| Show I 1 the old settler I 1 my dear san Jua Juanc ners rs I 1 had slept on my saddle among the rocks a mile above the seeps and ana had ridden since early day light with nothing at all eat and now at four in the afternoon when I 1 heard that bleating of S she eap in the canyon below I 1 stopped i on the high rim and looked down I 1 could see sec them in the bottom and with them a man plodding about in the mud and wet underbrush I 1 was as hungry as a cor coyote yote tired and sleepy from my nights experience but I 1 still had a good horse to ride I 1 was my own boss no peon to anybody also I 1 had bri bright ht hopes and inviting I 1 prospects and I 1 was still a king in the wondrous wor drous realm cf my own thoughts and feelings that poor slave in the canyon trudging 1 about in the mud after some other I 1 mans sheep living alone alona there like a wolf week af after te week seeing nothing and hearing nothing I 1 to sustain the higher aspirations of his bein being the poor damned soul I 1 pity him all the same I 1 would try to get him the very thought of fried mutten and hot bread impelled me to spurr off over the x rim im and wend my zig zag down the steep hill through the tangled oak brush vas I 1 was among amog abie the scattered ered s sheep h beep when he discovered me and came eagerly to shake my hands what 1 I had surmised about him as a peon when I 1 looked from the top I 1 took now to be accomplished fact this ragged hermit with his shaggy hair and beard his shoes arcin which the soles had worn warn away and he had contrived them into rude moccasins with rawhide bottoms yet there was real light in his eyes when in broken english hs he urged me to come to his camp for supper I 1 needed no urging and as I 1 followed him to the so sheltered helt ered grove where he had his tent I 1 was appraising him through gli depreciative eyes scein seeing 0 him as an obsequious ous slave only a degenerate retaining none of the kingly ambitions which every man should inherit from the creator I 1 found the interior of his tene a revelation of order and cleanliness his bed was neail arranged his camp and utensils carefully in their place two improvised shelves on one side held half a dozen good books and above them hung the photograph of a girl I 1 congratulated him on the appear continued on page 4 THE OLD SETTLER continued from page 1 ance of his dwelling I 1 meant every word of it and I 1 spoke with feeling my interest touched some deep spring in his hidden and he beamed with pleasure as he caught my meaning and he threw off the stoic reserve through which very little had come out so far in his words his face lighted i up with ecstatic emotions as he be began bean an to reveal some of the sacred inwardness of his heart thees ees my cattle he declared seeming to rise iise proudly to greater height as lie he spoke here I 1 am de keen kaeng keeng and leonardo pointing to the photograph she ees de queen 0 si I 1 herda de cheeps I 1 de money leonardo she ees wait for me I 1 beell be de keeng kaeng on de beetle rancho and lecardo he took the photograph I 1 caressingly in his hand 1 leonardo he repeated endearingly she weel be me before my very eyes he had mounted to the dignity and splendor of his waiting throne he had lifted the mask of a peon and let me see his manly face while he prepared supper and while I 1 sat and ate with him by the fire I 1 felt honored in being entertained by a king ALBERT R LYMAN |
