74 THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 



uncontrollable passion for blankets — Navajos for 

 choice — but a stable blanket will serve. On cold 

 nights when my horses were free to leave their 

 shelter and roam the fields if they preferred, each 

 horse wore a blanket made fast with surcingle and 

 strap, and more than once, the animals being used 

 to handling, there appeared in the morning a strip- 

 ped horse. But Ricardo, on his own suggestion, soon 

 settled this matter by "laying for" the thief, armed 

 with my shotgun. 



In my ranching years there could be no question 

 as to the desirability of Mexican labor for the lone 

 woman. The "I'm much better than you are" of 

 the white man or woman made a sorry showing be- 

 side the peon's courtesy to the Senora for whom he 

 worked; he carried himself, in short, and generally 

 speaking, with the courtesy of the gentleman born, 

 poor and uneducated though he was. He would 

 also work more faithfully for the Unprotected Fe- 

 male than he would for the Protected — generally 

 speaking again. It may further be affirmed that no 

 woman could have passed weeks and months alone 

 on a farm in the Black Belt without molestation. 

 Yet this I did, and without near neighbors, though 

 I did not remain alone in my house at night, that not 

 being deemed quite wise. Another ranchwoman, 

 living a couple of miles beyond me, drove herself 

 home for years after dark if so disposed, and was 

 never so much as startled. Even in later times, with 

 its alarms of border raids, the general opinion in 

 our Valley inclined to absolute faith in our Valley 



