240 MUSICAL AMUSEMENT. Book II. 
times neglected my duty on guard. On the high plateaus 
of New Mexico, five to seven thousand feet above the level 
of the sea, the intense cold in October and November also 
greatly increased the discomforts of these nocturnal mili- 
tary herdsman's duties, from which no one who travels in 
these caravans is exempt, unless, like Mr. Mayer, he is ac- 
companied by his wife. But as in the United States apart 
of the privileges which ladies enjoy extend to their husbands 
or cavaliers, the courtesy of the drivers has introduced the 
considerate practice, on the prairie-roads, of exempting a 
husband travelling with his wife from sharing these night- 
watches. Mr. Mayer was, in consequence, in a most 
enviable position ; and as often as a comparison of his lot 
with mine forced itself upon me when on guard, Leporello's 
" Kerne Ruh' bei Tag und Nacht " (no rest day or night), 
resounded in my ear, and I involuntarily fell to humming 
the air. Moreover the snail's pace of Time daring these 
night-watches called up all kinds of musical recollections, 
from my early childhood till the time of my departure from 
Europe. My voice soon awakened the echo of the prairie- 
wolves, and their howling and whining lasted till morning. 
My musical amusements were properly against rule, and 
in the most dangerous parts I was obliged to forego them : 
instead, therefore, I chose astronomy as a pastime, and was 
soon enabled, by the help of the stars, to calculate the expi- 
ration of my time on guard within ten minutes, and to 
succeed in retracing my road in the dark to the camp, 
across the prairie or through a Mexican chaparral, from 
the herd grazing at a mile distant. 
On the whole, the rude and hard life on such a journey 
through the wilderness has great charms, which may gain a 
fascinating power over the mind ; and at the moment I am 
writing this I indeed scarcely know whether they do not 
