Unofficial letters of an official's wife [by] Edith Moses.

AN OFFICIAL'S WIFE

gathered three young ears and boiled them and
were now patiently waiting to see the Sefioras eat
them.
The doctor's wife is, as I've said, an ideal pioneer
in this new country. She likes the natives, has a
strong sense of duty toward them and a feeling that
we must all help the government in the work of
pacification. She is abnormally sensitive, and her
bMte noir is the possibility of hurting a native's
feelings. So, having learned that these confiding
creatures had taken her admonitions to heart, and
not wishing to go back on her word, she said
solemnly: " Girls, we must eat them." She meant
the ears of corn, but from her tone one might have
thought she meant the two women. Falling in with
the absurd situation Elena and I each took a cob
and sitting down in the window began to gnaw the
tough little kernels. The doctor's wife explained
to Ambrosio that our corn in America was tender
and that we ate it with salt and butter. " How
fine," she exclaimed with the optimism which is her
predominant trait of character, " if we could teach
these poor creatures the use of a new food." As
our visitors showed no signs of going and as the
corn was like cow fodder, I suggested, in order not
to hurt their feelings, we dismiss them with a gift.
So Ambrosio gathered up some remnants of the
dinner and edged them out of the house. They departed silently as they came, and I wonder if our
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