"He tries so hard to imitate you in everything. It makes me ache to see how
happy he is, Gil. Aren't they the cutest couple you ever saw? And won't it
be nice when Pancho and Panchita are old enough to play together?"
"You bet!" Gilbert agreed. He looked off at the quiet mountains, steadfast
in their serenity, their crests seeming to kiss the sky. This _was_ God's
country, after all. Sometimes he could not believe that he had come so
gloriously into his own. In the slow process of putting his ranch on a
paying basis, after the turmoil of those weeks following the departure of
Lopez, he had had the sustaining wonder of Lucia always beside him; and
when little Pancho came upon the scene he felt that life was altogether too
kind to him. He had worked unremittingly; and not only had he had his own
affairs to absorb him, but "Red," after his marriage to Angela, was forever
ringing him up on the telephone, or coming over and asking his advice and
help. He was never too busy to throw out a word to his faithful friend;
indeed, they had reached a cooeperative basis so far as the two properties
were concerned, and the arrangement could not have worked out better. The
ranches touched each other, and after Jasper Hardy's death a year and a
half before, it seemed wise to form a sort of partnership. There was no
need of a written understanding; the two men simply said to each other that
they would do certain things, install certain improvements, and share
expenses and profits. Nothing on paper for them! No, siree, said "Red." He
wouldn't hear of it. And everything had been as amicable as possible.
It was curious to see the change in Uncle Henry since the arrival of little
Pancho. Gilbert got him a brand-new wheel chair--sent all the way to
Phoenix for it--to celebrate the great event; and Uncle Henry loved
nothing better than to take the chap on his knee and give him a ride in the
courtyard whenever Lucia would trust him to his care. He never complained
now. He was deliriously happy, and with the new era of prosperity that had
struck the household, he was given a Mexican boy as his own personal
attendant, and he grew to take a kindly interest in him. He taught him to
read and write English. Thus busily occupied, and loving Lucia because she
loved his nephew so, his health improved, as well as his temper. He could
even tolerate "Red's" harmonica; in fact, he often begged him to play it
when the latter came over to midday dinner, and his legs had so improved
that he could actually jiggle them to some merry tune.
"If you don't look out, you'll be dancin' soon!" "Red" used to say on these
happy occasions. "You can shimmy now!"
"Shet your head!" Uncle Henry cried; but not angrily--not now. He laughed
when he said it, and was secretly flattered that anyone thought he had such
pep at his age and in his condition of semi-invalidism (for that is all it
could be called now).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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