200 THE DESERT AND THE ROSE 



by its absence. Yet even as regards ordinary utility 

 I myself have known highbred Virginia horses who 

 could "hit the long- trail and keep a-goin" as tire- 

 lessly as any cow pony of them all, and that too 

 through bottomless Virginia mud such as is never 

 encountered on the mountain trails of New Mexico. 



As for matching mountain ideas of honesty — 

 both are peculiar to themselves. For instance : we, 

 together with our Virginian neighbors, found it 

 impossible to turn our premium winning sheep out 

 to graze in the mountains, even though much of the 

 said pasture was our own property. The mountain 

 people held tenaciously to the opinion that pedigreed 

 sheep were as other sheep — just mutton. Conse- 

 quently the mountaineers killed and ate them. Yet 

 here follows another Blue Ridge incident, equally 

 typical and veracious : a man from the valleys met 

 a mountaineer driving a fat steer, and expressed 

 a wish to buy the animal, but added that he had not 

 the purchase price in his pocket. 



"Best carry the critter right along now," quoth 

 the owner. 



"But I don't have a dollar on me." 



"Wa-a-1,"— indifferently— "that ain't nothin' to 

 worry over. Carry the critter home, and some day 

 when you-all's ridin' this-er way, set the money in 

 that thar holler tree." 



"But someone else may get it!" 



"Tech anythin' as belongs to me?" — this with 

 scorn inexpressible — "No, siree-Bob! We-all- ain't 

 acquainted with sech lowdown, ornery ways o' doin' ! 



