216 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



about that many people think a goose has a fool- 

 ish head is more than I can guess. It is com- 

 mon, too, to hear "as crazy as a loon," yet a 

 loon is about as far from the crazy point as any 

 bird that flies. 



Stories send whole flocks of mountain sheep 

 diving over cliffs or precipices with arms folded. 

 Head on, they land at the bottom, their large, 

 springy horns striking first and acting as shock 

 absorbers. With this kind of a portable mattress 

 on his head, the sheep does not, like the circus 

 performer, need any one to place a thick mattress 

 or a water tank for safe terminal facilities. 



Twice I have seen sheep land upon their shock- 

 breaking horns, but as this style of landing each 

 time broke the neck of the sheep, it was not tried 

 again. Ewes, and little lambs as well as the 

 rams make jumps overboard, and as high and 

 as daring ones as the rams; but the horns of the 

 ewes are tiny, and the lambs do not have horns. 

 So I suppose when this jumping story is revised 

 and corrected, it will tell that the ewes and Iambs 

 ride through the air on the backs of the rams, 

 like Mother Witch on a broomstick. 



The stories about fights of big, owl-eyed divers 

 with sharks, and devil-fish or octopuses used to 

 thrill me. Later, when I visited the Florida 

 coast, and while doing a little sailing off southern 

 California, I asked sailors about fights with the 



