A Rocky Ramble. 163 



the more polite of the two, for my salutation, 

 " Good-morning," was met by silence on the part 

 of the man, but the donkey's fifteen inches of ears 

 waved gracefully as the animal passed. Still, 

 sitting on the great flat rock, I watched the man 

 and his donkey as they walked towards the woods 

 above us. Their trained eyes made out a path to 

 which we were blind, and the sole merit of the 

 Mexican was his ease in stepping from stone to 

 stone without pausing to look at the loose rocks 

 before him. Soon he passed out of sight and out 

 of mind, leaving us to the hill-side, which we had 

 fondly supposed no others would be rash enough 

 to visit. It is something to have neighbors, even 

 if the mere knowledge of their existence meets 

 every need. 



Except a solitary bird, at long intervals, or 

 butterflies that we brushed from blooming cacti, 

 there was no evidence of animal life upon this 

 rugged hill-side ; but when we were quietly perched 

 upon the roomy rock and made no pronounced 

 demonstration, many a creature that had been 

 startled by our strange appearance as we scram- 

 bled upward, came one by one in view. It was 



