AIN TO PEAK

From hot low sands aflame with heat,
From crackling cedars dripping odorous gum,
I ride to set my burning feet
On heights whence Uncompagre's waters hum,
From rock to rock, and run
As white as wool.

My panting horse sniffs on the breeze
The water smell, too faint for me to know;
But I can see afar the trees,
Which tell of grasses where the asters blow,
And columbines and clover bending low
Are honey-full.

I catch the gleam of snow-fields, bright
As burnished shields of tempered steel,
And round each sovereign lonely height
I watch the storm-clouds vault and reel,
Heavy with hail and trailing
Veils of sleet.

"Hurrah, my faithful! soon you shall plunge
Your burning nostril to the bit in snow;
Soon you shall rest where foam-white waters lunge
From cliff to cliff, and you shall know
No more of hunger or the flame of sand
Or windless desert's heat!"

CHAPTER III

ON THE STAGE ROAD

On the third day of May, after a whole forenoon of packing and
"fussing," we made our start and passed successfully over some
fourteen miles of the road. It was warm and beautiful, and we felt
greatly relieved to escape from the dry and dusty town with its
conscienceless horse jockeys and its bibulous teamsters.

As we mounted the white-hot road which climbed sharply to the
northeast, we could scarcely restrain a shout of exultation. It was
perfect weather. We rode good horses, we had chosen our companions,
and before us lay a thousand miles of trail, and the mysterious gold
fields of the far-off Yukon. For two hundred and twenty miles the
road ran nearly north toward the town of Quesnelle, which was the
trading camp for the Caribou Mining Company. This highway was filled
with heavy teams, and stage houses were frequent. We might have gone
by the river trail, but as the grass was yet young, many of the
outfits decided to keep to the stage road.

We made our first camp beside the dusty road near the stage barn, in
which we housed our horses. A beautiful stream came down from the
hills near us. A little farther up the road a big and hairy
Californian, with two half-breed assistants, was struggling with
twenty-five wild cayuses. Two or three campfires sparkled near.

There was a vivid charm in the scene. The poplars were in tender
leaf. The moon