The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-07-15
"eoING TO GET MARILLA PIANO, HEAR.

GOING TO GET MARILLAA A PIANO, HEAR. "
ing deep into the hard packed loan,
each Of us reposed against an elm
pillar of the structure and smoked FL
Toro tobacco, while we wrangled ami.
cably concerning the affairs of the rest
of the world.
AS for conveying adequate concep-
ton of the engaging charm of that
prairie evening, despair waits upon it.
It is q bold chronicler who will under
take the description Of Texas night
in. the early spring. An inventory
must suffice.
The ranch rested upon the summit of
a lenient slope. The ambient prairie,
diversified by arroyos and murky
patches of brush and pear, lay around
us like a darkened bowl at the bottom
Of which we reposed as dregs. Like
a turquoise cover the sky pinned us
there. The miraculous air, heady with
ozone and made memorably sweet by
leagues of wild fiowerets, gave tang
and SAVIOR to the breath.
Mr. Kinney's wife. a young and
capable woman, we had left in the
house. She remained to busy herself
with the domestic round Of duties, il
which ! had observed that she seemed
to take a buoyant and contented pride
In one room we had supped. Pres
.eptly from the other as Kinney and l
sat without there burst volume Of
sudden and brilliant music. If could
justly estimate the art of piano play
ing, the construer Of that rollicking
fantasia had creditably mastered the
secrets of the keyboard. A piano, and
one 80 well played, seemed TO me to be
an unusual thing to find in that small
and unpromising ranch house. / must
have looked my surprise at Rush Kin
ney, for he laughed in his soft south
ern way and nodded at me through the
moonlit haze of our cigarettes.
you don't often hear as agreeable
a noise as that on sheep ranch" he
remarked. But / never see any rea-
son for not playing up to the arts and
graces just because we happen to live
out in the brush It's a lonesome life
for a woman, and if little music can
make it any better why not have it!
That's the way | look at it,"
"A wise and generous theory"
assented. "And Mrs. Kinney plays
well. | am not learned in the science
of music, but l should call her an un-
commonly good performer. She has
technic and more than ordinary pow
err"
The moon was very bright, you will
understand, and l saw upon Kinney's
face a sort Of amused and pregnant
expression, as though there were things
behind it that might be expounded.
you came up the trail from the
Double Elm fork" said Kinney prom.
isingly. GAS you crossed it you must
have seen an old deserted jacal tC
your left under a comma mott"
~ did" said /. "There was a drove
of javalis roofing around it. l could
see by the broken corrals that no one
lived there"
That's where this music PROPOSE
ton started" said Kinney. II don't
mind telling you about it while we
smoke. That's where old Cal Adams
lived. He had about 500 graded Meri
nos and a daughter that was solid silk
and as handsome as a new stake rope
on a thirty dollar pony. And / don't
mind telling you that l was guilty in
the second degree of hanging around
old Cats ranch all the time ! could
spare away from lambing and shear
ing. Miss Marilla was her name. and
/ had figured it out by the rule Of two
that -she was destined to become the
chateiaine and lady superior OF Ran