WILD FLOWERS OF COLORADO. 1 3 



Yock," and before I could show her how to wash them she dis- 

 appeared, but soon returned bringing a yucca root, and break- 

 ing it in pieces gav^e them to me ; she then took a piece and 

 putting it in the basin rubbed her hands in great glee, saying 

 " Yock washee." I then understood for the first time the virtue 

 of the yucca root; and this Indian girl whom I was trying to 

 teach was able to teach me. 



Here is some colum' ine a friend of mine gathered. I say 

 '*a friend of mine," and surely he has proven both guide and 

 friend on many a trip over h-, mountains; should I mention his 

 name many tourists would remember him with pleasure. He 

 would perhaps object to have his name in print, and so we 

 will call him **Dick;" but should I write as I feel inclined, I 

 would devote a chapter to his bravery and goodness. Dick, 

 knowing my fondness for mountain flowers, made many a perilous 

 trip to gather them for me. The day he brought me this lovely 

 bunch of columbine he had just returned with a party from 

 a long trip up the mountains. He looked tired and dusty, but a 

 smile lighted up his face when he said : ''These beat any thing I 

 ever see in this kind of flower; they're pretty, ain't they, now? 

 I see them a good bit off and asked the gentlemen if they would 

 mind to rest a few minutes while I got a bunch of 'em. They 

 seemed glad to stop, for we had had a hard morning, coming down 

 over bowlders as large as this room, some of them, and they being 

 * tenclerfeet' they needed no great amount of coaxing to stoj) ; and 

 I hadn't got more'n a dozen feet from them when I looked 



