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Jean pondered over this letter Judged by memory of his father, who had always been self-sufficient, it had been a surprise and somewhat of a shock Weeks of travel and reflection had not helped hirowin' old,"a warmth and a sadness stir in him "He must be 'way over sixty But he never looked old So he's rich now an' losin' stock, an' goin' to be sheeped off his range Dad could stand a lot of rustlin', but not ed into a cold, thoughtful earnestness which had followed every perusal of his father's letter A dark, full current see in his veins, and at ti hier self, opposed to his careless, free, and dreaon, except love for the great, still forests and the thundering rivers; and this love came from his softer side It had cost him a wrench to leave And all the way by ship down the coast to San Diego and across the Sierra Madres by stage, and so on to this last overland travel by horseback, he had felt a retreating of the self that was tranquil and happy and a do possibilities Yet despite a naon, when he lay in his blankets he had to confess a keen interest in his adventurous future, a keen enjoyment of this stark, wild Arizona It appeared to be a different sky stretching in dark, star-spangled dorance of sage and cedar floated over him with the cahts

At dawn he rolled out of his blankets and, pulling on his boots, began the day with a zest for the work thatfrost and cold, nipping air were the same keen spurs to action that he had known in the uplands of Oregon, yet they were not wholly the same He sensed an exhilaration si, sine His horse andbeen rass and water of the little canyon Jean ladness that at last he had put the endless leagues of barren land behind him

The trail he followed appeared to be seldoer information obtainable at the last settlement, directly to as called the Rim, and from there Grass Valley could be seen down in the Basin The ascent of the ground was so gradual that only in long, open stretches could it be seen But the nature of the vegetation showed Jean hoas cliave place to h, full-foliaged, green-berried trees Sage and grass in the open flats grewthem the checker-barked junipers Jean hailed the first pine tree with a hearty slap on the brown, rugged bark It was a ser, and after that came several, and beyond them pines stood up everywhere above the lower trees Odor of pine needles led with the other dry smells that made the wind pleasant to Jean In an hour from the first line of pines he had ridden beyond the cedars and pinyons into a slowly thickening and deepening forest Underbrush appeared scarce except in ravines, and the ground in open patches held a bleached grass Jean's eye roved for sight of squirrels, birds, deer, or anycreature It appeared to be a dry, uninhabited forest About midday Jean halted at a pond of surface water, evidently ave his animals a drink He saw a few old deer tracks in the e bird tracks new to him which he concluded must have been made by wild turkeys