166 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



pears at the Summit House, every one knows 

 what is to happen. So-and-so is going to run 

 down the mountain. The daily newspaper chroni- 

 cles his arrival and announces the hour of the 

 annual event. Then, at the minute agreed upon, 

 aU hands gather before the door, a man ap- 

 pointed for the purpose holds the watch and 

 gives the signal, and down the steep road starts 

 the farmer, his invariable " tall hat " on his 

 head, and his coat-tails flying. At the Half-Way 

 House, and again at the base, his time is taken. 

 If it is shorter than last year's, so much the 

 more glory. If it is longer, — well, he has run ; 

 and presumably, like Cincinnatus before him, he 

 goes back to his plough contented. 



The road-runner, I suspect (the rimning 

 cuckoo!), is subject to the same irresistible 

 ambulatory impulses, and by a curious coinci- 

 dence he, too, wears what we may term a " tall 

 hat." I should hke to see him racing down the 

 Mount Washington road, putting on the brakes 

 now and then, at the sharper turns, by a sudden 

 cocking of his tail ! 



The temperature here — for temperature must 

 always be mentioned in writing of one's travels 

 — has thus far been pretty comfortable for a 

 walker, though not without something of the con- 

 tradictoriness which seems to belong to weather 



