Nogales international., 1933-11-25

Warren and David were spending
the day under great live oak which
stood on the western bank of the
gulch and was visible from the door
way of the old adobe. 1t was a bcauti-
ful tree, its wealth of shade made ever
more inviting by the cool green of its
leaves. Warren lay back in a canvas
chair, lazily improvising on his guitar
Little David was tremendously busy
making things with the small acorns
which covered the shaded ground.
Often Ruth glanced toward the oak
tree, and once she had gone part way
over and shouted to Warren to watch
out for snakes. She returned to the
adobe reluctantly. She rather felt that
she also should be under that tree.
Anyway, the adobe looked quite
clean and pleasant compared with its
appearance the evening before. Only
last evening? Ruth could hardly be-
lieve that she had not yet been twenty
four hours on the ranch; it seemed a
month. Well, the cleaning was over.
She supposed that a storm would come
in a few days and the whole place
would fall down. In such an event
she could imagine Snavely suggesting
that she move her family into the
barn-after cleaning it out.
Since rising that morning, she had
wondered constantly what Snavely had
been doing the night before. But she
had not gone to the bushes to investi-
gate, she had not mentioned the Incl
dent to her husband, and she had not
the remotest intention of asking
Snavely. And, just as she told herself
that the voice in the gulch was an
echo, she told herself that Snavely
was probably attending to some ne
elected ranch chore-well, such as put
ting something away in a box which
made clank when the lid was
dropped.
Ruth did net know what she
thought about Ann. The giantess both
fascinated and frightened her. She
was fascinated by the skill with which
ened when the woman bent her back
and tossed aside a huge chunk of
fallen adobe which partially obstructed
the doorway, as though the heavy
earth were cork. 1t was hard to think
of the gianteSs as woman; her enor-
nous strength and size were so for
eign to the girls idea of femininity.
And always Ann was aware of the
little dog-Ruth felt that but for her
presence Ann and Sugarfoot would
have carried on continuous conver-
sation. Several times Ruth had tried
to start friendly talk with Ann but
with no success. The giantess had not
once smiled; she did her work like a
relentless machine, but machine with
thoughts of its own.
From the corner of her eye she saw
Ann loading trash from pile near
the door into wheelbarrow. She
stepped to the threshold and asked
casually, what in the world shall
we do with all that stuff, Ann3 1t
won't burn; that's certain"
Ann grunted and lifted the wheel
barrow. Ruth fell into step beside her
as the giantess wheeled her load
toward the clump of bushes beyond the
woodpile. "You know. Ann, we ought
to have regular place for putting
trash-sonething out of sight where
we could put things we didn't want
to see any more"
Ann said nothing.
give often wished I had a place
where I could put things I've done
that I shouldn't have done" The
naughty cast of AIMS features sof-
tened; she looked into the girls eyes
and nodded slightly.
Inside the encircling fringe of un-
derbrush a half dozen sun-bleached |
planks lay upon the ground. Ann !