led happy, care-free lives and came and went as 
their parents led them. 
Of course they had their own troubles, too. 
One evening as they were headed for the water- 
hole a wildcat caught one of them, and at an- 
other time one was snapped up by a fox. 
Out in the desert one day they came to the 
wicki-up of a Papago Indian. It was made of 
poles and brush, and sitting around outside 
were earthen pots of various sizes. Near the 
hut was a corral made chiefly from the dried 
skeleton ribs of the giant tree cactus. 
A burro lived in the corral, and the birds 
found on the ground a little grain it had dropped. 
This they began to eat. The Indian saw them 
and shot into the flock, killing and wounding 
five or six of the family. The survivors never 
went back there again. 
Soon afterward they had a much more fortu- 
nate experience. They had wandered up one 
side of the canyon and had come out at a point 
where a man could have seen a long distance. 
Half a mile away the wife of the new settler 
was sitting on a rock guarding the flock of sheep. 
206 
