Ii6 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



now that they were so scarce, I halted at the gate 

 till the good man appeared. He seemed as keen as I 

 for a chat, inquisitive, moreover, as to my business, 

 and would have me dismount and come to his shady 

 veranda. Good man, indeed, I should name him, 

 heartily pressing me to put up for the night, or in 

 fact as long as I would ! When I accepted the smaller 

 offer, "That's all hunkydory then," he cried, and 

 seizing his hayfork led the way to the stable, 

 Kaweah close at his heels, for he knew the omen, and 

 hay already had the pensive charm of "the good old 

 days." The wife proved as kind as the husband, and 

 I shared their supper and breakfast, as well as the 

 hopes, trials, and prospects of their desert farming 

 venture. 



Their water-supply was a well and pump, oper- 

 ated by gasoline engine. Through all the centre part 

 of this valley water is plentiful at no impossible 

 depth. The water is pure, soft, and good (that from 

 the deeper wells is usually warm, often as much as 

 100°), making the greatest of boons to the much- 

 enduring folk who live and work under conditions 

 for the most part decidedly onerous. An illustration 

 of these people's hardships had comic details. The 

 wife was going to the coast for the summer in a few 

 days — the rule with desert women-folk, though 

 not an invariable one — and must leave her husband 

 alone to face the heat and keep the farm alive. But 

 she had a plan, which she confided to me, for his 

 comfort. She would send down from town a quantity 

 of canvas or burlap, which was to be strung on wires 

 along the windward side of the veranda. The poor, 



