Show the old settler my dear san Jua ners she was unusual and when she came limping into that bus station everybody gazed and listened lis like the sensation loving public is always wont to do for one thing he was too eld ad and helpless and too 00 oo much in her dotage to be traveling without an escort she Shel evidently been far from home for a long time and had no idea what a pack of wolves hu manily inanity had gotten to be she smiled led pleasantly and trustingly at the rabble rabb and in her cracked cracke I old vo volca ce she related to t them in general how bow it was the last day of jimmys furlough and she must get this bus or fail to see him before he went overseas you know jimmys like my very own boy I 1 raised him from ha tims time his molher died I 1 been all alone since he left and I 1 just had to see him everybody was eager for the ticket window to open and everybody determined to be first in getting a ticket and getting on the incoming bus ahead of everybody else els prospects were that few if any would be able to get on when the window opened grandma stooped and slow began hobbling bobbling towards it and by some lingering intuition from an ancient race af f real human be beings ings 1 I 1 the crowd permitted her to stay I 1 in the lead but an aggressive per so ri great ed slacks crowded the old lady aside and was first to buy a ticket and that aggressive person parked herself there in that window like some offensive picture in a frame back view while the line behind looked at her with whispered curses those red slacks were a gene generous roas ax handle wide across the upper quarter withering contrast to the generosity within but while grandma was in that frame back view the line be behind hind looked en cn with a rising sense of toleration even though she fumbled long with her change and I 1 toad to d the clerk about jimmy 1 after grandma a big man be cama the picture back view a man swarthy in complexion w with i t h mexican accent who looked looke d as if his name might be juan possibly juan gordo the prospects were that the incoming bus would be able to take but two passengers and those two would be juan gordo and the red slacks tha bus came in loaded to the guards and the crowd milled around eager for a showdown show down but still that ancient intuition allowed little grandma to hold first place with the red slacks just behind her and then juan continued on page 8 the old settler continued confirmed con firmed irom nag nac 1 I gordo when everything was ready for the big rush the red slacks bi brushed ached the old lady rudely aslie aside and stopped stepped up to present her ticket while the crowd cursed under its breath i juan gordo said nothing but he stepped right up in fro front n t of the red slacks she cabe cawed d at him fiercely as he passed by but he took no notice and standing there like a stone wall in front of the fuming procession he reached back and got grandma granden a and boosted bo ost her right up the st steps eps into the bus i sorry folks announced the driver but we had room for only one more and the rest will have to wait for the next stage and with that the door closed and the big coach moved away everybody wanted to cuss and some of them did cuss a wait of four long hours the led slacks simply could not contain her accumulation of wrath and turning on juan she sha broke brok loose you carry your gall right along with you dont you 0 si senora sanora answered juan with well fed equanimity 1 I have heern heem ready at all times when needed ALBERT R LYM LYMAM AN |