2i8 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



must be five hundred, maybe a thousand, come 

 round that Httle pool of an evening. It sounds like a 

 hundred autos when they fly. This is my second 

 turn at what you might call pioneering. First was 

 in the State of Washington; that was twenty-five 

 years ago. Seems like I strike mostly quiet places. 

 Like it here? Why, yes, I think it's pretty good, and 

 a beautiful climate. Why, io6 is as hot as we've 

 had this summer, and think of them poor folks 

 down in Imperial with 120, and hot nights and poor 

 water." 



A whiff as of recent baking led to my buying a loaf 

 of the genuine article, together with a little sugar; 

 also a few feeds of barley for Kaweah. A musk- 

 melon and two tomatoes were added as a present. 

 When I urged her to take payment for these luxuries 

 she refused, but as I was leaving (charged with three 

 letters that had lain many days under the family 

 flat-iron) she became wistful, then said softly, "You 

 would n't happen to have a mite of lard that you 

 could spare, would you now?" She could not bear to 

 see me depart without asking this one boon. So we 

 divided my little store, and I left with a warning 

 that I must look out for snakes in Coyote Caiion. 



For several hours we plodded up the broad gray 

 valley toward the point where Coyote Canon came 

 in. Other canons were passed, their mouths almost 

 choked with mixed colonies of ocotillo and cholla. 

 This is the most clannish of the cacti, holding the 

 foothill benches for miles to the exclusion of other 

 growths. These tracts make a strange appear- 

 ance, as if regiments of soldiers, in uniform of palest 



