Page 47 - 1948 VES Meteor

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sow Mr. Landon, you know-the agent, and he told me, if we don't pay those last two payments we'll lose our land."
"Oh, Lavoya, how're we going to ever pay for this land, when we have the childrens' needs? The children must have food and clothes."
I've been thinking, Louisa-may- be we can lease out our land to
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hunters when dove and deer seasons .:orne. Then we'll have enough money to pay the debts."
"That will ruin the hunting around here for several years, you know. When hunters come to kill something, they'll kill everything."
"Yes, I know, but we must do it, how else can we pay for our land? Dove season opens next week. How about it?"
"Well, all right, Lavoya, you know best."
a gun and all the other things a hunter carries."
It couldn't-but it is! It's Pedro! My brother Pedro."
" Hermano! Hermano!" He yelled as he went to usher him into the house.
Louisa and the children all gath- ered around the door, anything but calmly waiting to find out who the newcomer was.
"You here! What brings you from Mexico? Como estas? Como estas?'
"Lavoyd, how long has it been?
After supper they sat down and talked for a long time.
' Lavoya, remember Senor Gomez, the man whose pottery plant you worked in years ago?"
"Er-yes."
"Well, remember in the lottery of '21 when you thought you had lost your ticket? It turned out that your name was mistaken for someone else s on the ticket. It was all straightened out through Senor Gomez later, and I've got your winnings here with me now.''
"Oh, gracias, Pedro! Gracias a Dios! Louisa, now we have enough money to pay the last two payments on our land and with the money from the hunters, enough to buy warm clothes for the children."
'Everything has turned out all right, Lavoya. I knew it would."
***
Last year on his sixty-first birth- day Lavoya had completed payment on his property-a long time, though, it seems. His dreams of a family and some land of his own eventually came true.
A "wet-back" who came to this country with hardly enough to buy a meal set his goals and worked for them until he got them. He has put three of his children through high school, two are going to grade school. and he plans to send the re- maining three when they come of age.
As I've said, old age hasn't gotten him down. He still cuts cedar and repairs fences on the adjacent ranch.
Today if you happen to be in his part of Texas and pass him on the road on his donkey ("Jonko" has died since). whether you are a life- long friend of his or just a passer-by, he will greet you with his friendly smile and magic little word, "amigo.'
THE METEOR
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Lavoya didn't li1;e painting that sign for it meant all his doves and deer would be killed; but he knew he had to do it.
All during dove and deer seasons hunters came and left with their kills. As each hunter left, Lavoya saw, almost without fail, a big buck sprawled across the front fender of the deer-hunters car. But he also saw money tn his pocket, which meant
payment complete on his land .
Then one day a hunter came on foot through the little gate, at
least he looked like a hunter.
" I wonder who that could be," said Lavoya as he opened the crude
warped door of the little house. "Most likely another hunter,"
answered Louisa.
"No, I can't make him out, but
he's not a hunter, or he would have
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