JUANITA'S ELOPEMENT 



BY ALLEN KELLY. 



UANITA had no memory 

 of a mother's loving care. 

 She was unaware that she 

 ever had a mother, and, 

 she never so much as 

 dreamed of a father. Her 

 father never saw her, 

 never knew of her exist- 

 ence and her mother died 

 suddenly when she was 

 but a few weeks old. The 

 only friend she knew was 

 Juan, who took her out of a hollow 

 log, carried her to his cabin and brought 

 her up on a bottle. She did not know 

 that the soft, furry bed, upon which she 

 slept and which smelled so comforting 

 when Juan rolled her about upon it, 

 was her mother's pelt. 



Juanita's disposition was amiable and 

 Juan found her a docile pupil when he 

 undertook her limited education. The 

 first serious lesson she had to learn 

 was that Juan was master, notwith- 

 standing the superior strength of muscle 

 which developed in her as she grew up. 

 In learning that she also learned not 

 to use her teeth and claws roughly in 

 frolic, and that a tap on the end of 

 her nose was painful. 



Juan's polite accomplishments were 

 few, but such as they were he imparted 

 them to Juanita, and when she was a 

 year old she could dance alone to Juan's 

 whistling, perform with him a passa- 

 ble polka of irregular measure while he 

 hummed "La Paloma," push in the stop- 

 per and drink sweet soda out of a bot- 

 tle, carry a stick at "support arms," 

 guard her nose cleverly in a sparring 

 bout, shake hands when introduced to 

 strangers, turn an awkward somersault, 

 and whine a falsetto accompaniment to 

 Juan's heavy baritone singing. 



Juanita learned a few other things 

 as she went along, among them that it 

 was well to keep away from Juan's 

 flock of athletic goats, which scrambled 



among the rocks on the hill all day 

 and were driven into a brush corral at 

 sunset. The long-horned and whiskered 

 patriarch of the flock taught her that 

 when she was a few months old, and 

 she never forgot it. 



She was in the habit of following 

 Juan about during the day, and one 

 evening he forgot to shut her up in the 

 cabin when he went after the goats. She 

 shuffled along at his heels unnoticed 

 until they found the herd, which 

 promptly got scent of Juanita and stam- 

 peded erratically and pervasively. 



Juan and Juanita became separated 

 in the disorder, and the old Billy, dis- 

 covering the cause of the panic to be 

 a bear smaller than himself, gallantly 

 charged Juanita, struck her amidships 

 and bowled her over the verge of the 

 hill. Juanita lay among the rocks and 

 bawled piteously, while old Billy stood 

 proudly on the crest and brandished 

 his yard-long horns in menace and 

 challenge. Whereby Juanita learned 

 that goats were to be avoided, and never 

 afterward could she be induced to go 

 near them. 



Juanita was well grown, when one 

 day Juan closed the cabin, whistled to 

 her to follow, and trudged down out of 

 the hills with staff and bundle over his 

 shoulder. They traveled many miles 

 along the dusty road leading out of the 

 canon, and late in the day they came 

 into the main street of a town. A 

 crowd gathered and followed them, 

 and the town curs yapped frantically 

 but at a safe distance and without ruf- 

 fling Juanita's equanimity. In front of 

 the "Bon Ton" saloon Juan halted and 

 put Juanita through a performance that 

 was applauded and properly rewarded, 

 and Juan concluded that a pasear with 

 Juanita was pleasanter and more profit- 

 able than herding goats. 



Pistol Johnny, the hackman, left his 

 rig in front of the posttfffice and joined 



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