THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN 



I, who must have drunk of it in my twice 

 seven years' wanderings, am assured that it 

 is worth while. 



For all the toll the desert takes of a man 

 it gives compensations, deep breaths, deep 

 sleep, and the communion of the stars. It 

 comes upon one with new force in the 

 pauses of the night that the Chaldeans 

 were a desert-bred people. It is hard to 

 escape the sense of mastery as the stars 

 move in the wide clear heavens to risings 

 and settings unobscured. They look large 

 and near and palpitant ; as if they moved 

 on some stately service not needful to de- 

 clare. Wheeling to their stations in the 

 sky, they make the poor world-fret of no 

 account. Of no account you who lie out 

 there watching, nor the lean coyote that 

 stands off in the scrub from you and howls 

 and howls. 



21 



