The daily Alaskan., 1914-08-28
WWNI[NIIINFWW xxx IINIINTI5IJ Rosa Puente A Story of an American
 In Mexico
By F. A. MITCHELL

enough money to enable him to set himself up in some sort of business and not fancylng mercantile pursuits, cast about for an out of door method of investment He visited the west, looked over the sheep growing indus try and concluded that under the con- ditions 1t was not inviting Going down to Galveston. he sailed for Vera Cruz. Mexico, and thence he went by rail up to the capital.
 Coffee raising appeared much more attractive to him than sheep raising, and he decided to spend some time on a coffee plantation studying the cul- ture ofVthe bean. Every morning he momtedNQ horse, donning Mexican riding costume, which consists of tight trousers with a row of buttons run. ming the full length of the leg, a short coat and a profusely decorated sugar loaf sombrero In this attire MT. Burch looked very handsome and, be ing a young man in the twenties, was especially fitted to capture the hearts of Mexican maidens
 One morning he was riding along a road lined with tropical verdure. The sun shone brightly and would have shoue hot had not It's rays been tenn pered by the high altitude of the Mex lean plateau, which is more than 1000 feet above the sea. The country com bincd the beauties Of the tropics with the exhilaradng air of the mountains. Indeed, there were peaks all about him, while In the distance an elcngat- ed mountnln presented the fc'm of a woman resting on hn- bier, the snow forming her winding sheet
 Before Malcolm Burch tripped a lit- tie Mexican girl. Her jacket, covered with spauCles, reached } barely to her waist. Her skirt, bedecked in like manner, fell not far below the knee. Not needing her robosa "a garment Mexican women wear over their heads and shoulders-she carried it on her arm.
 "If anything were needed" said the American to himself, "to complete this delicious landscape 1t would be the It. tie figure sparkling in the rays of the sun"
 When he reached the girl she turned and cast a glance at him. She was neither Spanish nor Indian, but mix ture of the two races. Her Spanish an- cestors must have once dwelt under the Pvrenees, where the climate is mild and many of the people are fair, for her hair had a gold tinge fh it, and her eyes, if not blue, were certainly not black. She was apparently about six teen years old.
 Burch had picked up few words of Spanish for ordinary use, but not enough to carry on conversation. But a man does not need words to express admiration. Indeed, the word beside the look would seem very tame. Burch knew the words to express Where are YOU going?" but did not understand the reply. He put out his hand and his foot resting in the stirrup, meaning, of you will give me your hand and put your little foot on mine l will lift you up behind me and carry you whitherso- ever you are going"
 The girl hesitated, then advanced, did as he indicated, md he swung her up behind him on the horses back. To keep her position she must put her arms about his waist, and whenever his hand touched hers there came a tin gle that ran by leaps and jumps to his heart He asked her her name, and she said 1t was Rosa Puente with such a musical voice that, pretty as 1t was, the name sounded much prettier.
 They rode along, he mixing English and Spanish, three parts English to one of Spanish. she adhering to the musical language which was the only one she knew. She looked and acted unsOphis' Heated, but when they approached a clumD of adobe houses she slid down on the ground, knowing full well that she must not appear in company with a man. Had she been of the upper class she could not have been more particular in this respect, that class In which girls are not permitted to con- verse with members of the opposite sex except through a barred window, or the man standing in the street while the girl stands on a balcony above him.
 Malcolm Burch said "Buena bye, ," mixing his languages as usual, and the girl replied in the vernacular He forced his horse to walk very slowly in order that be might keep her ahead of him. partly that he might feast his eyes on her graceful figure and partly to observe where she went She stop ped at an adobe house with a matched roof in the center of a small yard in which chickens and vegetables and flowers grew iudiscriminately.
 The knowledge that Rosa Puente was not one of the higher class MexI- cans, while it brought a shadow of disappointment, did not deter Burch from following up an affair which he should have dropped at once. When he went to sleep that night he passed from consciousness to slumber with a tvr,I,1a OP Poso puauta and Othar