:;58 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



tieptember 



away "from the office to peep in at the 

 Thauksgivius; ball. The long hall was 

 brilliaut wiib keroseue lamps and gay 

 with i3alms and flowers. Longley was 

 there with his Julia. A quadrille had 

 just ended, and the men were rushing 

 about for new partners. When not 

 dancing, the girls all sat at one end of 

 the room, looking demure and pretty in 

 their white trocks, with roses in their 

 black braids. Facing them on a long 

 bench sat the duennas gossiping and 

 smoking, but each keeping an un- 

 wearied eye upon her particular charge. 



Longley caught sight of Carpenter 

 and came hurrying out. "You see I 

 brought her," he said. 



"And her mother?" asked Carpenter. 



"Mother nothing! You want to hear 

 how I did it?"' and Longley unfolded a 

 tale that made Carpenter gasp. 



"Well, my son, if you really did this 

 — persuaded that foolish girl to climb 

 out of the window and go with you un- 

 known to her mother — I don't know but 

 what you deserve your fate. You know 

 too much ever to take advice, but I'll 

 give you this piece, so I won't have you 

 on my cousciyuce as not having done 

 all I could. Don't go home the same 

 way you came, and, if it was me, I'd 

 walk backward every step of the way. " 



Longley waved the advice lightly 

 from him and hurried back to Julia. 



****** 



Th^ next time the friends met was at 

 Longley's wedding, four weeks after 

 the Thanksgiving ball. Longley looked 

 weak and pale. Carpenter judged he 

 had hfwdly recovered from the garrot^zo 

 that had laid him low as he was boost- 

 IDg Julia in her window, one of the iron 

 bars of which Longley had managed to 

 remove. Longley suspected Julia's 

 cousin, Jose Erron, who had shown un- 

 utterable hatred for the young eastern 

 man. 



For three weeks Longley lay in the 

 Estudillos' adobe suffering from con- 

 cussion of the brain. Part of the time 

 he was unconscious. He had strange 

 dreams. The bare little chamber was a 

 prison cell, and Julia was his jailer. He 

 dreamed he clamored for Kitty — Kitty 

 back in Ohio — that is, he thought "Kit- 

 ty" and struggled to say it, to scream 

 it, but the spoken word turned to 

 "Julia." He strove, he fought, strug- 

 eline'.as a-drownine man struacles for 



breath in the water, to call for Kitty. 

 Ho was not Julia's, he was Kitty's. 

 That kept fioatiug back and forth in 

 his brain like a piece of kelp sloshing 

 to and fro in tiie tide. 



Wlien he got the kinks straightened 

 u:it in his head, he found that they had 

 tinishcd calling the banns for him and 

 Julia, aijd that the^' were preparing for 

 the wedding lo take place as soon as he 

 could staud. 



The thing was monstrous, without 

 doubt, but what could be done? Carpen- 

 ter was the only one who would even 

 try fo interfere, and he could do nothing. 

 Julia clothed herself in stupidity, and 

 against that impenetrable armor Car- 

 penter battered in vain. The mother, of 

 course, understood no word of English ; 

 so it was useless to appeal to her. And 

 there they had poor, conceited, rattled 

 Longley fast. 



The marriage could not take place in 

 the church, as Longley was not a Cath- 

 olic. The priest did not approve and re- 

 monstrated with Senora Estudillo in re- 

 gard to this impious alliance with a 

 heretic. "Valgame Dios!" she said, 

 with a despairing shrug. "What would 

 you? Those of the true faith will not 

 work, and there are seven of us and 

 nine of the family of my sister. Would 

 you have us starve?" It is a sad thing 

 that religion must give way to matters 

 of expediency. The dollar dominates 

 even in slumberous old Monterey. 



Carpenter, with a grim line round his 

 mouth, wondered us he stood watching 

 the priest's genuflections if Longley 

 was recalling any of his somewhat in- 

 temperate remarks about priests and 

 greasers. He looked white enough, as 

 he stood limply by bridal robed Julia, 

 to be recalling the sins and misadven- 

 tures of a bad life a century long. 



Longley never did get to looking 

 "right ppart" — he began work too soon. 

 He worked early and he worked late, 

 for were there not 19 blood relatives and 

 28 collaterals, also the blood relatives 

 of the collaterals, and all big eaters? 

 But it is an unwritten law that you are 

 not expected to clothe the collaterals or 

 their relatives. 



A dozen or so would comedown from 

 Tassajara, another dozen from Tres 

 Pinos, and there "visit" three or four 

 weeks at Longley 's in the most perfect 

 amitv. Beine but human, Longley 



