FIRST DAYS IN TUCSON 203 



here. I was glad to see that even in this arid 

 zone (arida zona, as the Mexicans are supposed 

 to have begun by calling it) it still knew how 

 both to rain and to snow. 



" Well, now, this was a surprise, was n't it ? " 

 I remarked to a German whom I met in the 

 valley road. 



" You bet," he answered ; and then, with a 

 smile, he added : " but it won't last only a couple 

 of days ; that 's all." 



His mastery of American idiom recalls what 

 another German farmer said on the same fore- 

 noon. He had been living here and in California 

 since '82, he told me. 



" Which place do you like best ? " I inquired. 



" Oh, Arizona," he answered, without hesita- 

 tion. "Things are freer here," he went on. 

 " In Los Angeles, now, you have to dress up 

 once in a while ; but here, if you dress up, .or if 

 you don't dress up, it don't cut no ice." 



My first man's confident " couple of days " 

 was a trifle too confident. Twice two days have 

 passed. In that time we have had summer 

 weather (at noon), a pretty hard freeze (at 

 night), and another rain and another snowfall, 

 both heavier than the first. 



The winter visitors, of whom there are many, 

 the greater part, alas, ordered here for "lung 



