fter him, and shoot like lightning from insecure
footing. His idiosyncrasies were as strongly impressed on me as the fact
that human beings walk upright. Here, however, I had to revise my ideas.

We drove down the avenue of palms, pursued by four or five yapping
dachshunds, and so out into a long, narrow lane between pasture fences.
Herds of ponies, fuzzy in their long winter coats, came gently to look
at us. The sun was high now, so the fur of their backs lay flat. Later,
in the chill of evening, the hair would stand out like the nap of
velvet, thus providing for additional warmth by the extra air space
between the outside of the coat and the skin. It must be very handy to
carry this invisible overcoat, ready for the moment's need. Here, too,
were cattle standing about. On many of them I recognized the familiar
J-I brand of many of my Arizona experiences. Arizona bred and raised
them; California fattened them for market. We met a cowboy jingling by
at his fox trot; then came to the country road.

Along this we drove for some miles. The country was perfectly flat, but
variegated by patches of greasewood, of sagebrush, of Egyptian-corn
fields, and occasionally by a long, narrow fringe of trees. Here, too,
were many examples of that phenomenon so vigorously doubted by most
Easterners: the long rows of trees grown from original cotton wood or
poplar fence posts. In the distance always were the mountains. Overhead
the sky was very blue. A number of buzzards circled.

After a time we turned off the road and into a country covered over with
tumbleweed, a fine umber red growth six or eight inches high, and
scattered sagebrush. Inlets, bays, and estuaries of bare ground ran
everywhere. The Captain stood up to drive, watching for the game to
cross these bare places.

I stood up, too. It is no idle feat to ride the Invigorator thus over
hummocky ground. It lurched and bumped and dropped into and out of
trouble; and in correspondence I alternately rose up and sat down again,
hard. The Captain rode the storm without difficulty. He was accustomed
to the Invigorator; and, too, he had the reins to hang on by.

"There they go!" said he, suddenly, bringing the team to a halt.

I looked ahead. Across a ten-foot barren ran the quail, their crests
cocked forward, their trim figures held close as a sprinter goes, rank
after rank, their heads high in the alert manner of quail.

The Captain sat down, jerked off the brake, and spoke to h