THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN 



shadow ; sometimes the sparrow and the 

 hawk, with wings trailed and beaks parted, 

 drooping in the white truce of noon. 



If one is inclined to wonder at first how 

 so many dwellers came to be in the lone- 

 liest land that ever came out of God's 

 hands, what they do there and why stay, 

 one does not wonder so much after having 

 lived there. None other than this long 

 brown land lays such a hold on the affec- 

 tions. The rainbow hills, the tender blu- 

 ish mists, the luminous radiance of the 

 spring, have the lotus charm. They trick 

 the sense of time, so that once inhabiting 

 there you always mean to go away without 

 quite realizing that you have not done it. 

 Men who have lived there, miners and cat- 

 tle-men, will tell you this, not so fluently, 

 but emphatically, cursing the land and go- 

 ing back to it. For one thing there is the 

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