164 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



haps his best qualities have hounded him, hot foot, 

 along the Devil's Causeway. Generosity, pluck, 

 mirthfulness, a desire to please, have brought him 

 to grief. When the dear old governor opens the 

 letter that tells him his son is dead, does he realise 

 that he signed the lad's death-warrant ? 



But these desperate rides seldom end fatally. 

 Johnnie has a tumble or two, and sooner or later 

 he decides humbly to go a-foot. He will tell you, 

 if you happen to meet him, that he has sown his 

 wild oats, and means to soberly and sedulously seed 

 the future with wheat. This means buying a 

 ranch. None of his people — he assures you — 

 have soiled their hands with trade. " I 'm not 

 fitted for anything of that sort," he concludes cheer- 

 fully ; and heaven knows that he speaks truth. So 

 he buys an orchard, a vineyard, a cattle ranch, a 

 wheat farm, or a dairy. You can take your choice, 

 as he does, of these alluring industries. In the end 

 it will make as little difference to Johnnie as it 

 does to you sitting snug in your chair. Whatever 

 basket receives the eggs, they inevitably will be 

 smashed ! 



Had you the magical carpet, you could transport 

 yourself to his new domain, where your host will 

 be delighted to show you his pony, hog-maned and 

 bang-tailed, and also his keg of G-lenlivet (for he is 

 a hospitable chap), and his big canister of tobacco, 

 and " that canon yonder, where, by Jove, the quail 

 simply swarm, my dear chap," — and many other 

 things animate and inanimate in which at present 

 he is keenly interested. The crops, you may observe, 

 look patchy, as if wire- worms were at work, or the 



