74 Rod, Gun, and Palette in the High Rockies 



To the question, "Are you married?" he returned for answer: 



**H — 11, no. I 'm waiting till I get old enough." 



"Live alone on your ranch?" 



"Yes." 



The artist queried, "Don't you get lonesome?" 



With a gesture that comprehended mountain, lake, and hill- 

 side in its sweep, the answer came: 



"H — 11, no. Too much to look at." 



It was sufficient. The cavaliers rode on, the artist feeling 

 that he had met a kindred spirit. 



In their absence the rest of the camp had aired bedding, 

 blankets, and clothing and made things ready for breaking camp 

 on the morrow. During the morning there were observed in willow 

 brush near the camp, large numbers of bobolinks, meadow larks, 

 and chits, in addition to finches, yellow-hammers, and blackbirds 

 in flocks, obviously migrating south. 



In the afternoon, while the artist sketched. Bill and Art 

 went to target practice, and after this up the river for duck — the 

 last trip before breaking camp. After their departure, the artist 

 took advantage of Jay's temporary freedom from pressing duties 

 to obtain a little closer acquaintance with Jay Whitman, the 

 Missourian. 



Jay is a strong, kindly soul, very much inclined to take men 

 and things for what they are, and with a simple, direct familiarity 

 of manner that nevertheless never trespasses upon the personal 

 reserve of his interlocutor. The net result of the talk may be 

 better given in this quotation from a letter written by the artist 

 to his wife: 



"Let those who will lament the decay of polite conversation — 

 those who think the only things worth talking about are books, 

 art, music, and the cult of culture generally. To h — 11 with them. 

 Let them but sit down with open mind and respectful address to 

 a man such as Jay Whitman, and, if they have intelligence enough, 

 exchange with him familiar talk of those things that to him are the 

 main things of life; the cutting and curing of prairie hay, its baling 

 and marketing ; plowing and seeding for timothy ; the self denials 

 and hardships attendant on the filing and proving up on three hun- 

 dred and twenty acres of government land — which he now owns — 

 the breeding and grading of cattle and its current price on the hoof; 



