The Arizona Desert 



and then it faded. I felt a sense of actual loss. So 

 real had been the illusion that I could not believe I 

 was not soon to drink and wade and dabble in the 

 cool waters. Disappointment was keen. This is 

 what maddens the prospector or sheep-herder lost in 

 the desert. Was it not a terrible thing to be dying 

 of thirst, to see sparkling water, almost to smell it, 

 and then realize suddenly that all was only a lying 

 trick of the desert, a lure, a delusion? I ceased to 

 wonder at the Mormons, and their search for water, 

 their talk of water. But I had not realized its true 

 significance. I had not known what water was. I 

 had never appreciated it. So it was my destiny to 

 learn that water is the greatest thing on earth. I 

 hung over a three-foot hole in a dry stream-bed, and 

 watched it ooze and seep through the sand, and fill 

 up oh, so slowly; and I felt it loosen my parched 

 tongue, and steal through all my dry body with 

 strength and life. Water is said to constitute three 

 fourths of the universe. However that may be, on 

 the desert it is the whole world, and all of life. 



Two days passed by, all hot sand and wind and 

 glare. The Mormons sang no more at evening; 

 Jones was silent; the dogs were limp as rags. 



At Moncaupie Wash we ran into a sandstorm. 

 The horses turned their backs to it, and bowed their 



heads patiently. The Mormons covered themselves. 



21 



