Chapter 9 MISS PRUDENCE'S CLEANING SPREE

Before dropping to sleep that night Jo Ann decided that as soon as she got up in the morning she would urge Miss Prudence to let her and Peggy go to the city. "I'll tell her what this house needs worse than another cleaning is some pretty cretonne for curtains and pillows, and some of the lovely Mexican pottery and bright-colored blankets. I could stop at the village and buy the pottery and blankets. There were some pieces of pottery outside that shack near where the smugglers' car was parked. That'd give me a grand chance to find out from the family in the shack about the smugglers.

Then I'd have more to tell the mystery man-if I can find him. Finding him-that'll be the hard part."

Still visioning ways and plans for this trip to the city, she finally drifted off to sleep.

She was roused early the next morning by a cold hand upon her bare shoulder. Horrors! One of those smugglers had grabbed her-she'd jerk away from him! She sprang out of bed with a leap that sent her into the middle of the room, then stood staring dazedly at an amazed Miss Prudence.

"Why, I didn't mean to frighten you, Jo Ann," she said apologetically. "I just meant to wake you early so--"

"O-oh, it's just you!" gasped Jo Ann, feeling very foolish at seeing it was only Miss Prudence. "I must've been dreaming. I thought one of those--" She stopped abruptly. She must not say a word about having seen those smugglers. No use to get Miss Prudence stirred up and excited over them.

"I'm sorry I scared you," Miss Prudence began again, "but I thought we ought to get an early start to--"

"But we're at the end of our journey," broke in Peggy, who was sitting up in bed now, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "We don't have any place to start early to."

"What I began to say was that we ought to get an early start at giving this house a thorough cleaning," Miss Prudence went on, undisturbed by Peggy's interruption.

"The house looks clean to me-very clean," Jo Ann remarked.

"Maria may have gone through the motions of cleaning, but"-Miss Prudence raised her eyebrows skeptically-"a peon housekeeper's ideas of cleaning and an American's are two different things."

"Don't you want us to go to the city to get some-some fumigating stuff-formaldehyde, isn't that what you call it?" Jo Ann asked eagerly.

"No, I've decided it isn't necessary to have the place fumigated. I've decided there's enough laundry soap here to begin with. Ed says he's ordered more, and a lot of supplies that should have come to the village yesterday. He thinks they'll come today surely. I'll make plenty of strong suds, and we can begin scrubbing this morning. When we get through, this place'll be as bright as a new penny."

"It'll still be dreadfully bare, though," Jo Ann remarked tentatively. "As you said last night, it looks as bare as a barracks. What it needs is gay cretonne draperies and pillows, bright-colored blankets to throw over the chests and couches, and some of the lovely Mexican ollas. As soon as we get the house clean, let's go to the city to get the draperies. We can probably find some pottery and blankets at the village."

"Well, we'll think about that later."

"The sooner we get this house fixed up, the longer we'll have to enjoy it," spoke up Peggy, coming to Jo Ann's aid. She knew how Jo Ann's heart was set on getting back to the city. "Let's try to have it all done by the time Florence comes."

"Well, we'll see."

The girls had to content themselves with that vague promise.

After Miss Prudence had left the room and the girls were dressing, Jo Ann remarked, "I haven't given up hope yet of going to the city soon. I'm going to try to persuade Miss Prudence to let us go to the village this afternoon for the supplies that Mr. Eldridge is expecting."

"I'll help persuade her." Peggy changed the subject abruptly by saying, "I hate to have her hurt Maria's feelings by doing all this cleaning, don't you?"

Jo Ann nodded. "I'll try to smooth it over to Maria, but she'll never be able to understand such extreme ideas about sanitation."

As soon as they had finished eating breakfast, the girls entered industriously into Miss Prudence's "cleaning spree," as Jo Ann called it. While Peggy poured the soapy water over the concrete floors, Jo Ann scrubbed vigorously enough to satisfy even Miss Prudence.

"It's really fun," Jo Ann declared as she swished the foamy suds about with her broom.

Miss Prudence, a towel over her head and her long skirts tucked up and pinned in the back, bustled about superintending the girls, Maria and her oldest daughters, and the two boys.

Maria was horrified that Miss Prudence should set Carlitos, the chief owner of the silver mine and the house, to doing such menial tasks as carrying water from the stream back of the house. Miss Prudence, however, believed with St. Paul that he who would not work should not eat and soon had everybody in the household stepping lively.

"I wish that soap and other supplies'd come today," she said, frowning as she took out the last bar of soap. "The supplies are very low. I can't plan a decent meal in this house without those things."

"Peggy and I'll go to the village for them this afternoon," Jo Ann offered eagerly. "We can drive the car and make better time than José can in the oxcart."

Miss Prudence hesitated a moment, then replied, "Well, if José can go with you, I believe you'd better go."

"Fine! I'm sure Mr. Eldridge'll let José go. He sends him there frequently for the mail-every other day, I believe."

Jo Ann was right in this surmise. Mr. Eldridge promptly agreed to let José accompany the girls to the village. "José can take two burros along to carry the supplies," he added, "and he won't need the oxcart at all."

So it was that shortly after lunch the two girls and José started on horseback but changed into the automobile when they reached the foot of the mountain.

On reaching the village they drove straight to Pedro's store to see if the supplies had come. On finding that they had arrived, José set to work to load them into the car. While he was busy at that task, Jo Ann and Peggy walked back to the adobe shack where Jo Ann had seen the smugglers' car.

To Jo Ann's relief, the battered old car was not in sight.

"I'll have a far better chance to find out about the smugglers without their being on the scene," she remarked to Peggy.

As soon as they neared the shack, a thin, undernourished woman with a black rebosa about her shoulders and a baby in her arms appeared at the door. Peeping from behind her skirts were several other small, half-clad, hungry-looking children. As quickly as she could in her broken Spanish, Jo Ann explained that she wanted to buy some of the pottery jars piled up at the side of the house.

The woman shook her head and replied, "I have much sorrow that I cannot sell them to you. Two men in an automobile told me they take all my ollas."

"Was that their automobile I saw here near your house yesterday?"

The woman nodded.

"I must find out when they will be back," Jo Ann thought quickly. "Can you not get more jars for these men by the time they come back, and sell me some of these you have now?" she asked tentatively.

"No, that is impossible. It takes much time to make the ollas, and the men say they come back in three or four days."

"Three or four days," Jo Ann thought. "I hope Florence comes on one of those days, so we'll have an excuse to come down here to meet her."

Peggy broke into her thoughts with, "Ask her the price of these jars. They're lovely." She picked up two jars, each attractively decorated with a design of cactus and Spanish dagger.

Jo Ann relayed this question to the woman. "How much do you sell these for?"

The woman went on to tell the price of each-an absurdly small amount, not a third as much as they were worth.

"Is that what those men pay you for them?" Jo Ann asked incredulously.

"Sí." The woman nodded.

Jo Ann repeated the price to Peggy, adding, "Those men are robbers, as well as--"

She left her sentence unfinished and turned back to the woman, saying, "They do not pay you enough. I will give you twice that much for these two ollas."

The woman's eyes opened wide. "Ah-that is good. I have much need of money to buy food for my children." She hesitated a moment, then added, "Bien, I will let you have these two. The men will be angry, but then--" She shrugged her shoulders expressively.

Jo Ann's mind was working rapidly. Perhaps she could help this poor woman to market more of her pottery. Florence had a friend who purchased Mexican curios for a firm in the States. She would tell Florence about this woman's pottery. "I'll take these two ollas. Don't let those men have all your pottery after this. I will sell it for you at this price."

After Jo Ann had paid for the jars and had promised the woman again to help sell more of the pottery for her, Peggy remarked as they were starting away, "I'm glad you paid that woman more for the ollas, but I'm afraid those men'll be furious when they find out you're buying her pottery at double the price they pay. You're heading for trouble."

Jo Ann's face grew grave. "I shouldn't be surprised, but I'm glad just the same that I could help that family. Those poor little children look half starved to me."

"They surely do," Peggy agreed.