Waifs and Strays

MP3 Audio CD. Waifs and Strays

THE RED ROSES OF TONIA

A trestle burned down on the International Railroad. The south-bound
from San Antonio was cut off for the next forty-eight hours. On that
train was Tonia Weaver's Easter hat.

Espirition, the Mexican, who had been sent forty miles in a buckboard
from the Espinosa Ranch to fetch it, returned with a shrugging shoulder
and hands empty except for a cigarette. At the small station, Nopal,
he had learned of the delayed train and, having no commands to wait,
turned his ponies toward the ranch again.

Now, if one supposes that Easter, the Goddess of Spring, cares any more
for the after-church parade on Fifth Avenue than she does for her loyal
outfit of subjects that assemble at the meeting-house at Cactus, Tex.,
a mistake has been made. The wives and daughters of the ranchmen of
the Frio country put forth Easter blossoms of new hats and gowns as
faithfully as is done anywhere, and the Southwest is, for one day, a
mingling of prickly pear, Paris, and paradise. And now it was Good
Friday, and Tonia Weaver's Easter hat blushed unseen in the desert air
of an impotent express car, beyond the burned trestle. On Saturday
noon the Rogers girls, from the Shoestring Ranch, and Ella Reeves, from
the Anchor-O, and Mrs. Bennet and Ida, from Green Valley, would convene
at the Espinosa and pick up Tonia. With their Easter hats and frocks
carefully wrapped and bundled against the dust, the fair aggregation
would then merrily jog the ten miles to Cactus, where on the morrow
they would array themselves, subjugate man, do homage to Easter, and
cause jealous agitation among the lilies of the field.