dae they seemed to vanish from sight if you turned an — 
instant, and even their parents could scarcely have found ~ 
them if they had not told where they were secreted. 
_ Egma decided, at six in the morning that started Betty 
and Becky onward to San Diego, that she would show her _ 
visitor the big madrone. An hour later, with luncheon 
_ strapped on their backs in two of Edward’s bandannas, they _ 
were on their way to the mountain walls. The russet- 
backed thrushes and the Audubon warblers could be heard _ 
on all sides, as they tramped along in the shadow of hills _ 
_ which the sun had not yet climbed. They watched several 
large families of mountain quail, had a visit with a.Traill | : 
_ flyeatcher, and wondered over the bravery of the pileolated 
warbler when a young fledgeling was seen, for the parent 
bird came flying about their heads to give the youngster 
time to get away. It had been four years since Esma and 
Edward had made a trip to this sylvan monarch, but she 
- picked her steps along over the deer paths, finding flat rocks 
or prospect holes to point her road, with a keen woods- 
- woman’s eye. She seemed to see everything and pointed 
out one black hole across the valley from which four _ 
thousand dollars a month, in gold, had been carried out for <4 
years, before the pocket was found to be empty. 
After climbing for two hours, the friends reached a 
‘small clearing on the edge of which towered the giant tree 
_ they were seeking. Its various tops gave a welcome shade 
- from the scorching rays of the sun, as stretched flat upon 
- the ground they marveled at the size of the great green 
tent and enjoyed the beauty of its peeling trunk and arms. 
The forest floor was carpeted with the rich red strips of | 
: its bark and the buffy branches were interlaced in fantastic 
_ patterns above their heads to their tips, where waxen, shin- 
ing leaves were massed. 
Presently a new aoa! phrase ended with Bar 
which had the fine high quality of the vanishing strains 
of a violin and a repeated flute-like echo so vibrant that 
188 
