214 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



dow seats, book-cases, dressing tables, and bed- 

 steads that formed our furniture. 



The rooms were hung with cheap calicoes of 

 pretty design. Bear and deer skins, Mexican ser- 

 apes, and Navajo blankets made effective rugs. 

 When in all its completeness the cottage appeared 

 for the first time to the astonished gaze of Jesus 

 Maria Castro, our Mexican neighbor, he exclaimed 

 in Spanish, " Behold the Little Palace of Mon- 

 tezuma ! " This romantic name it bore ever after. 



Pepper Sauce Gulch in the Old Hat District, 

 on the north side of the Santa Catalina Moun- 

 tains, winds down to the valley of the San Pedro 

 River. The upper reaches of the cafion run 

 between abrupt hills, which tower on either side 

 for about a thousand feet. The sides of these hills 

 are grassy, and the timber consists almost entirely 

 of a kind of live oak. 



Close to the house good water was abundant 

 in the bed of the cafion, but for our use was piped 

 from a spring high in the mountains. The site 

 of the " Little Palace " was on the side of a hill 

 some hundred feet above the bottom of the 

 gulch, the hills being here so steep that it was 

 necessary to cut out a shelf for the main part of 

 the floor. The beams, which projected far be- 

 yond the excavations, were supported by uprights 

 rising from the ground below; it was in this 

 respect like a Swiss chalet. On the side of 



