198 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



The sight set me thinking that possibly if the gen- 

 eral management of the weather were put into 

 human hands, as the least presumptuous of us 

 are more or less in the habit of wishing were pos- 

 sible, it might still be found difficult to escape 

 an occasional fault of administration. As for my 

 farmer's emphatic language, I held it excusable. 

 He certainly had provocation, and as the Scrip- 

 ture says, with commendable toleration, there is 

 a time for everything under the sun. 



The river valley is narrow, like the river itself, 

 and on the farther side is bounded sharply by 

 steep foothills, behind which are high mountains. 

 I was barely beginning to climb the nearest hill, 

 over its loose covering of small stones, when some 

 bird broke into voice a little above me ; one of 

 those peculiar voices, I said to myself, that at a 

 first hearing afford almost no indication as to the 

 size of their owners. 



My uncertainty lasted for some minutes, while 

 I made my way cautiously upwards, a step or two 

 at a time. The bird proved to be a small wren, 

 the rock wren, so called, said to be " more 

 or less abundant " in this region ; " more " rather 

 than " less," I hope, for I fell in love with the 

 creature immediately. 



One of the birds, for there were two, talk- 

 ing " back and forth," as we say, his fit of 



