and then heard no more till the night 
gives place to the fresh sheet of dawn. 
I have pored in the morning over the 
big round footprints of a mountain lion 
where he had sneaked in hours of dark- 
ness, past my saddle pillowed head. I 
have hunted much, and killed a little, 
the wary, the beautiful, the fleet-footed 
big game. I have driven a four-in-hand 
over corduroy roads and ridden horse- 
back over the pathless vasty wilds of 
the continent’s backbone. 
I have been nearly frozen eleven 
thousand feet in air in blinding snow, 
I have baked on the Dakota plains 
with the thermometer at 116 degrees, 
and I have met characters as diverse as 
the climate. I know what it means to 
be a miner and a cowboy, and have 
risked my life when need be, duz¢, best 
of all, I have felt the charm of the 
~eomamazma\Z320 
