Chapter XIV 



Life in the Sierra Madre 



THE charm of continuous mountain life has given 

 nearly every cafton in the lofty range one or 

 more residents. When I first knew the Arroyo 

 Seco Canon, in 1885, ^ had a dweller for nearly every 

 two miles of its winding course. At the entrance, where 

 he could look out into the broad wash, a bee-keeper 

 lived ; and over on a little mesa a miner, who some- 

 times showed me colour. On another mesa lived the 

 Brown brothers, sons of John Brown of Harper's Ferry, 

 and often as I sat in their cabin at night I heard stories 

 of the Underground Railroad; and Owen Brown, pacing 

 the floor, told of his escape along the mountains, lying 

 in the brush for days, living on corn and travelling by 

 night. The two brothers, Owen and Jason, were typical 

 mountaineers, and for mere love of it would go up into 

 the mountains, five thousand feet above the sea for 

 what? "To look out upon the earth and to think." 

 Owen Brown told me that his father had this habit, and 

 it was strong in him ; a passion to climb above the 



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