running along ledges full
gallop when they're only a few inches wide."

"Oh, I don't know; he hadn't got that queer cock of the eye that he has
when he's spinning a yarn."

"Well, no; but it was a good deal like throwing the hatchet. Didn't you
see how serious your father looked?"

"Yes, but not so serious as your father did when Griggs declared that
he'd seen flocks of those sheep running away from people stalking them
till they got to the edges of the precipices where they could go no
farther; and then jump down head first so as to come on the great thick
twisted horns which cover their foreheads, and bounce up again, and go
on running along a lower part."

"Yes, I saw. Why, a big, heavy sheep if he came down like that would
break his horns."

"Break his horns!" cried Ned. "He'd break his neck."

"I should like to shoot one of those fellows," said Chris.

"Or be below when one of them jumped, came down on his head, and broke
his neck," said Ned. "I say, mutton--neck of mutton--leg of mutton!
Wouldn't a good roast joint be a treat?"

"Oh, what a fellow you are for thinking about eating!" cried Chris
impatiently.

"And so are you for drinking," replied Ned. "You're always on the
lookout for water."

"Well, we must drink a great deal in such a thirsty land."

"Yes, and we must eat a deal to keep up one's strength," said Ned. "I
can't help getting hungry when we're walking about so much. I suppose
it's because I'm growing fast."

"Yea, that's it," said Chris, smiling. "I get very hungry too. It's
all right; I won't laugh at you any more. I say, what lots of those
little gophers there are here. Look there; why, there must be about a
hundred up on that patch of sandy ground. Watching us to see if we're
coming, and ready to pop into their holes."

"I see them. There's one of those little round tots of owls sitting
there too just outside the burrow. It's quite comic to see the gophers
living so sociably with the little owls."

Chris gave a shout just then, and the colony of little burrowing animals
resembling the marmots of the Alps disappeared into their holes with an
accompaniment of angry warning whistles, just as a huge eagle came
sailing along overhead, swooping so near that a good marksman could
easily have brought it down.

"Seems a pity to go away from a place where there's so much to see,"
said Chris, after a time. "And what for? To find gold. Well, it's
only yellow metal. We mig