A Basket of Chips: An Autobiography

Basket of Chips, page 108

A Basket of Chips weather, and he arrived all right, and the next morning did his buying and selling and about noon time started home. Soon the bad weather began and travelling was slow and difficult, but he had a good trusty team. The roads were bad, and before he reached the point of the mountain a dreadful blizzard swept the valley and soon the road was completely lost and he had no idea where he was driving. Darkness came on and the cold was intense. Knowing there was but one thing to do to prevent freezing as the wind was in his face, he tied the lines safely to the brake, crawled back into the wagon, covered up with a quilt and left all to providence and the good judgment of the mules. That night there were sixteen men frozen to death in the blizzard while my father was delivered safely to his door. Mules will never leave the road while horses will turn off if they are not controlled by the driver and especially they dislike to face the cold wind. On this night every horse team turned off the road and the wagon was overturned at the first gully they came to. Horses and drivers were soon frozen to death and buried in drifts of snow. The wonderful intelligence of mules is remarkable. It seemed that no matter how many weeks after my father had turned in at a certain spot to camp they would invariably turn in there at passing. Often Father would say, "There are Indians coming." The mules had early word of their approach. I was very interested in this quotation from Emerson Hough: "The ancient desert instinct of the wild ass, brought down through thwarted generations, never had been lost to them. They had foreknowledge of danger long before horses or human beings could suspect it." I3 One of our mules was extremely docile and willing but mostly willing that the other one should pull the load. One day 13 Emerson Hough (1857-1923), American novelist, wildlife conservationist, and promoter of the national parks of the United States, wrote over twenty-four books about the American West. The Cozjeyed Wngon, published in 1922, was made into a silent film in 1923. 108