Latest / Bransford Of Rainbow Range / 17 - Bransford Of Rainbow Range by Eugene Manlove Rhodes

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17 - Bransford Of Rainbow Range by Eugene Manlove Rhodes · Bransford Of Rainbow Range

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  Speaker 1: Steene, the land of afternoon dreaming once more loves old
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  Speaker 1: sad dream divine. Los Abannos de Tanta Julia del Noot,
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  Speaker 1: otherwise known as Mud Springs, is a Mexican hamlet with
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  Speaker 1: one street of about the same length. Los Bannos and
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  Speaker 1: Company lies in a loop of the Rio Grande, half
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  Speaker 1: of a long day from El Paso, in mere miles,
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  Speaker 1: otherwise a contemporary of Damascus and Arpad. Thither a mindful
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  Speaker 1: of the hot springs which supply the preliminaries of the name,
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  Speaker 1: mister Bransford made his way, mindful too of sturdy old
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  Speaker 1: Don Francisco, a friend twice bound by ancient service given
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  Speaker 1: and returned. He climbed the slow long ridges to the
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  Speaker 1: high Mesa for the river bent here in a long
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  Speaker 1: ox bow, where a bold promontory shouldered far out to
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  Speaker 1: bar the way. Weary miles were to be saved by
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  Speaker 1: crossing the neck of this ox bow, and the tough
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  Speaker 1: horse horse tired and lagged. The slow sun rose as
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  Speaker 1: he reached the rim. It showed the wide expanse of
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  Speaker 1: desert behind him, flooded with trembling light. Eastward beyond the river,
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  Speaker 1: the buttressed and fantastic peaks of fray curstaball their jutting shadows,
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  Speaker 1: streaming into the gulf beyond athwart the silvery ribbon of
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  Speaker 1: gleaming water, twining in mazy loops across the valley floor.
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  Speaker 1: It showed the black rim at his feet, a frowning
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  Speaker 1: level wall of lava cliff, where the plane broke abruptly
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  Speaker 1: into the chasm, beneath the iron desolation of the steep sides,
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  Speaker 1: boulder strewn, savage, and forbidding a land of old up
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  Speaker 1: heaven from the abyss. Long since there had been a
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  Speaker 1: flourishing Mexican town in the valley, a wagon road had
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  Speaker 1: painfully climbed a long ridge to the rim, twisting, doubling, turning,
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  Speaker 1: clinging hazardously to the hill side, its outer edge, a
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  Speaker 1: wall built up with stone, till it came to the
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  Speaker 1: shoulder under the tremendous barrier. From there it turned northward,
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  Speaker 1: paralleling the rim in a mile long curve above a
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  Speaker 1: deep gorge, turning in a last desperate climb to a
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  Speaker 1: solitary gateway in the black wall, torn out by flood waters.
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  Speaker 1: Through slow centuries, smallpox had smitten the people. The treacherous
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  Speaker 1: river had devastated the fertile valley and subsiding left the
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  Speaker 1: rich fields a waste of sand. The town was long deserted.
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  Speaker 1: The disused road was gullied and torn by flood. The
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  Speaker 1: soil washed away, leaving a heaped and crumbled track of
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  Speaker 1: tangled stone. But it was the only practicable way as
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  Speaker 1: far as the sand hills, and Jeff led his horse
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  Speaker 1: down the ruined path, with many a turning back and
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  Speaker 1: a scrambling detour. The shadows of the eastern hills drew
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  Speaker 1: back before for him as he reached the sand dunes.
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  Speaker 1: When he rode through the silent streets of what had
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  Speaker 1: been a La Mosita, the sun appeared over frey Coustobau,
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  Speaker 1: gilding the crumbling walls where love and laughter had made music,
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  Speaker 1: Where youth and hope and happiness had been silent now
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  Speaker 1: and deserted, given over to lizard and bad and owl.
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  Speaker 1: The smiling gardens choked with sand and grass, springing with
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  Speaker 1: mesquite and tornillo. A few fruit trees gnarled and tangled,
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  Speaker 1: drooping for days departed, when young mothers sang low lullaby
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  Speaker 1: beneath their branches, passed away and forgotten hopes and fears,
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  Speaker 1: tears and smiles, birth and death, joy and sorrow, hatred
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  Speaker 1: and sin and shame, falsehood and truth, and courage and love.
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  Speaker 1: The sun shone cheerfully on these gray ruins, as it
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  Speaker 1: has shone on a thousand such and will chime. Jeff
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  Speaker 1: turned down the river, pasted the broken Assequius, to where
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  Speaker 1: a massive spur of basaltic rock had turned the fury
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  Speaker 1: of the floods and spared a few fields. In this
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  Speaker 1: sheltered cove dwelt Don Francisco Escobar, in true pastoral and
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  Speaker 1: patriarchal manner, his stalwart sons and daughters, with their sons
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  Speaker 1: and daughters in turn, in clustering adobes around him for neighbours,
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  Speaker 1: the allied family of gonzal Ziotega a cheerful settlement. This
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  Speaker 1: of Los Banno's nestling at the foot of the friendly rampart,
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  Speaker 1: sheltered alike from flood and wind. South and west, the
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  Speaker 1: close black rim wall the horizon the fantasy of Freykuitabao
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  Speaker 1: closed in the narrow east, but northward, beyond the low
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  Speaker 1: sand hills and the blue heat haze, the high peaks
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  Speaker 1: of Ogon, Guadalupe and rainbow swam across the sleepy air,
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  Speaker 1: far and soft and dim in their fields. The hint
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  Speaker 1: day of Gonzales, Ortega and of Vescobar raised ample crops
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  Speaker 1: of alfalfa, wheat, corn, frijoles and chili, with orchard, vineyard
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  Speaker 1: and garden. Their cows, sheep and goats grazed the foothills
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  Speaker 1: between river and rim, watched by the young men or boys,
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  Speaker 1: penned nightly in the great corrals in the old Spanish fashion,
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  Speaker 1: as if the moor still swooped and forayed. Their horses
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  Speaker 1: roamed the hills at will, only a few being kept
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  Speaker 1: in the alfalfa pasture. They ground their own grain, tanned
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  Speaker 1: their cowhides at home. Mattress and pillow were wool of
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  Speaker 1: their raising, their blankets and cloth their own weave. There
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  Speaker 1: were granaries, a wine press, a forge, a cumbrous stone mill,
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  Speaker 1: a great adobe oven like a monstrous beehive. Once a
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  Speaker 1: year their oxen drew the great high sided wagons up
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  Speaker 1: the sandy road to Albaso, and returned with the years,
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  Speaker 1: marketing salt axes, iron and steel, powder and lead, bolts
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  Speaker 1: of white domestic or amantha, first seats and shirtlings, matches, tea, coffee, tobacco,
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  Speaker 1: and sugar. Perhaps, if the saints had been kind, there
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  Speaker 1: were a few ribbons, trinkets, or brightly colored prints of
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  Speaker 1: Joseph and Virgin and child Saint John, the Beloved, the Enunciation,
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  Speaker 1: the children and Christ. Perhaps an American rifle or a plow.
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  Speaker 1: But for the most part they held not with innovations, plowed, sowed,
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  Speaker 1: and reaped as their fathers did, threshing with oxen or goats.
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  Speaker 1: The women sewed by hand, cooked on fireplaces, or better still,
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  Speaker 1: in the open air under the trees, with few and
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  Speaker 1: simple utensils. The family ate from whitest and cleanest of
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  Speaker 1: sheepskins spread on the floor, but the walls were snowy
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  Speaker 1: with whitewash, the earth and floors smooth and clean, the
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  Speaker 1: coarse linen fresh and white. The scant furniture of the
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  Speaker 1: rooms a pine bed, a chair or two, a mirror,
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  Speaker 1: a brass candlestick with home made candles, a cheap print
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  Speaker 1: on the wall, a great chest for clothes, blankets, and
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  Speaker 1: simple treasures. The bright fire in the cozy fireplace, all
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  Speaker 1: combined to give an indescribable air of cheerfulness, of homely comfort,
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  Speaker 1: and of rest. This quiet corner where people still lived,
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  Speaker 1: as simply as when Abraham went up from Uher of
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  Speaker 1: the Chaldis in the springtime of the world, held a
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  Speaker 1: foreseeing eyes an incommunicable charm. When Jeff came at last
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  Speaker 1: to Kasa Escobar, the cattle were already on the hills,
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  Speaker 1: the pigs and chickens far afield. Don Francisco, white haired
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  Speaker 1: erect welcomed him eagerly, indeed, but with stately courtesy. Is
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  Speaker 1: it the how and eat my son? Now my old
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  Speaker 1: eyes are gladdened this day entered. Then, Amigo, mio thrice, welcome.
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  Speaker 1: The house is thine in very truth. Nay, the young
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  Speaker 1: men shall care for thy horse. He raised his voice.
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  Speaker 1: Three tall sons abron as a Nobio Denociano came at
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  Speaker 1: the summons, gave Bransford grave greeting, and stood to await
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  Speaker 1: their father's commands, fathers of families themselves. They presumed not
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  Speaker 1: to sit, unbidden to join in the conversation or to loiter.
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  Speaker 1: Breakfast was served presently in high state, on the table
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  Speaker 1: reserved for honored guests, savory venison, chili, fish, eggs, tortillas,
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  Speaker 1: etoal enchilades, cream, and the steaming coffee. Such was the fair.
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  Speaker 1: Don Francisco sat gravely by to bear him company, while
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  Speaker 1: a silently hovering damsel anticipated every need. Then, when his
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  Speaker 1: host could urge no more upon him to the deep
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  Speaker 1: shading cottonwoods, wine was brought, and the makings of cigarettes,
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  Speaker 1: corn husks hand cut, a great jar of tobacco, and
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  Speaker 1: a brazier of mesquite embers. At a little distance, women washed, wove,
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  Speaker 1: or sewed. The young men made buckskin, fashioned quirts, quips, ropes,
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  Speaker 1: bridle reins, ties, traps, hobbles, pack sacks, and chaparejos of rawhide,
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  Speaker 1: made cinches of horsehair, wrought ox yokes, blowbeams, and other
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  Speaker 1: things needful for their simple husbandry. Meanwhile, Don Francisco entertained
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  Speaker 1: his guest with grave and leisurely recital of the year's annals.
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  Speaker 1: Matteo san Sebastian had slain a great bear in the
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  Speaker 1: pass of all the winds. Alithia, daughter of their eldest,
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  Speaker 1: was wed with young Roman de la Hoch of Canada
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  Speaker 1: nogalis to the much healing of feud and ancient hatred. Diego,
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  Speaker 1: son of Usebio, was proving a bold and fearless rider
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  Speaker 1: of wild horses with reason, as behooved his father's son.
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  Speaker 1: He had carried away the gaglio at the Festadis, and
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  Speaker 1: Juan with the fleet dung cold creased from the wild
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  Speaker 1: bunch at Camado. The herds had grown, the crops prospered,
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  Speaker 1: All sorrow passed them by. Through the intercession of the
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  Speaker 1: blessed saints, the years trophies were brought. He fingered with
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  Speaker 1: simple pride, the great pelt of the silver tip antlers
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  Speaker 1: there were, and lion skins, gleaming prisons of quartz, flint,
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  Speaker 1: arrowheads and agates brought in by the shepherds. The costly
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  Speaker 1: Navajo blanket won by the fleet limbed dun at Canyada races.
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  Speaker 1: Hither came presently another visitor, Florentino Baker of wild Horses,
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  Speaker 1: despite his fifty years, wizened and withered and small, merry
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  Speaker 1: and cheerful, singer of forgotten folk songs, chanting even as
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  Speaker 1: he came, the song of Macario Romero Macario, writing joyous
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  Speaker 1: and light hearted, spite of warning, omen and sign love
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  Speaker 1: lured to doom and death. Conseetama una licentia voi a
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  Speaker 1: eir aver ame sjata diche Macario Romero perando and los
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  Speaker 1: etrivos madre puits estovoi aver sitodos son mis amigos, and
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  Speaker 1: so listening, weary and outworn, Jeff fell asleep. Observe now
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  Speaker 1: how nature insists upon averages. Mister Jeff Bransford was, as
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  Speaker 1: has been seen, an energetic man, but outraged nerves will
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  Speaker 1: have their revenge. After making ropper amends to his damaged eye,
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  Speaker 1: Jeff's remnant of energy kept up long enough to despatch
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  Speaker 1: Young Tomas eth Goobarliamentoza to el Passo with a message
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  Speaker 1: to Hibbler, which message enjoined Hibbler at once to carry
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  Speaker 1: tidings to John Wesley Pringle somewhere in Chihuahua, asking him
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  Speaker 1: kindly to set right what Arcadian times were out of
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  Speaker 1: joint as he Jeff felt the climate of Old Mexico
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  Speaker 1: more favorable for his throat trouble than that of New Mexico,
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  Speaker 1: with a PostScript asking Hibler for money. By bearer, and
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  Speaker 1: Young Tomas was instructed to buy at Warrez a complete
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  Speaker 1: outfit of clothing for Jeff, including a gun. This done,
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  Speaker 1: the reaction set in, aided perhaps by the enervating lassitude
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  Speaker 1: of the hot baths and the sleepy atmosphere of that
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  Speaker 1: forgotten village. Jeff spent the better part of a week asleep,
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  Speaker 1: or half awake at best. He had pleasant dreams to one.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the best dream of all was that on their
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  Speaker 1: wedding trip they should follow again the devious line of
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  Speaker 1: his flight from Arcadia. That would need a prairie schooner, no,
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  Speaker 1: a prairie steamboat, a prairie yacht. He could tell her
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  Speaker 1: all the hideous details, show her the mine, the camp
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  Speaker 1: of the besiegers, the ambuscade on the road, and if
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  Speaker 1: he could have eleanor meet Griffith and Gibson for a
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  Speaker 1: crowning touch. After the strenuous violence of hand strokes, here
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  Speaker 1: was a drowsy and peaceful time. The wine of that
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  Speaker 1: land was good, the shade pleasant, the Elizian philosophy more
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  Speaker 1: delightful than of yore. He had all the accessories, but
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  Speaker 1: one of an earthly paradise. Man is ungrateful. Jeff was
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  Speaker 1: a man neglectful of present bounties. His dreaming thoughts were
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  Speaker 1: all of the absent accessory, and of a time when
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  Speaker 1: that absence should be no more, nor paradise be empty.
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  Speaker 1: Life like the griffin's classical master had taught him laughter
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  Speaker 1: and grief. He turned now the forgotten pages of the
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  Speaker 1: book of his years. Enough black pages were there, as
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  Speaker 1: you will know well, having yourself searched old records before.
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  Speaker 1: Now with tears, he cast up that long account, the
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  Speaker 1: wasted lendings, the outlawed debts, the dishonored promises, the talents
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  Speaker 1: of his stewardship, unprofitable and brought to nought. Set down,
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  Speaker 1: how gladly the items on the credit side. So men
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  Speaker 1: have set the good upon one side and the evil
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  Speaker 1: on the other side, since Crusoe's days and before, against
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  Speaker 1: the time when the great accountant, whose values are not ours,
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  Speaker 1: shall strike a final balance. Take that book at your elbow, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: either one, it doesn't matter. Now turn to where the
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  Speaker 1: hero first discovers his fright condition, long after it has
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  Speaker 1: become a neighborhood property. He bent his head in humility.
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  Speaker 1: He was not worthy of her something like that. Those
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  Speaker 1: may not be the precise words, but he groaned. He
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  Speaker 1: always groans. By the way, how this man saying must
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  Speaker 1: amuse womankind? Yes, and they actually say it too, real,
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  Speaker 1: live flesh and blood. Men, Who was it said? Life
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  Speaker 1: was a poor imitation of literature. Happily, either these people
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  Speaker 1: are insincere or they reconsider the matter. Else, what might
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  Speaker 1: we do for families? It is to be said that
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Bransford lacked this becoming delicacy. If he groaned, he swore. Also,
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  Speaker 1: if he decided that miss Eleanor Hoffmann deserved a better
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  Speaker 1: man than he was, he also highly resolved that she
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  Speaker 1: should not have him. For after all, you know, said
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  Speaker 1: Jeff to Alice. I'm sure he's nothing extra, a quiet man,
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  Speaker 1: and plain and modest, though there isn't much of which
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  Speaker 1: he could be vain, And had I mind to chant
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  Speaker 1: his praise this with the kindest line. Somehow she loves
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  Speaker 1: him dearly, this little love of mine. End of Chapter sixteen.