is hearers with impressive dignity.

"Cold ain't nothin'," he continued gravely, "after you git used to
it; but once in a while, ladies, she snows up there. And when I say
'snows' I don't refer to such phenominer as Bill was tellin' about up
in Coloraydo, but the real genuwine Arizona article--the kind that
gits started and can't stop, no more 'n a cloudburst. Well, one time I
was knockin' around up there in Coconino when I ought to've been at
home, and I come to a big plain or perairie that was _seventy miles
across_, and I got lost on that big plain, right in the dead of
winter. They was an awful cold wind blowin' at the time, but I could
see the mountains on the other side and so I struck out for 'em. But
jest as I got in the middle of that great plain or perairie, she come
on to snow. At first she come straight down, kinder soft and fluffy;
then she began to beat in from the sides, and the flakes began to git
bigger and bigger, until I felt like the Chinaman that walked down
Main Street when they had that snow-storm in Tucson. Yes, sir, it was
jest like havin' every old whiskey bum in town soakin' you with
snow-balls--and all the kids thrown in.

"My horse he began to puff and blow and the snow began to bank up
higher and higher in front of us and on top of us until, bymeby, he
couldn't stand no more, and he jest laid down and died. Well, of
course that put me afoot and I was almost despairin'. The snow was
stacked up on top of me about ten feet deep and I was desprit, but I
kept surgin' right ahead, punchin' a hole through that fluffy stuff,
until she was twenty foot deep. But I wasn't afraid none--ump-um, not
me--I jest kept a-crawlin' and a-crawlin', hopin' to find some rocks
or shelter, until she stacked up on top of me thirty foot deep.
_Thirty foot_--and slumped down on top o' me until I felt like a
horny-toad under a haystack. Well, I was gittin' powerful weak and
puny, but jest as I was despairin' I come across a big rock, right out
there in the middle of that great plain or perairie. I tried to crawl
around that old rock but the snow was pushin' down so heavy on top o'
me I couldn't do nothin', and so when she was _fif-ty-two foot deep_
by actual measurement I jest give out an' laid down to die."

He paused and fixed a speculative eye on Bill Lightfoot.

"I reckon that would be considered pretty deep up in Coloraydo," he
suggested, and then he began to roll a cigarette. Sitting in rigid
postures before