Mrs. Morton of Mexico (Paperback)

. NORTON OF MEXICO By ARTHUR DAFISON FICKE Decorations by jladys Brown Reynal Hitchcock York Third Printing, February, 1940 COPYRIGHT, 1939, BY ARTHUR 0AVISON FICKE All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof m any form PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE CORNWALL PRESS, CORNWALL, N. Y. The persons and the events herein de picted are Imaginary and no real name that is known to the author has been wed. CONTENTS I. THE DISCOVERY OF CHAPALA I II. ROMANTIC LADY OF EIGHTY 17 HI, THE BURRO OF CHAPALA 83 IV. THE TWENTY-FIRST LION 10 V. THE MIGHTY WHIRLWIND 122 VI MRS, MORTON BUYS A FISH 145 VII. THE PORTRAIT OF MRS. MORTON 165 VIII. THE HOLY PAINTING OF JOCOTEPEC 2OI ix MRS. MORTONS ENEMY 246 X A CANDLE FOR ST-CHRISTOPHER 265 XI. ALL ROADS TO GRAVES ARE DUSTY 277 XII. CHAPALA TWILIGHT 296 ... ON A promontory beside Lake Chapala there now stands a stele of granite on which are engraved the lines PRAYER AT CHAPALA Lords of this lake Lords brooding over this lake Most visibly in the evening Give us our daily bread Give us the power to take our brothers hand in kindness Grant us the strength to - forgive ourselves our sins Fortify our courage that we may love life And fear not pain and old-age and death, And that we may walk quietly in our own paths without evil Amen, It is known to everyone that the stone was erected by Senor Enrique Devargas Castellano and it is presumed that the lines are of his composition. . ., THE DISCOVERY OF CHAP ALA WHEN MR. AND MRS. HENRY CLAY MORTON and their schoolboy son Albert arrived at Lake Chapala, they were surprised at the enthusiasm with which they were received by the Widow Sanchez, proprietress of the smallHotel Universal. Their first appearance at the door, dusty and jolted after their wearisome drive from Guadalajara, evoked no special demonstration It was only after they had registered and after the buxom Widow Sanchez had scru tinized the name Morton that the exuberant royal welcome began. She beamed upon them she kissed young Albert, much to his disgust, and put a flower into Mr. Mortons buttonhole, and poured forth a flood of eloquent Spanish. Whats all this fuss about Mr. Morton said suspi ciously to Plutarco Juarez, the rat-faced interpreter he had brought with him from Mexico City. She say she very welcome you to Chapala that all everybody be very happy you come at last. That why you not write her you coming That why you not never come all long time before That maybe you want to make big surprise. Hum I guess that means she doesnt get many people from the States and she intends to charge us sucker prices for our rooms. Ask her what kind of rooms she can give us, and how much she wants for them. Mr. Morton was not enjoying his six-weeks tour of Mexico. He had come only because his wife insisted. You need a rest, dear, after the strain of working so hard on that billboard campaign. He was an advertising executive of sorts. And it has been a nervous year for you, worrying over your income tax, and having those nasty Internal Revenue men beat you in the courts and make you pay that hideous sum of money. You must go away. And Albert is working too hard in school. I know he is, he looks so pale. And I need a change and a rest myself. Why not take six weeks off, and visit our nearest and charming Latin neighbors But Mr. Morton had not found his nearest Latin neigh bors charming. Thehigh plateau of the Mexican capital made him short of breath and nervous and the happy-go lucky Mexican way of doing things was profoundly irritat