The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-11
Tt is true. senor."

 starving while your dog of husband gambles at Poncef'
 A flash of indignation lighted her
 very large eyes.
 'Domingo is good boy. senor. He csnnot buy bread to feed so many mouths"
 "But I'll bet he can buy duice enough
 for his own mouth." Pendleton mutter.
 ed. why don't you work. then?" he
 demanded.
 T can get no work, senor."
 ''why, I'll give you fifty cents a day
 to clean my office-oh. cut that Heres
 dollar. Go get some decent clothes
 and then get to work" Under the sil-
 yer he had folded fve-dollar bill and
 as he retreated he saw Nada hurriediy conipaniofis could swoop down for their thirds. They divided the dollar among them while Pendleton fled their blessings.
 Nada was back in an hour quite de- cent and clean to sweep and dust the office. Pendleton went to the window to give her full swing and found him : self confronted with group of half
 starved. wholly naked little natives that had followed their mother to his
 door, It was true. There was six of them; and the mother barely more than a girl--in years.
 T don't see what Uncle Sam is ever going to do with such population as
 this" he muttered In disgust. IS
 Nada all along the line" But for all that Pendleton got his moneys worth.
 Each morning he fancied that the dark little faces of his family of proteges were less gaunt. tho lean little ribs less in evidence. Even Nada's eyes grew | less fearfully large and bright. At | any rate there was one family in Por- to Rico srescued from starvation. Was there? A morning soon came when the children's eyes were again
 wolnsh with hunger. Nada again In l rags"
 demanded.
 Nada hid her thin face in her thin
 hands.
 Has your--husband como home. Ahf
 And he has gambled away everything you had. Ah?" he insisted. "It is his bad luck, seuor. his oad
 luck. Domingo is a good boy. It Is
 his bad luck"
 'Tll bad luck him." Pendieton declar- ed wrathfully. But chilling his Ire came the tolling of the plantation bell Solemn and slow, and at the sound'
 each man griping his trusty machete. ran toward his captain. l Fire in the cane heldsV Pendleton shouted to his chief, but the chief was
 already at the door of the inner ofhce. It's that Domingo Delgarde." he said hotly, T saw him around here yes- terday. Gambling all night! Now he has gone to sleep in the field with | cigarette"-they ran from the ofiice to- | gether. -,., | CT already on tho scene of disaster or hurrying there. Swiftly the long line of lighters stretched itself across the | hath of the fire. Like light the keen machetes flashed at their work. The | lane opened through the thick growing cane, acre after acre the well-trained
 workers swept onward and following l them, came those appointed to nre against the fire. If any human being | be caught now between those two lines | of onrushing flame, may the Lord have mercy on his soul, for his body Is doom- l ed If was Pendleton's first experience of a cane fire and his pulses leaped fiercely to the fierce excitement Of 1t, the wild hurry, the danger. Ana yet over the roar of the fire, the cracking
 of the burning cane, the monotonous toliinR of the bells. the shouts of the men and the nearby hum and ring of machetes, Pendleton heard like nev- er-ending echo that wall of a woman woe that had broken sharply upon the chiefs impatient-"Gone to sleep In the cane field with cigarette" Well, if the gambling husband Of | Nada had been tue first thing burned | by the fire he had started, there would be ono less brute to take his children's bread and throw 1t to the dogs. And yet I suppose If he did get caught in that rell over there she would be heart-broken," Pendleton re- fected impatlently. He IS such good boy Not likely he was caught though. Not often anybody Is caught | in these fires. And" he shrugged shoulders that sweated, "naughts never
 in danger"
 But some one was burned on the great Hacienda of Santa Rita that day. | Almost at the point of safety. within a l stones throw of the turning row that he had learned to call "calleJon," Pen- dIeton found the body. One loyal little heart would beat no more against famine. Bruised by last nights beat ing. pittfully thin, the scorched body lay where the meeting fires had caught
 she leave six children" Pendleton said to the chief.
 eornhan asylum will take them,' the chief answered gruffiy. He was ten- der-hearted man. The thought that | any one under his charge should have met such a death wrung him like an- | guish. What in the deuce was she | doing" there" he demanded. | Looking for her do gof husband, | PendIeton said huSkily. for that poor | little burned body was all that was left lof Nada