The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1917-08-30

scrutiny, interrupted him
with a cry Rushing forward, she took
the edge of Alaire's skirt in her hands
and kissed 1t.
God be praised! A miracle!" she |
exclaimed. "Juan, don't you see? It IS
the beautiful senora for whom we pray
every night Of u lives. On your knees,
shameless one! It is she who delivered
you from the prison."
Juan stared ~unbelievingly, then his
face changed; his teeth flashed in a
smile, and, sweeping his hat from his
head, he, too, approached Alaire.
1T is! Sonora, I am Juan Garcia,
whom you saved, and this is Inez," he
declared. "Heaven bless you and for
give me-"
"Now I know you," Alaire laughed,
and slipped down from her saddle.
''This is a happy meeting. So! You
live here, and that was little Juan who
ran away as If we were going to eat
him. Well, we are hungry, but not
hungry enough to devour Juanito."
Turning to her companions, she ex-
planned the circumstances of her first
meeting with these good people, and as
she talked the Garcias broke in JOY
fully, adding their own account of her
goodness.
"We've fallen among friends" Alaire
told Dave and Father O'Malley. "They
will let us rest here, 1 am sure"
Husband and wife agreed in one
voice. In fact, they were overjoyed at
an opportunity of serving her; and lit
tie Juan, his suspicious partially al
layed, issued from hiding and waddled
forward to take part in the welcome.
S~hamefacedly the elder Garcia ex-
planned his inhospitable reception of
the travellers. 1--WE hear the gringos
are coming to kill us and take u
farms. Everybody is badly frightened.
We r driving our herds away and
hiding what we can. Yesterday at the
big Obispo ranch our people shot two
Americans and burned some of their
houses" They intend to kill all the
Americans they find, so you'd better be
careful. Just now a fellow rode up
shouting that you were coming, but Of
course I didn't know"
"Yes, of course. We're trying to
reach the border" Father O'Malley told
him. "Will you hide US here until we
can go on?"
Juan curtsied respectfully to the
priest. my house is yours, father"
"Can you take care Of u horses,
too, and-give us a place to sleep?"
Dave asked. His eyes were heavy; he
had been almost constantly in the sad
die since leaving Jonesville, and now
could hardly keep himself awake.
"Trust me-" the Mexican assured
them, confidently. IF somebody comes
I'll send them away. Oh, 1 can lie with
the best of them"
The Garcias were not ordinary peo-
pie, an. they lived in rather good cir
cumstances for country folk. There
were three rooms to their little house,
all Of which were reasonably clean.
The food that Inez set before her
guests. too, vas excellent if scanty.
Juanito, taking cue from his parents,
flung himself intellectually into the
task of entertainment, and since Alaire
met his advances halfway he began,
before long, to look upon her with par
ticular favor. Once they had thorough
ly made friends, he showered her with
the most tlattering attentions. His
shyness, 1t seemed, was but q pretense
lat heart he was a bold and enterpris-
| tn0 f0IIn"-nn6 on 0o n FH NJ hto
admiration, he presented her with all
his personal treasures. First he
fetched and laid in her lap a cigar-box
wagon with wooden wheels-evidently
the handiwOrk Of his father. Then he
gave her, one by one, a highly priced
blue bottle, a rusty Mexican spur, and
the ruins Of what had been a splendid
clasp-knife. There were no blades in
the knife, but he showed her how to
peep through a tiny hole in the handle,
where was concealed the picture Of a
dashing Spanish b%ull-ighter. The ap-
probation which these gifts evoked in
toxicated the little man and reused him
to a very madness of generosity. BE
battered away and returned shortly,
staggering and granting under the
weight Of another and a still greater
Offering. 1t was a dog-a patient,
hungry dog with very little hair. The
animal was alive with feast
scratched absent-mindedly with one
hind paw, even while JuanitO strangled
1t against his naked breast-but it was
the apple of its owners eye, and when
1nez unfeelingly banished it from the
house Juanito began to squall Justify.
Nor could he be conciliated until Alaire
took him upon her knee and told him
about another boy, of precisely his own
age and size, who planted a magic bean
in his mothers dooryard, which grew
up and up until it reached clear to the
sky, where a giant lived. Juanito Gar
cha had never heard the like. He was
spellbound with delight; he held his
breath in ecstasy; only his toes moved,
and they wriggled like ten fat, brown
tadpoles.