California -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American; Western stories
Do not let the purgation of my flesh be unduly protracted. What with the
sloth and idolatries of Baal and Ashteroth, which I see daily around
me, I feel that without a protest not only the flesh but the spirit is
mortified. But my bodily strength is mercifully returning, and I found
myself yesterday able to take a long ride at that hour which they here
keep sacred for an idolatrous rite, under the beautiful name of “The
Angelus.” Thus do they bear false witness to Him! Can you tell me the
meaning of the Spanish words “Don Keyhotter”? I am ignorant of these
sensuous Southern languages, and am aware that this is not the correct
spelling, but I have striven to give the phonetic equivalent. It was
used, I am inclined to think, in reference to MYSELF, by an idolater.
P.S.--You need not trouble yourself. I have just ascertained that
the words in question were simply the title of an idle novel, and, of
course, could not possibly refer to ME.
Howbeit it was as “Don Quixote”--that is, the common Spaniard's
conception of the Knight of La Mancha, merely the simple fanatic and
madman--that Mr. Stephen Masterton ever after rode all unconsciously
through the streets of the Mission, amid the half-pitying, half-smiling
glances of the people.
In spite of his meditations, his single volume, and his habit of
retiring early, he found his evenings were growing lonely and tedious.
He missed the prayer meeting, and, above all, the hymns. He had a fine
baritone voice, sympathetic, as may be imagined, but not cultivated. One
night, in the seclusion of his garden, and secure in his distance from
other dwellings, he raised his voice in a familiar camp-meeting hymn
with a strong Covenanter's ring in the chorus. Growing bolder as he went
on, he at last filled the quiet night with the strenuous sweep of his
chant. Surprised at his own fervor, he paused for a moment, listening,
half frightened, half ashamed of his outbreak. But there was only the
trilling of the night wind in the leaves, or the far-off yelp of a
coyote.
For a moment he thought he heard the metallic twang of a stringed
instrument in the Mission garden beyond his own, and remembered his
contiguity to the church with a stir of defiance. But he was relieved,
nevertheless. His pent-up emotion had found vent, and without the
nervous excitement that had followed his old exaltation. That night he
slept better. He had found the Lord again--with Psalmody!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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