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Show 37 The two climbed through level upon level of rooms. Deer, buffalo and hunters were drawn on the walls. The stone stairs had been chiseled out of the rock. Each individual dwelling was made of stones held together with mortar. Chua settled his mother in one of the best rooms after he had swept it with his sagebrush broom. "I'll find some Snakeroot tomorrow to make you a real broom," Chua said. The room was big and spacious. The hearth was on one wall, nestled in a small ledge large enough to hold baskets and food. Big logs ran across the ceiling to brace the sides of the house, and hold the roof of sticks. The roof had weathered well because it was under the overhang of the cliff. There was a smaller room off to the side with a dusty deer hide crumpled on the floor. Chua knew the hide had been used as a covering for the doorway. Chua shook it, and brushed it off. He spread it out for his mother to lie on. "JtefcKf" k KwvA odkft *- cA-n *(*v*fel "t^ex cLudLrg> , "For now just let me rest," Apa said. "My body is telling me that I can't travel any more until the baby is bom." Chua took the small piece of sheepskin out of Apa's pouch for her to lay her head on. Apa was never without that piece of sheepskin. It was a piece of the dress she wore when she was lost in the desert as a child. It was her comfort. Chua knew mountain sheep were hard to hunt. The person who found that sheep was a mighty hunter and a good mountain climber. Sheepskins were rare and valuable. "I'll go back for the com and water," Chua said. "I don't think I'm clever enough to carry the water on my head and the com baskets on my shoulders at the same time so I'll have to make two trips." |