CHAPTER X 

 DOGS 



He was very happy but he missed the little dog. He 

 had everything that a man can possibly want in this 

 world but a dog. . . . There are moments in every 

 man's life when no human being can help him, divert 

 him, and stimulate him, and he needs the oldest and 

 most faithful friend that he has in the world. 



Gonverneur Morris. 



It may at once be seen that the reader who cares 

 nothing for animals would do well to skip this, and 

 the following- chapter. 



Turn now, the hot day waning, from the moun- 

 tains, and gaze from the back of my brown house 

 athwart the long shadows of the levels. Why is the 

 landscape so sorrowful? Peace stepping quietly 

 should come as an oft-bidden, long delaying guest 

 across these tranquil meadows. One beyond the 

 other they spread, a carpet of varied greens — the 

 ever fresh greens of our midsummer — the gay 

 shimmer of barley, verdurous weeds turning the 

 wheat stubble into a pageant, alfalfa purpling here 

 and there to another blooming, the emerald green of 

 cottonwoods and of springing crops of different 

 sorts. The eye wanders on and on to the river's 

 bank marked by wavering lines of woods, on and 

 on to where the still and solemn mesa leans upon 

 the deep burned sky. 



