Meadow and Mountain 



content to be trodden on by any traveler, if so it could lead 



to help and happiness. 



Hundreds of "prairie-schooners" rolled their wheels 



along the patient trail, cut- 

 ting deep scars in its sub- 

 missive bosom. Thousands 

 of cattle drifted over the 

 . range, leaving innumerable 

 hoof-wounds in the winding 

 way. But all the days and 

 nights the trail lay silent 

 and uncomplaining under the 

 whirling wheels and clatter- 

 ing hoofs. Trailers found 

 fault with the trail, some- 



PRAIRIE SCHOONER . , . , r 



times, because it varied trom 



the straight line. The critics forgot their own crookedness. 

 Could they have seen farther, they would have known that 

 they were wrong and the trail was right, for, hiding behind 

 a waving wilderness of bluestem, lay a deep and impassable 

 canon. To conduct the caravan safely, the trail had varied 

 its course. It made no reply to the chidings of the ranger 

 whose sharp-hoofed herds were cutting uncounted scars in 

 its breast. It led safely on, avoiding the dangerous canons, 

 and affording a pleasant passageway through the thick-sown 

 cactus and sagebrush, or in curves between trees to the river. 

 Now and then this ancient path across the prairie was 

 obscured by luxuriant growths of grasses. Bunch-grass, 

 bluestem, the buffalo, and the gramma-grasses hugged its 

 dusty edges. They bent over the deep-cut ruts as if to 

 shield a friend from lacerating hoofs and wearing wheels, 



60 



