DEVELOPMENT OF A WOMAN GUIDE 269 



literally startled the natives both sides of the 

 Divide. 



It was late spring and the winter accumulations 

 of snow were soft, melting rapidly, and flooding 

 water everywhere. Snow-drifts and soggy places full 

 of flowers covered the steep and dangerously slip- 

 pery slopes. But she reached the summit by noon. 

 After eating a lunch on these heights, more than a 

 thousand feet above the limits of tree growth, she 

 started down the icy steeps into unknown wilds. 

 She crossed the debris of recent land and snow 

 slides. Everything was slippery, slipping, or ready 

 to slide. But she came down to timberline without 

 starting anything and without a slide herself. 



Then for ten miles the trail led through deep 

 snow-drifts and swollen streams. She crossed on 

 doubtful logs; sometimes with the logs under water 

 she hitched across astride the log in the roaring 

 current. In places she waded to her knees. Just 

 as darkness was settling down, all bedraggled, but 

 enthusiastic, she arrived at the end of her journey. 

 She took a longer, less perilous way returning — a 

 two-day trip that gave her new, though less rugged, 

 scenes. 



This outdoor woman had a purpose — a vision. 

 Daily she accumulated experience and informa- 

 tion. These she handled like an artist. She held 

 on to the essentials only and made these enrich her 

 life. Then, too, she had wide sympathies and in 

 improving her opportunities to learn and grow it 



