TWfo £tfe on tfc (gocfte* 



the place before. From time to time, as I walked 

 about, I stopped to try to win the confidence of 

 the small folk in fur and feathers. I found some 

 that trusted me, and at noon a chipmunk, a 

 camp-bird, a chickadee, and myself were several 

 times busy with the same bit of luncheon at 

 once. 



Some years ago mountain sheep often came 

 in flocks to lick the salty soil in a ruined crater 

 on Specimen Mountain. One day I climbed up 

 and hid myself in the crags to watch them. More 

 than a hundred of them came. After licking for 

 a time, many lay down. Some of the rams posed 

 themselves on the rocks in heroic attitudes and 

 looked serenely and watchfully around. Young 

 lambs ran about, and a few occasionally raced up 

 and down smooth, rocky steeps, seemingly with- 

 out the slightest regard for the laws of falling 

 bodies. I was close to the flock, but luckily they 

 did not suspect my presence. After enjoying 

 their fine wild play for more than two hours, I 

 slipped away and left them in their home among 

 the crags. 



One spring day I paused in a whirl of mist 



78 



