Part 5 (1/2)

[Ill.u.s.tration: JIM AND THE CATS HUNTING LINNETS.--Page 111.]

Jusy liked to go with Jim on these hunting expeditions. But Rea would never go. She used to sit sorrowfully at home, and listen for the gunshots; and at every shot she heard, she would exclaim to Anita, ”Oh, dear! Oh, dear! There's another dear little linnet dead. I think Jusy is a cruel, cruel boy! I wouldn't see them shot for anything, and I don't like the cats any more.”

”But,” said Anita, ”my little senorita did not mind having the gophers killed. It does not hurt the linnets half so much to be shot dead in one second, as it does the gophers to be caught in the cats' claws, and torn to pieces sometimes while they are yet alive. The shot-gun kills in a second.”

”I don't care,” said Rea. ”It seems different; the linnets are so pretty.”

”That is not a reason for pitying them any more,” said Anita gravely.

”You did not find those old Indians you saw yesterday pretty. On the contrary, they were frightful to look at; yet you pitied them so much that you shed tears.”

”Oh, yes!” cried Rea, ”I should think I did; and, Anita, I dreamed about them all night long. I am going to ask Uncle George to build a little house for them up in the canon. There is plenty of room there he does not want; and then n.o.body could drive them out of that place as long as they live; and I could carry them their dinner every day. Don't you think he will?”

”Bless your kind little heart!” said Anita. ”That would be asking a great deal of your Uncle George, but he is so kind, perhaps he will. If somebody does not take compa.s.sion on the poor things, they will starve, that is certain.”

”I shall ask him the minute he comes in,” said Rea. ”I am going down on the piazza now to watch for him.” And taking Fairy in her arms, Rea hurried downstairs, went out on the veranda, and, climbing up into the hammock, was sound asleep in ten minutes.

She was waked up by feeling herself violently swung from side to side, and opening her eyes, saw Jusy standing by her side, his face flushed with the heat, his eyes sparkling.

”O Rea!” he said. ”We have had a splendid hunt! What do you think! Jim has shot twenty linnets in this one morning! and that Skipper, he's eaten five of them! He's as good as a regular hunting dog.”

”Where's Uncle George?” asked Rea sleepily, rubbing her eyes. ”I want Uncle George! I don't want you to tell me anything about the cats'

eating the linnets. I hate them! They're cruel!”

”'Tisn't cruel either!” retorted Jusy. ”They've got to be killed. All people that have orchards have to kill birds.”

”I won't, when I have an orchard,” said Rea.

”Then you won't have any orchard. That will be all,” said Jusy. ”At least, you won't have any fruit orchard. You'll have just a tree orchard.”

”Well, a tree orchard is good enough for anybody,” replied Rea half crossly. She was not yet quite wide awake. ”There is plenty of fruit in stores, to buy. We could buy our fruit.”

”Are you talking in your sleep, Rea?” cried Jusy, looking hard at her.

”I do believe you are! What ails you? The men that have the fruit to sell, had to kill all the linnets and things, just the same way, or else they wouldn't have had any fruit. Can't you see?”

No, Rea could not see; and what was more, she did not want to see; and as the proverb says, ”There are none so blind as those who won't see.”

”Don't talk any more about it, Jusy,” she said. ”Do you think Uncle George would build a little house up the canon for poor old Ysidro?”

”Who!” exclaimed Jusy.

”Oh, you cruel boy!” cried Rea. ”You don't think of anything but killing linnets, and such cruel things; I think you are real wicked. Don't you know those poor old Indians we saw yesterday?--the ones that are going to be turned out of their house, down in San Gabriel by the church. I have been thinking about them ever since; and I dreamed last night that Uncle George built them a house. I'm going to ask him to.”

”I bet you anything he won't, then,” said Jusy. ”The horrid old beggars!

He wouldn't have such looking things round!”

Rea was wide awake now. She fixed her lovely blue eyes on Jusy's face with a look which made him ashamed. ”Jusy,” she said, ”I can't help it if you are older than I am; I must say, I think you are cruel. You like to kill linnets; and now you won't be sorry for these poor old Indians, just because they are dirty and horrid-looking. You'd look just as bad yourself, if your skin was black, and you were a hundred years old, and hadn't got a penny in the world. You are real hard-hearted, Jusy, I do think you are!” and the tears came into Rea's eyes.