[Illustration: _A Prairie Infanta.--Frontispiece_
"THE DOCTOR SCOWLED OVER HIS GLASSES AS HE LISTENED."
_See p. 79_]
A Prairie Infanta
By
Eva Wilder Brodhead
Illustrated
PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY HENRY ALTEMUS
The pictures in this book have been reproduced by the courtesy of "The Youth's Companion"
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER ONE
THE POWER OF CONSOLATION 13
CHAPTER TWO
A SACRED CHARGE 37
CHAPTER THREE
A TRUE BENEFACTRESS 61
CHAPTER FOUR
WISE IMPULSES 85
CHAPTER FIVE
DESTINY PRESSES 109
CHAPTER SIX
BEWILDERING SATISFACTION 133
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"The doctor scowled over his glasses as he listened" _Frontispiece_
"'I will not go with you!'" 29
"'He is Tesuque, the rain-god'" 55
"'I hoped you'd be able to lend me a hand'" 101
"'Do not make the thread short, Lolita'" 123
"'_Tia_, you are a lady of fortune'" 153
THE POWER OF CONSOLATION
A PRAIRIE INFANTA
CHAPTER ONE
THE POWER OF CONSOLATION
At the first glance there appeared to be nothing unusual in the scene confronting Miss Jane Combs as she stood, broad and heavy, in her doorway that May morning, looking up and down the single street of the little Colorado mining-town.
Jane's house was broad and heavy also--a rough, paintless "shack," which she had built after her own ideals on a treeless "forty" just beyond the limits of Aguilar. It was like herself in having nothing about it calculated to win the eye.
Jane, with her rugged, middle-aged face, baggy blouse, hob-nailed shoes and man's hat, was so unfeminine a figure as she plowed and planted her little vega, that some village wag had once referred to her as "Annie Laurie." Because of its happy absurdity the name long clung to Jane; but despite such small jests every one respected her sterling traits,--every one, that is, except Senora Vigil, who lived hard by in a mud house like a bird's nest, and who cherished a grudge against her neighbor.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Prairie Infanta by Eva Wilder Brodhead
- 2: That thereafter even the youngest Vigil
- 3: Glancing piteously toward the couch
- 4: Jane Combs was in the back of the church
- 5: Wouldn't Lola be happier with the Vigils
- 6: And then flung herself down before Senora Vigil
- 7: And the arroyo was nothing more than a placid
- 8: She took the girl from Gribble without a word
- 9: Lola was sitting in the August sunshine
- 10: Tesuque will make showers come
- 11: You set out Tesuque and rain falls
- 12: And Alejandro watched her anxiously
- 13: Ana Vigil had sighed disapprovingly
- 14: Lola maintained an impassive front
- 15: Whenever Lola went above Jimmy Adkins
- 16: If Lola wanted to go to Pueblo
- 17: She is a great lady Senora Jonas
- 18: There's my Lola on the platform
- 19: Ana was too simple to wish to pain any one
- 20: As the piano awoke to such strains as Lola had mastered
- 21: Alejandro took the note reluctantly
- 22: And making way to Lola as she sat
- 23: I never had no idea you thought so much of Lola
- 24: Lola of late had seemed gentler
- 25: To morrow she marries the son of Juan Montoya
- 26: Illustration 'DO NOT MAKE THE THREAD SHORT LOLITA
- 27: Don't think I believe anything against tia
- 28: The day had been full of strange revelations
- 29: Since Lola was about to leave her forever
- 30: When I persuaded Miss Jane to take you
- 31: He had disclosed fallacies in himself of which Lola
- 32: It will come out all right for tia
- 33: 50 cents WITCHERY WAYSBy AMOS R
- 34: After the death of his teacher Orphy falls upon hard times