American essays; Short stories, American; Western stories
"Well, you see, they were _adobe_-houses that they built, and the rains
were very heavy last year, and the Gila commenced washing out this way;
the banks caved in and carried the rubbish away. They hadn't been
occupied for some time; but the house where Owens lived is just right
across there--if you go near the bank you can see where he built a good,
solid chimbley, like they've got at home. The camp used to be down the
flat apiece. I had my house there last year; but it washed away with the
rain: so I built up here, where there's better shelter for my chickens.
They're my only friends, besides Bose, and I've got to be choice of 'em.
I don't see a white face for months, sometimes, since the war is over,
and it keeps me company kinder, to see the places where the houses used
to be."
"And the other grave--that with the bones and rocks piled on it?"
The man threw a look toward the doorway, and put his hands in his
pockets.
"That's Juanita's grave. She was an Indian girl."
He walked out of the door; and, as I had nothing better to do, I too
stepped out, thinking to go as far to look for the ruins of that
"chimbley" as the blazing sun would permit. The first I saw when I came
out of the doorway was the old Indian woman, sitting on the ground in
the shade of the house, her back against the wall, her knees drawn up,
her elbow resting on them, the doubled fist supporting the face, while
the other hand hung listlessly across them. The face was aged and
wrinkled, the hair a dirty gray, and the eyes seemed set--petrified, I
had almost said--with some great, deep sorrow. Beside her stood the
tin-cup, untouched and unnoticed; the tin-plate had been almost emptied
of its contents; but a drumstick in the hands of the young Indian, and a
suspicious glossiness about his mouth and chin, seemed to mark the road
the chicken had taken. The station-keeper stood by the woman, and said
something to her in a jargon I could not understand; but she took no
more notice of him or what he said than if it were a fly that had buzzed
up to her. She moved neither her eyes nor her head, looking out straight
before her. I walked as far as the banks of the river, failed to
discover the remains of the "chimbley," and turned back to the house.
The station-keeper was not to be seen; the Indian boy paused from his
labors to take a look at me; but the woman seemed to be a thousand miles
away, so little did she take heed of my presence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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