The Black Swans 



I may not tell, for it was strictly 

 entre nous. 



You had only to throw your reins 

 to the ground and Smoke was hitched 

 for the day, and in the course of six 

 weeks of intimate companionship I 

 discovered that this was specially true 

 if I happened — as was often the case — 

 to stretch myself at his feet to bask 

 with the "rock-chucks" in the warm 

 high mountain sun, and enjoy with 

 them and Smoke the eternal snows, 

 the towering rocks, the sapphire sky, 

 the irrigated valleys far below with 

 emerald green alfalfa fields, or ponder 

 the inscrutable mysteries of the distant 

 Bad Lands. 



One who has known the joys that 

 wait upon a frosty morning's ride 

 along smooth Appalachian bridle paths 

 with a gaited southern mount will balk 

 at first when he sees the H-F Bar 

 corral and its motley aggregation being 

 roped and cinched. All shapes and 

 sizes and colors from the speckled 



[74] 



