Maxey 193 



mountain streams, each night finding them nearer the 

 setting sun. Their camp was usually in some nar- 

 row valley, shut in by rocky walls, but where good 

 water and sufficient vegetation were to be found. 

 Herbert named the burro ' Maxey,' possibly because 

 it was the first name that occurred to him, and possi- 

 bly because it answered as well as any other. 



After toiling all day, carrying a pack weighing 

 several hundred pounds, and climbing the sides of 

 mountains to which human skill and courage were 

 scarcely equal, Maxey would quietly graze while 

 Herbert slept. At times the moonlight would steal 

 from behind some giant peak, and, sifting through 

 the evergreens upon its sides, light up the valley in 

 strong contrast to the black shadows beyond. Then 

 it would disappear behind another mountain, gilding 

 only the snowy peak and leaving the rest in dark- 

 ness. At such times the stillness seemed oppres- 

 sive and the slightest sound was magnified ten-fold. 

 The noisiest thing in all that scene of wildness was 

 the little snow-fed brook. Its descent was steep ; 

 and as it sprang from rock to rock, or shot around 

 some huge boulder, it seemed to laugh for joy at its 



