44° 



RECREA TION. 



" a half-starved Yaqui kid " with it. 

 " Then," said Carl, " we may expect to see 

 our ' Chico ' at any moment." 



Suddenly a smothered exclamation from 

 Mrs. Carl startled us, and, looking up, I 

 saw in the open door-way our $16 boy, his 

 face wreathed in* smiles. 



" Aqui estoy senor (here I am sir), he 

 calmly announced. 



Some of the men grinned, and a few of 

 them laughed outright. It struck them as 

 something queer to see — 

 that thin, childish figure, 

 clothed in course " manta " 

 (native cotton cloth), that 

 had once been white, with a 

 pair of rude " hurachos," or 

 raw-hide sandals, on his 

 feet, and a big, ragged palm 

 leaf hat, crushed over a 

 thick shock of black hair, 

 the whole outlined against 

 the bright sunlight without. 

 " Is this the boy you 

 promised to treat as a son, 

 and take into our home, Carl?" "Yes, 

 dear," in rather uncertain tones, which 

 gave us an impression that Carl, at that 

 moment, would just as soon have been 

 elsewhere. " Oh Carl! " was all she could 

 say. 



In spite of his vociferous protests, we 

 had Chico washed, and then dressed in a 

 new suit of boy's clothes, from the Com- 

 pany's store. The " hurachos " were sup- 

 plemented by a brand new pair of shoes, 

 and last, but not least, a new straw som- 

 brero, and a hair cut. 



We kept Chico a year or more, and he 

 proved a very convenient article to have 





CHICO. 



rt 



about the house; for a more faithful little 

 worker I have never found — that is — when 

 he wanted to work; which, by the way, was 

 not infrequently the case. 



He soon learned to speak a few words of 

 English, and, after much patient work, 

 Carl's wife managed to teach him to worry 

 through " Daisy Bell," and " Two Little 

 Girls In Blue." I smile, even now, at the 

 mere remembrance of how he looked, 

 standing there and singing those American 

 songs. He was 

 thin, always, in 

 spite the enormous 

 quantities of food 

 he tucked into the 

 most capacious 

 mouth I ever saw 

 on a boy. When he 

 quavered through 

 "Two Little 

 Girls," his mouth 

 reminded me of an 

 accordeon — spread 

 to its widest at 

 "girls" and 

 brought back into 

 a little bunch at 

 "blue." And all 

 the time his small, 

 black, beady eyes 

 snapped and sparkled. 



Shortly after his advent, on my way to 

 the railroad with the bullion, we went 

 through the village, and passing a cantina 

 (saloon), I saw Chico's former owner 

 seated at a table, with a glass of mescal in 

 his hand, and overheard him telling the 

 store-keeper how he had gotten rid of that 

 little Yaqui for the truly vast sum of $16. 



I saw chico's former owner seated 



AT A TABLK WITH A GLASS OF MESCAL 

 IN HIS HAND." 



BUFFALO WAR CANOE. 

 See letter from O. H. Williams, in the Canoe Department. 



