solitary place have part,
and the desert then does in truth blossom as the rose. And how
comforting are the blossoms of the desert when at last they have come!
When the sun has sunk behind the rim of the verdure-less range of
granite hills that westward bound my view, and the palpitating light
of the night's first stars shines out in the tender afterglow, I love
to linger on the cooling sands and touch my cheek to the flowers. Now
has the desert shaken off the livery of death, and ... is become an
abiding place of hope.

CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS,
in _Blossoms of the Desert._

APRIL 7.

There had been no hand to lay a wreath upon his tomb. But soon, as
if the weeping skies had scattered seeds of pity, tiny flowerets,
yellow, blue, red, and white, were sprouting on the sides of the
grave. * * * A delicious perfume filled the air. The desert cemetery
was now a place of beauty as well as a place of peace. But the silence
and solitude remained unbroken, except when a long-tailed lizard
scurried through the undergrowth, or a big horned toad, white and
black, like patterned enamel, took a blinking peep of melancholy
surprise into the yawning ditch that blocked his accustomed way.

EDMUND MITCHELL,
in _In Desert Keeping._

APRIL 8.

To those who know the desert's heart, and through years of closest
intimacy--have learned to love it in all its moods; it has for them
something that is greater than charm, more lasting than beauty a
something to which no man can give a name. Speech is not needed, for
they who are elect to love these things understand one another without
words; and the desert speaks to them through its silence.

IDAH MEACHAM STROBRIDGE,
in _Miner's Mirage Land._

At length I struck upon a spot where a little stream of water was
oozing out from the bank of sand. As I scraped away the surface I saw
something which would have made me dance for joy had I not been
weighed down by the long boots. For there, in very truth, was a live
Olive, with its graceful shell and a beautiful pearl-colored body.

JOSIAH KEEP,
in _West Coast Shells._

APRIL 9.

DESERT DUST.

With all its heat and dust the desert has its charms. The desert dust
is dusty dust, but not dirty dust. Compared with the awful organic
dust of New York, London, or Paris, it is inorganic and pure. On those
strips of the Libyan and Arabian deserts which lie along the Nile, the
desert dust is largely made up of the residuum o