Show the key hole by the desert rat As I 1 sat on the back of old sure foot as he slowly wound his way over the desert sands and through the canyons I 1 had a lot of time to think of and enjoy all the of nature the vast wilderness of desert waste the mountains the canyons with the lowering towering walls of hundreds of feet high the golden sunrises and sunsets the smell of the sage brush or pine camp fire the aroma of the coffee and bacon cooking as the light breeze blew it into your nostrils and the sm smoke oke in your eyes As I 1 looked out on over er this vast desolate area as far as my eyes could see there was not a 1 man being in sight the only life was a little chipmunk or a friendly bizzard looking for a handout hand out from my meal so I 1 wonder where in all the world wo ald you could find a place that was so serene and the symbol of freedom maybe sometime when I 1 am in the mood I 1 will tell you young uranium prospectors how you find riches even though you did not find uranium when I 1 got to town this week as usual I 1 headed for a cafe to get a cup of town coffee and while set ting there enjoying every drop of it I 1 overheard some fellow say have you read the paper and the other fel low said no what s in it and the first man said they cut some fel lows water off well being an old desert rat I 1 became very much interested for water on the desert means life or death as one time many years ago while my brothers and I 1 were prospecting in one of the desert we snared one of the wild burros that were plent plentiful in the area and broke him in as a pack animal and later on while on a short prospecting trip that burro like all of them will eat anything so one day he ate up the water bag and we had to sap a barrel cactus for water until we returned to camp it will keep you alive but don t taste like that henry mountain water so I 1 know just what it means to have your water cut off I 1 noticed there is still a good many weeds that should be cut and since the season is so late and the weeds have died all you have to do now is burn them that is one way to save work but the town would look a lot better better by kli keeping them ct c t 1 the year around I 1 am wondering what all they will find when they do something about cleaning out the municipal trash bowl maybe some lost prospector if they don t get those window 11 gats in the post office building soon there is going to be some cool lodge meeting I 1 often wondered what it took to make a small town newspaper ed aitor I 1 used to have a cripple fr lend that ran a weekly paper ia in a small town ile solved his problem by making his nephew the editor so when some arrate citizen came in to express his dislikes for what was published about him john wo ald always point to his nephew a the editor who was a pretty good size man and much younger as he said that some of the arrate citizens might even jump a cripple I 1 inquired in a round about way how the local editor expected to ban die dle situations like that but guess th ere is no need to worry about him i for I 1 fc and jid out that he was a star high school and big college foot ball player and was also a profession pro fessio al boxer for some time he ably played football against some indian team as it looks like he may have been scalped at some time 0 a these gieger and scintillation cou anter manufacturing companies are getting in the same class as the gill ette safety razor co they give you the razor if you buy their blades they can afford to give given the inspru ments away if you let them repair them the in I 1 can cant t understand why so me company don t make an inspru ment to use around some mine that will 14 work ork more than two or three days at a time without having to take it to a repairman and donate from 10 00 to 50 00 or more to make it work two or three more days while strolling around town look ing the sights over I 1 found a window full of all kinds of rocks in that tex as fellows office in the post office building so I 1 inquired why he did not mark them so people would know what they were ere yc yr know what he told mea me he said it would be another year before he got out of college and he hoped to find out what all of them were by that tune time beats the devil what hat tall tales those texans will tell and expect people to believe them did any of you prospectors ever consider the advantages of using an old mule for prospecting you ou never get a ticket for speeding if ou have a wreck it is seldom serious you don t have to carry gas ohne oline or fill him with gas you don t lave to worry about a puncture un ur less he is in a bad humor and you get too near his heels he can go places only a mountain goat can go and he Is good company around the camp for he is silent and won t talk and keep asking r when you are reading or trying to go to sleep he survives on the desert growth so no feed bill no I 1 in not trying to sell sure foot f pr I 1 have to get back to camp before some of these city guys arys to cut our water off so adios |