University of California Los Angeles - Bruin Life / Southern Campus Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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thin . Wait until we return to the mission, Tehama. I can teach you better there than I can here. Astonished, she replied : You know you were to tell me here. Why are you not ready ? You must tell me now. Ferdinand ' s wits offered him no further subterfug-e, and that a powerless Indian duped was not much on one ' s cons- cience, he took refug-e in the truth : There is no secret ; I am not a mag-ician. for this stone (pointing- to the diamond) is found just as g ' old is. But you can take this ring- to your people, and tell them you imprisoned these sunbeams, and in time you will be able to imprison more. Then, sometime, I will send you another diamond. Tehama sprang- up, tall and straig-ht, not deig-ning to take the ring-, and cried ang-rily : You tricked me, then, for these yellow pebbles. You never intended to tell me the secret ; I will curse this spot forever. The gold shall sink into the earth, the stream shall disappear. I will make your white brothers die when they come here. You shall see them die. But ou shall not be a man to lie ; you shall be a stunted cactus to grow here forever and ever, and I will mock you. I will be as sweet water ever bej-ond 3 ou and your brothers ; I will see them thirst and die. Ferdinand tried to answer, but his tongue made no words. He tried to laug-h, but his laugh stopped, and fear was in his eyes. -X- The red magician did not see the work of his pupil, nor did Ferdinand ' s companions know what became of him. But the rattlesnakes slipped by and saw changed thing-s, and the coyotes howl near and complain that where the oasis once was is now a hideous valle} ' ; the stream is a salt marsh poisonous to men, and beside it, a stunted cactus leans toward a mocking- mirage, a vision of water, cool and sweet, but forever beyond its reach. Charlotte Teale.

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chief of my tribe will do anything- for you. You shall be as one of his own braves. The shine of Tehama ' s g-old was brightening- Ferdinand ' s not-over-rapid wits. He began to see possible profits in this delusion of the Indian girl. Touching one of her ornaments, he asked, Would he tell me where to find more gold like this ? Relieved that his request was so simple — O yes, it is near here. I can show you where there are many of the yel- low pebbles. Tell me something greater he can do for you. That is nothing. That is enough, answered Ferdinand, take me there now. Teach me the secret first, said the girl. No, he answered, when I find the gold I will teach you. Tehama ' s black eyes looked toward the mission and be- yond it. When it is dark, come, she said, come to the big yucca away there. When the white moon looks through the white flowers I will come. Then I will take you where the bright g-old lives. That night when the moon looked through the yucca white flowers, it saw a man and an Indian girl riding away on the trail that leads to the northward. For man3- days, thev traveled over rough mountain trails and out across the drv, hot, shimmering desert until they came at last to an oasis. It was green with grass and palms and refreshed by a clear stream. And as Ferdinand looked into the stream, he saw nuggets of pure gold in the rough, gravely bed. Crazv with greed and delight, he eagerly went to work and collected as much gold as the mules could carry back to the mission. All the beauty of the oasis was lost on him ; his promise to Tehama was completely forgotten. She watched his excite- ment curiously, wondering that he cared so much for that yellow stuff. He hastily fastened the last sack of gold on the mule and was all but departing when Tehama stopped him. But the secret, she said, it is time now for the secret. See ! there are many sunbeams around us I Teach me now, so I may rejoice too. Ferdinand started. He had forgotten ; he must sav some-

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The IVlagic of a Window Pane. g)| KTER all, there is small mag-ic in it, apart from the mA, m3 ' stic a enc} ' of a somewhat inferior g-lass, and the happ3 ' accident of the wa} ' in which the window has been hung-. The accumulated dust of ag es — rather, to be more exact, of some six months — in which the rains have made strang-e zig-zag paths, and scattering- uncanny blotches, adorns the outer surface of the pane, and adds its portion to the weird effect of this would-be mag-ic g-lass. It is all easily enoug-h explained, and proved to be the natural result of the plans of the architect, together with the neg-lect of the house- keeper, and so reduced from the region of m3 sterious interest ot the level of ordinar} ' events. Perhaps it mig-ht be possible to find somewhere a ver} small and ig-norant child, to whom the revelations of the g-lass would seem to be the working-s of gnome or sprite, but even the infants of this degenerate age are so hopelessl}- well educated that the possibility is ex- tremely slight. The g-ood old da3 s of sorcerers who could read men ' s histories in a drop of ink, when such a thing might have been appreciated, are past ; and there is nothing to be done but to explain away the mystery- and to enjoy to the best of our sophisticated abilit} ' the poor little remnants of a curiosity that we have left. In plain fact, the window owes its peculiar properties to its situation. It is in an upper stor} ' , and, being hung after the fashion of a transom, w4th a pivot in the center of either side, it can be revolved to suit the pleasure of the inmates of the house. And therein lies the secret. For, on being opened, so that the pane exact!} divides the opening in which it is set into two equal parts, the curious observer then has before him all the resources of which this belated successor to the magician ' s drop of ink can boast. Above the glass is the sk}-, with its blue all flecked with hurrying clouds. From this part of the window, too, one sees hill-tops and tree-tops and roofs of houses with misty blue lines of smoke wavering away from their chimney ' s. Birds flit athwart this realm of vision amid all the light and stir of the upper air. But the other half of the world is to be seen only by ducking one ' s head under the jianc, at the imminent risk of