stick solved the problem of cooking. Then it was that the little flat
flask, full of mixed salt and pepper, rewarded me for the long carrying
of it. I was hungry, and I feasted.

By this time the sun shone warm, and the canyon was delightful. I roamed
around, sat on sunny stones, and lay in the shade of pines. Deer browsed
in the glades. When they winded or saw me they would stand erect, shoot
up their long cars, and then leisurely lope away. Coyotes trotted out
of thickets and watched me suspiciously. I could have shot several,
but deemed it wise to be saving of my ammunition. Once I heard a low
drumming. I could not imagine what made it. Then a big blue grouse
strutted out of a patch of bushes. He spread his wings and tail and neck
feathers, after the fashion of a turkey-gobbler. It was a flap or shake
of his wings that produced the drumming. I wondered if he intended, by
his actions, to frighten me away from his mate's nest. So I went toward
him, and got very close before he flew. I caught sight of his mate in
the bushes, and, as I had supposed, she was on a nest. Though wanting to
see her eggs or young ones, I resisted the temptation, for I was afraid
if I went nearer she might abandon her nest, as some mother birds do.

It did not seem to me that I was lost, yet lost I was. The peaks were
not in sight. The canyon widened down the slope, and I was pretty sure
that it opened out flat into the great pine forest of Penetier. The only
thing that bothered me was the loss of my mustang and outfit; I could
not reconcile myself to that. So I wandered about with a strange, full
sense of freedom such as I had never before known. What was to be the
end of my adventure I could not guess, and I wasted no time worrying
over it.

The knowledge I had of forestry I tried to apply. I studied the north
and south slopes of the canyon, observing how the trees prospered on the
sunny side. Certain saplings of a species unknown to me had been gnawed
fully ten feet from the ground. This puzzled me. Squirrels could not
have done it, nor rabbits, nor birds. Presently I hit upon the solution.
The bark and boughs of this particular sapling were food for deer, and
to gnaw so high the deer must have stood upon six or seven feet of snow.

I dug into the soft duff under the pines. This covering of the roots
was very thick and deep. I made it out to be composed of pine-needles,
leaves, and earth. It was like a sponge. No wonder such covering held