478 



RECREATION 



hut having oaten of them something will 

 seem forever lacking to me in the kindred 



dishes oi civilization. 



The coming and going of the Indian is 

 mysterious. When you least expect him a 

 horse and rider will be silhouetted against 

 the horizon, followed perhaps by another 



horse before mounting him. I am glad I, 

 did. An athletic young guest of the trader 

 borrowed this horse for a thirty-mile ride. 

 I watched the " playful at first" perform- 

 ance, and if that was play I should hate to 

 be on that pony's back when he was serious 

 about his bucking. 



Here Hans lived with the Painted Desert behind and the Arizona plains around 

 him — "Alone, alone; all, all alone " 



and another, and soon they will be with you. 

 They will come to the store to trade and to 

 gossip and may go away to-day or to-mor- 

 row, or they may not. They will stay for a 

 running or a wrestling match and always 

 be ready to bet on either. They will race 

 ponies or will ride unbroken broncos nntil 

 they cease to be unbroken. Then suddenly 

 they ride away, leaving the photographer 

 with his camera in his hand wondering why 

 he didn't use it. 



On the plains every one is supposed to be 

 a horseman. As applied to me the idea is 

 erroneous. When a horse was offered me 

 by my trader friend I asked if it bucked. 



"Oh, no; he's a little playful at first, but 

 he don't buck." 



I knew that ideas of playfulness in horses 

 differed, and concluded to look into the 

 particular brand of humor possessed by that 



This young man was a crank on the sub- 

 ject of fresh air, and when bedtime came 

 rolled himself up in a Navajo blanket on 

 the prairie, under the stars. Sometimes I 

 listened with favor to his arguments, but one 

 night as I was making my bed beside his 

 on the prairie a rattlesnake crawled out 

 from under his blanket and made threaten- 

 ing demonstrations in my direction. I con- 

 cluded to sleep indoors that night, and it 

 required little persuasion to convert my 

 friend to my way of thinking. 



One is most impressed, perhaps, by the 

 infinite vastness of the landscape, and es- 

 pecially 'at eventide. To any one with an 

 eye for art, with a temperament susceptible 

 to the weird and the dreary, an Arizona 

 landscape in the plains country must at 

 twilight have strong influence. Cloud ef- 

 fects are awe-ccmpelling, the plain vague, 



