American essays; Short stories, American; Western stories
"You see, one Saturday afternoon there were two Mexicans came up this
way from Sonora, and stopped at Mohawk Station to camp for the night. It
was a cold, rainy, blustering day, and the men tried to build their fire
against the wall of the house. It was the only way they could shelter
themselves from the wind and rain, as Mr. Hendricks would not allow them
to come into the house. Pretty soon Mr. Hendricks drove them off, though
they pleaded hard to stay; and Colonel B., who had arrived in the
meantime, on his way to Tucson, told Mr. Hendricks that, if he knew
anything about Mexicans, those two would come back to take revenge.
Perhaps Mr. Hendricks himself was afraid of it, as he picketed his two
horses out between the colonel's tent and the house, for fear the
Mexicans might come in the night to drive them off. But they did not
return till Sunday afternoon, when, after considerable wrangling, Mr.
Hendricks engaged them both to work for him. The colonel had pulled up
stakes and had gone on his way to Tucson Sunday morning, so that we were
alone with the Mexicans during the night. But they behaved themselves
like sober, steady men; and the next morning they and my husband went
down to the river, some three miles away, to cut wood, which they were
to haul up with the team later in the day. Have you been at Mohawk
Station, and do you know how the house is built?" she asked,
interrupting herself.
"We camped there on our way out," I said; "and I remember that an open
corridor runs through the whole length of the house, and some two or
three rooms open into each other on either side."
"Very well; you remember the kitchen is the last room on the left of the
corridor, while the store-room and bar is the first room to the right.
Back of this is the little room in which Mr. Hendricks's bed stood, just
under the window; and opposite to this room, next to the kitchen, is the
dining-room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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