MOUNT RAINIER 



ousted from the forest, sternly as mercy is thrust from 

 a darkening heart. Night is really only beautiful so 

 far as it is not night, that is, for its stars, which are 

 sources of resolute daylight in other spheres, and for 

 its moon, which is daylight's memory, realized, soft- 

 ened, and refined. 



Night, however, had not drawn the pall of brief 

 death over the world so thick but that I could see 

 enough to respect the taste of the late Sowee. When 

 he voted himself this farm, and became seized of it in 

 the days of unwritten agrarian laws, and before patents 

 were in vogue, he proved his intelligent right to suffrage 

 and seizure. Here in admirable quality were the 

 three first requisites of a home in the wilderness, 

 water, wood, and grass. A musical rustle, as we gal- 

 loped through, proved the long grass. All around 

 was the unshorn forest. There were columnar firs 

 making the Sowee house a hypaethral temple on a 

 grand scale. 



There had been here a lodge. A few saplings of its 

 framework still stood, but Sowee had moved elsewhere 

 not long ago. Wake siah memloose, not long dead 

 was the builder, and viator might camp here unques- 

 tioned. 



Caudal had followed us in inane, irresponsible way. 

 Patiently now he stood, apparently waiting for far- 

 ther commands from his preservers. We unpacked 

 and unsaddled the other animals. They knew their 

 business, namely, to bolt instantly for their pasture. 

 Then a busy uproar of nipping and crunching was 

 heard. Poor Caudal would not take the hint. We 

 were obliged to drive that bony estray with blows out 

 to the supper-field, where he stood aghast at the appe- 

 tites of his new comrades. Repose and good example, 

 however, soon had their effect, and eight equine jaws 

 instead of six made play in the herbage. 



"Alki mika mamook pire, pe nesika klatawah copa 

 klap tsuk ; now light thou a fire, and we will go find 



66 



