s finished."

The stories of flies and mosquitoes gave me more trouble than
anything else, but a surveyor who had had much experience in this
Northwestern country recommended the use of oil of pennyroyal, mixed
with lard or vaseline. "It will keep the mosquitoes and most of the
flies away," he said. "I know, for I have tried it. You can't wear a
net, at least I never could. It is too warm, and then it is always in
your way. You are in no danger from beasts, but you will curse the
day you set out on this trail on account of the insects. It is the
worst mosquito country in the world."

THE GIFT OF WATER

"Is water nigh?"
The plainsmen cry,
As they meet and pass in the desert grass.
With finger tip
Across the lip
I ask the sombre Navajo.
The brown man smiles and answers "Sho!"[1]
With fingers high, he signs the miles
To the desert spring,
And so we pass in the dry dead grass,
Brothers in bond of the water's ring.

[Footnote 1: Listen. Your attention.]

MOUNTING

I mount and mount toward the sky,
The eagle's heart is mine,
I ride to put the clouds a-by
Where silver lakelets shine.
The roaring streams wax white with snow,
The eagle's nest draws near,
The blue sky widens, hid peaks glow,
The air is frosty clear.
_And so from cliff to cliff I rise,_
_The eagle's heart is mine;_
_Above me ever broadning skies,_
_Below the rivers shine._

THE EAGLE TRAIL

From rock-built nest,
The mother eagle, with a threatning tongue,
Utters a warning scream. Her shrill voice rings
Wild as the snow-topped crags she sits among;
While hovering with her quivering wings
Her hungry brood, with eyes ablaze
She watches every shadow. The water calls
Far, far below. The sun's red rays
Ascend the icy, iron walls,
And leap beyond the mountains in the west,
And over the trail and the eagle's nest
The clear night falls.

CHAPTER V

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BLUE RAT

_Camp Twelve_

Next morning as we took the boat--which was filled with horses wild
and restless--I had a moment of exultation to think we had left the
way of tin cans and whiskey bottles, and were now about to enter upon
the actual trail. The horses gave us a great deal of trouble on the
boat, but we managed to get across safely without damage to any part
of our outfit.