- Libros en formato MOBI -
The
Last of The Plainsmen
One afternoon,
far out on the sun-baked waste of sage, we made
camp near a clump of withered pinyon trees. The
cold desert wind came down upon us with the
sudden darkness. Even the Mormons, who were
finding the trail for us across the drifting
sands, forgot to sing and pray at sundown. We
huddled round the campfire, a tired and silent
little group. When out of the lonely, melancholy
night some wandering Navajos stole like shadows
to our fire, we hailed their advent with delight.
They were good-natured Indians, willing to
barter a blanket or bracelet; and one of them, a
tall, gaunt fellow, with the bearing of a chief,
could speak a little English.
"How," said he, in a deep chest voice.
"Hello, Noddlecoddy," greeted Jim Emmett, the
Mormon guide.
"Ugh!" answered the Indian.
"Big paleface—Buffalo Jones—-big chief—buffalo
man," introduced Emmett, indicating Jones.
"How." The Navajo spoke with dignity, and
extended a friendly hand.
"Jones big white chief—rope buffalo—tie up tight,"
continued Emmett, making motions with his arm,
as if he were whirling a lasso.
"No big—heap small buffalo," said the Indian,
holding his hand level with his knee, and
smiling broadly....
Wildfire
For some reason the desert scene before
Lucy Bostil awoke varying emotions—a sweet
gratitude for the fullness of her life there at
the Ford, yet a haunting remorse that she could
not be wholly content—a vague loneliness of
soul—a thrill and a fear for the strangely
calling future, glorious, unknown.
She longed for something to happen. It might be
terrible, so long as it was wonderful. This day,
when Lucy had stolen away on a forbidden horse,
she was eighteen years old. The thought of her
mother, who had died long ago on their way into
this wilderness, was the one drop of sadness in
her joy. Lucy loved everybody at Bostil's Ford
and everybody loved her. She loved all the
horses except her father's favorite racer, that
perverse devil of a horse, the great Sage King.
Lucy was glowing and rapt with love for all she
beheld from her lofty perch: the green-and-pink
blossoming hamlet beneath her, set between the
beauty of the gray sage expanse and the
ghastliness of the barren heights; the swift
Colorado sullenly thundering below in the abyss;
the Indians in their bright colors, riding up
the river trail; the eagle poised like a feather
on the air, and a beneath him the grazing cattle
making black dots on the sage; the deep velvet
azure of the sky; the golden lights on the bare
peaks and the lilac veils in the far ravines;
the silky rustle of a canyon swallow as he shot
downward in the sweep of the wind; the fragrance
of cedar, the flowers of the spear-pointed
mescal; the brooding silence, the beckoning
range, the purple distance....
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