The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-08-10

Oa4E cUul0 IoL BuL SuuGGEE at the leEE4-
bleness of the fate that had doomed
some one to existence in such a spot.
As We drove slowly up our attention
was caught by figure that came hob
bling toward US out Of the house. II
was an old woman. bent and crippled.
| but not by age. A calico skirt Of long
! Obliterated pattern tapped raggedly
above her ankles, and was protected,
though dustier 1t could not be, by an
apron Of coarse brown sacking. The
skinny neck that rose above her loose
waist, and her wrinkled face, were
dried and cured by years of desert sun,
while her eyes had been bleared with
wind and alkali dust to a watery gray.
But the smile of pleasure that vivi-
fed her face when she saw us made
US forget, in the sense of welcome, our
mOmentary loathing, and we found
ourselves responding to her eager
greetings with an answering cordiality.
And however did We happen to come
here?" she cried, stretching out bony
hands. ITO think that ye'd get way
out here Just when I'd about given up
hope of ever seeing a human being
again! Strangers? I thought so.
None but strangers or jail-birds ever
come this way. It's potter to ask.
Why. the last party along here was the
Indian they called Salvador-him that
killed his wife back there" She nod
ded, in the direction from which We
had come. You probably heard all
about it. Well. when he was making
for the border he come along this way,
1t being the most retired. No l declare
to 1t, if 1 wasn't just that glad to see
him could hardly let him go, n him a
red handed murderer, too. But 1
hadn't ought to tell you that" she
added, with an apologize cackle
I'VE don't know what loneliness really
is till you've lived in this place here"
1t was thing easily to be under
stood as we looked up at the grim and
frowning hills, and out upon the dead
plain. With the sensitive perception of
one who has lived much alone, she read
our horror. When she next spoke 1t
was with a note of defense in her
voice.
%Of course, it must look terrible to
SOAS SllC oekANB anu II 10 lGtIAOIB MltGu
you're not used to it-or If you had
nothin' else. Have you heard what
they cali it over there?" Again she
nodded in the direction of the valley.
Her question was so sudden, It
seemed SO irrelevant, so utterly out of
place. as if we had bent over to catch
the dying whisper of a stranger, and
he had asked in our ear the the cause
of a noise in the street. We let it sink
in the lifeless air, we stared at the
breathless crone, caught the bony flesh
of the windmill sail, and viewed the
immitigable hills as if they had spok-
en-. We had come upon her, nameless,
unrumored, without warning. She had
stirred in her tomb, and asked us to
identify her, to tell her who she was.
how the world knew her and her habi-
tation We were speechless.
She answered the question laborious-
ly herself. " Well. they call it Joe
Carroll's HE'LL" ~.T+.
Some onesef US laughed, but the rip
pie Of it was hushed in the blanket of
the heated, barren, almost viscous air.
She explained before the Judgment bar
of the futile laughter.
my husband, ye see, was Joe Carroll.
He took up this land from the govern
ment the second year we was in Cali
forny. Some fool of an agent got hold
of him and kept telling him now there
was loads of water to be had here for
a little diggin', and how water was all.
that was needed to make this place like
heaven. Them was the mans words,
We see. He was agent for some wind
mill comp'ny, which was why.
"Well, he took poor Joe right in and
nothin' would do but we must sell out.
right out here. Joe spent the first
month building the 'dobe, and the next
riggin' the we'll 1t took every lats cent
of our money, and the flow Of water
weren't enough after all to keep but
one little garden patch a-goin. We
could never get enough ahead to dig
any more wells and Joe was too proud
to borrow off any one, especially as all
our friends had jeered at us SO for COM
in out here. We see Joe's repeated
what the agent'd said about water
maxim this a heaven, and. now In fun
they began chaffin' him about it n
finally some one called it Joe Carrolrs
He'll OF course, the name stuck, IL
fitted so we'll. But 1t hurt Joe awful.
"Well, we scraped along as best we
might for ten years. At first we used
to go back to the valley quite often.
But all our old friends there were
boomn' along and gettin' more pros
p'rous all the time while we got seed
Ter. 1t used to worry Joe so, the COM
parsons he thought they was maxim
between us and them, that he got to
goin' less and less. Finally he got to
let me drive down when anythin' was
needed which was mebhe two or three
times a year.
Then Joe died. That was fifteen
years ago, the time there wasn't any
rain all winter long. That was terri
BILE year., Nights the stars would be so
bright'n strange that they'd almost suf-'
focate you if you looked at 'em too
long, they seemed that near and big"
She shifted a crooked foot and
dipped up up the hem of her sacking
apron. IN those days were all alike
she went on, "hot and blindin,' with
generally a norther long in the after