Nogales international., 1934-02-03

I Old Charley himself had remarked
to Ruth that the rains began about the
end of June; Snavely had admitted
that it might rain around the twenty
fourth of June-before the real drouth
set in: but Ann, Don Francisco, AL
fredo, and Magda had stated calmly
that the rain would come in abund-
ance beginning with the Day. OF San
Juan.
It was now the twentieth of July and
since the single storm OF more than
two months before, there had not been
8 cloud in the sky the size Of pigeon.
The grass which had sprung UP so
brave and green after the storm was
now wilted and the color of broon-
straw. The lacy leaves OF the mesquite
curled on dropping branches, dust
laden; the broad, fiat leaves of the
prickly pear were shrunken and yei-
iowish: small bushes were as brittle as
glass, and the twigs and weed stems
underfoot rustled like dry paper. The
birds, rabbits, coyotes and lions had
left the country-a1l was desolation.
Rattlesnakes abounded.
! Each morning the sun rose naked
above the eastern mountains and as it
rose wave of sitting heat swept over
the desert as though a mighty oven
door had slowly swung open.
/ Ruth had rather expected rain on
the Day Of San Juan and, when that
passed cloudless, felt that in day or
SO she would see the clouds billowing
over the mountains and smell the in
describable perfume OF desert rain,
AS day succeeded day, each hotter, !
dryer, more hopeless than the preced-
ing day, her anxiety increased-she
seemed trapped in a corner while dis
aster crept relentlessly nearer. The
increasing awareness Of her respon-
sibility drove her to assume more and
more the control of the ranch. Before
she we'll realized it she was giving the
orders for the days riding. Snavely
left everything to her. He rode out
each morning but he rode alone and ne
returned alone.
Occasionally as she rode about the
ranch, Ruth came across him. Some
times he was riding casually up Some
canon as though he cared not where
he went, as long as he had no COM
pany; again, she had seen him sitting
in the shade OF a scrubby live oak high
upon ridge top. Whenever she saw
him these days Ruth had an odd, un-
comfortable feeling that Snavely was
waiting for something.
One day she met Old Charley and
Will as she was riding the southern
boundary Of the ranch. The two men
came up to the fence and talked with
her. That evening she told Snave'y
that he ought to go to town for a
wagonload of cottonseed meal which
could be given to such cows as needed
it badly. She also suggested that he
get a certain brand of dried milk
much advertised in the cattle raisers'
magazine-which, mixed with water,
could be given to the underfed calves
and the orphans.
Snavely thought for a long time,
then said he would go. 1t seemed to
Ruth that there was an undercurrent
of eagernesS in his voice in spite OF
his objections to the trip. He started
the next morning with team and
wagon, returning a week later with
the load. He appeared oddly satisfied.
Now, whenever the riders found a
weak cow with starving calf or some
calf without mother, these animals
were brought to the home ranch,
turned into the small horse pasture,
and fed. Some sixty COWS were re-
ceiving their daily ration of meal, and
about the ranch house and corrals wan
dered band of nine or ten orphaned
calves whom Ruth was bringing up on
the bottle.
The gulch had been fenced by the
Mexicans under Ruth's direction; also
all the ponds were now deep-and all
but the one in the south pasture was
bone dry. Half Of the herd watered at
this pond, the other half at the corral
troughs on the home ranch. The corral
troughs could only water this number.
Very little wind came to turn the
windmill which fed the tank by the
corrals. Even after Alfredo had con-
structed a primitive hand pump, it
usually meant three hours cf back.
breaking labor to raise the required
amount OF water