t a word being spoken; but by this, a little hand sought
mine in various affectionate squeezes, and a pair of very sore eyes
looked up with confidence, and what was lacking in words, she made up in
shy smiles. Poor little Hopi kiddie! Will your man "be bad boy," too, by
and by? Will you acquire the best, or the worst, of the white
civilization that is encroaching on your tenacious, conservative race?
After all, you are better off, little kiddie, a thousand fold, than if
you were a street gamin in the vicious gutters of New York.

By this, what with wind, and sand, and the weight of a kodak and a
purse, and the hard ascent, one of the two climbers has to pause for
breath; and what do you think that eight-year-old bit of small humanity
does? Turns to give me a helping hand. That is too much for gravity. I
laugh and she laughs and after that, I think she would have given me
both hands and both feet and her soul to boot. She offers to carry my
kodak and films and purse; and for three hours, I let her. Can you
imagine yourself letting a New York, or Paris, or London street gamin
carry your purse for three hours? Yet the Laguna people had told me to
look out for myself. I'd find the Acomas uncommonly sharp.

That climb is as easy to the Acomas as your home stairs to you; but it's
a good deal more arduous to the outsider than a climb up the whole
length of the Washington Monument, or up the Metropolitan Tower in New
York; but it is all easily possible. Where the sand merges to stone, are
handhold niches as well as stone steps; and where the rock steps are too
steep, are wooden ladders. At last, we swing under a great overhanging
stone--splendid weapon if the Navajos had come this way in old days, and
splendid place for slaughter of the Spanish soldiers, who scaled Acoma
two centuries ago--up a tier of stone steps, and we are on top of the
white limestone Mesa, in the town of Acoma, with its 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
streets, and its 1st, 2nd, and 3rd story houses, the first roof reached
by a movable ladder, the next two roofs by stone steps.

I shall not attempt to describe the view from above. Take Washington's
Shaft; multiply by two, set it down in Sahara Desert, climb to the top
and look abroad! That is the view from Acoma. Is the trip worth while?
Is mountain climbing worth while? Do you suppose half a hundred people
would yearly break their necks in Switzerland if climbing were not worth
while? As Hill Ki said when I asked him w