"Holy Virgin, _señora_, are you not afraid of the Apaches?"
But, like the youth who bore "the banner with the strange device," she passed on, heedless and silent, to all appearances, but saying, within her stubborn little heart, "Indians or no Indians, _I'm_ going to Cousin Will's."
In less than an hour's time, the barking of dogs fell on her ear, and, though no trace of fence, orchard, or barn could be seen, she knew that in and beyond that grove of mesquite-trees lay Cousin Will's possessions--counted one of the finest farms in the Territory. Directly she turned from the road into an open space, where a low, solid _adobe_ house and two or three dilapidated _jacales_ represented a comfortable farm-house and extensive out-buildings, to the right of which a large field of waving corn stretched downward to the river. Back of the house blossomed a little garden, the scarlet geranium covering almost the whole wall; from the garden the ground fell abruptly to the water, where a clump of willows and cotton-woods shaded a large cool spring. But the most surprising feature of this Arizona scene was a spring-house, which, though built of _adobe_, looked just as natural, and held just as rich, sweet milk as any spring-house found in the Western States.
Mrs. Jenny, however, had no time to advance to this spot, even had such been her intention. The barking of the dogs had called a dozen or two of swarthy little Cupids from the _jacales_ and other resorts of the _peones_, who, with a simultaneous shout, had rushed in a body to the house of the master, announcing the coming of the unexpected visitor. Cousin Will and his wife--one of those grand, black-eyed women, with the bearing of a princess, whom we find among the old Spanish families--met the sister-in-law long before she reached the house. Cousin Will's wife greeted her sister-in-law cordially as "Juana;" while Mrs. Jenny held to the more formal "Doña Inez," which she had never yet dropped--perhaps on account of a fancied likeness between her and Margaret, of whom she had secretly begged a most minute description from one of the younger brothers in her uncle's house, at home.
"Why did Brother Ray let you come out here alone?" asked the older brother, almost indignantly.