knew the Americana would
wear my scarf, for he promised me.
When I heard that it was not found on
him [ suspected Narvaez had it as a
trophy. l pretended not to suspect Mar
vaez of the murder, but told him he
must steal it for me from the America
nos clothes.s At last he brought it to
me-