| OCR Text |
Show Mile High City 135 into a little basin where earlier in the year had been a lake. The grass was green and soft nearly to the horses' knees. The pines grew magnificently high, and the sky was blue, blue. We loped through, all of us, and beating through my ecstasy ran the words [from Kipling's "Recessional"]: Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet Lest we forget, lest we forget.' Today when I was about half-way up, I suddenly saw a high-antlered buck. He started up the path ahead of me, leaped over into the bushes, and on up the other side of the gully. He was joined by two other, younger bucks. They bounded over towards a clump of bushes and suddenly stopped still. Then for half an hour we had an endurance contest. They watched me and I watched them across the ravine. They scarcely moved at all. Finally they took a few steps and stopped, and then a few more, and stopped. Then slowly and quietly they made their way up the hillside and over the ridge. Later, I saw a doe and twin fawns, all silhouetted along the ridge, and as I began to walk into the quaking asps, a flock of grouse flew noisily to the high branches. A few moments later I frightened another deer out of the thicket and up the hill ahead of me. You will know my delight in all these experiences after I had rested at the top of the main hill and watched the sunset. I strode down the hill, feeling strong and mighty. It was growing dusk under the trees, but I stopped at our own little grove and lay there on the leafy mold looking up at the trees and the sky and loving you. That is the grove where we have lain several times, and where once you lay and I sat up very straight. I read the letter you sent me today. I wished you were there so that we could just go to sleep in the peace and quiet and fast gathering chill. I shall never be satisfied till we spend a night there. I came down the hill quite rapidly, enjoying the "long" view of the mountains all around. Most of all I enjoyed the slim feeling I had and the sureness of my feet in my old hik- |
