After a protracted interval of tranquil sunshine, a stormy wind came
blustering from the west, bringing to Mesilla Valley, in its wintry
train, sunless days, light flurries of snow, and general dreariness.
The boarders, weather-bound and dull, grew sullenly mutinous; and on the
third of these stormy days, gathering in the ranch parlor after the
mid-day meal, their discontent found vent in banning right and left this
"land of sun, silence, and adobe."
"Beastly weather!" muttered the Grumbler, drawing into the stove with a
discontented shiver.
"A precious sample, this, of your fine climate, Brown," jeered Bixbee,
turning mockingly to the disheartened landlord, who, reckless of
expense, commanded of the chore-boy fresh relays of fuel, and
incontinently crammed the parlor air-tight, already red-hot.
"I say, fellows," drolled the Harvard man, "let's make tracks for
Boston, and round up the winter with furnace heat and unlimited water
privileges, as the house-broker has it."
"And with cut-throat plumbers thrown in," suggested the Grumbler with a
malicious grin.
"See here, you folks, draw it mild," laughed the star boarder, crossing
the room with a finger between the leaves of a volume which he had been
reading by the dim afternoon light of this lowering day. "Here, now, is
something that fits your case to a T. Let me read you how they doctored
your complaint in these parts, æons before you were born."
"Anything for a change," muttered Bixbee, and, with the general consent,
Leon read the following:
"'When the people came out of the cold, dark womb of the underworld,
then the great sun rose in the heavens. In it dwelt Payatuma, making his
circuit of the world in a day and a night. He saw that the day was light
and warm, the night dark and cold. Hence there needed to be both summer
and winter people.
"'He accordingly apportioned some of each to every tribe and clan, and
thus it is down to the present day. Then those above (that is, the
Sun-father and the Moon-mother), mindful lest the people on their long
journey to the appointed abiding-place succumb to weariness and fall by
the way, made for them a koshare, a delight-maker. His body was painted
in diagonal sections of black and white, and his head, in lieu of the
regulation feather-decorations, was fantastically arrayed in withered
corn-leaves.
"'This koshare began at once to dance and tumble. Then the people
laughed, and were glad. And ever from that day, in their wanderings in
search of a satisfactory settling-place in the solid centre of the big
weary world, the koshare led them bravely and well.
"'He it was who danced and jested to make happiness among the people.
His it was to smile on the planted maize till it sprouted and flowered
in the fertile bottoms, to beam joyously on the growing fruit, that it
might ripen in its season.
"'From that day there have been delight-makers in all the Pueblo tribes.
The koshare became in time with them an organization, as the
Free-masons, or the Knights of Pythias, with us. This necessity, we are
told, arose from the fact that among the Pueblos there were summer
people who enjoy the sunshine, and winter people,--people who
determinedly prefer to live in the dark and cold.'
"Is it not so," said Leon, turning down a leaf and closing his book,
"with every people on the face of the earth?
"Is not the 'delight-maker,'--the koshare,--under various names and
guises, still in demand? It has struck me," continued he, looking
quizzically at this disgruntled assemblage, "that the koshare might be
an acceptable addition to our despondent circle."
"Amen!" fervently responded the Methodist minister.
"Right you are," said the Harvard man. "Write me as one who approves the
koshare!"
"Yes! yes!" eagerly exclaimed approving voices. "Let us have the koshare
here and at once!"
"A capital move," said Miss Paulina Hemmenshaw (born and reared in the
climatic belt of clubdom, and regent of a Chapter of Daughters of the
Revolution). "Let us have a Koshare Club."
"Good!" echoed Mrs. Fairlee, among her intimates surnamed "the Pourer,"
because of her amiable readiness to undertake for her friends the
helpful office that among afternoon tea-circles has been distinguished
by that name. "We might give afternoon teas to the members."
"And why not have recitations, with humorous selections?" bashfully
suggested the gray-eyed school-mistress, who rejoiced in a fine-toned
voice and in a diploma from the School of Oratory.
"Yes, indeed; and music, acting, and dancing, and all manner of high
jinks," exclaimed Miss Louise, who, an accomplished musician, and
distinguished for her amateur acting, with her superb health and
unfailing flow of spirits, might be counted in as a born koshare.
"And we might unite improvement with diversion, and have, now and then,
a lecture, to give interest to our club," suggested Mrs. Bixbee; and
here she looked significantly at Mr. Morehouse, "the Antiquary," who as
a lecturer was not unknown to fame.
"Lectures," observed the Minister, "though not strictly kosharean,
would be highly entertaining, and we can, no doubt, count upon our
friend, Mr. Morehouse, to give us the result of some of his research in
Mexican Antiquities."
The Antiquary, with a smile, accepted the part assigned him by his
fellow-boarder. Here the boarders went to supper, after which the more
sleepy sought their beds. The evening blew stormily in; but, gathered
about the centre table in the warm parlor, the leading spirits of Alamo
Ranch bade the storm go by, while they inaugurated the Club of The New
Koshare.
The star boarder was chosen president. The Minister was elected
vice-president, Miss Paulina secretary, and the Harvard man treasurer.
These preliminaries well arranged, a programme was voted on, and by
general approval carried.
Mrs. Fairlee--the Pourer--was to give to the club-members a weekly
afternoon tea. An entertainment open to the entire household was, on
every Thursday evening, to be given in the ranch dining-room by the
Koshare, consisting of music, tableaux, and recitations. A
shooting-match, under the direction of Leon, was to come off weekly on
the grounds of the establishment. There should be among the clubbists a
fund collected for magazines; and on fortnightly Saturday evenings Mr.
Morehouse promised to give them lectures, the result of his antiquarian
researches in Mexico, New and Old; and during this course papers and
talks relating to this subject should supplement his own.
"The Pueblo," commented the Grumbler, "would not have found magazines
strikingly kosharean; let us by all means have them," and suiting deed
to word, he subscribed to the book-fund on the spot, and paid
surreptitiously the subscription of the little school-ma'am, who had
previously withdrawn in the interest of her invalid sister.
In this fashion was inaugurated "The New Koshare" of Mesilla Valley;
thereafter the Hemmenshaws bundled themselves in winter wraps and,
handed into their vehicle by the Harvard man, set out in the storm for
their ride to Hilton Ranch, and the Koshare betook themselves to rest.