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Show 40 BY PATH AND TRAIL. ble conspiracy" could not turn a hair on the hide of his serene equanimity. No mountain goat, leaping from rock to rock, can give him pointers. He is contentment and self- possession personified; he will eat and digest what a mule dare not touch and will thrive where a horse will starve. Work? I have seen hills of fodder moving on the highway and thought with Festus that too much learning had made me mad, till on closer examination I perceived, fore and aft of these hills, enormous ears and scrawny, wriggling tails and under the hills little hoofs, the size of ordinary ink bottles. Down the dangerous mountain trails his head is always level, his feet sure as those of flies and his judgment unerring. His mus cles and nerves are of steel, his blood cool as quicksilver in January, and his hold on life as tenacious as that of a buffalo cat. But more than all this, the burro is one of the pioneers and openers of civilization in Mexico and the Southwest. Patiently and without protest or com plaint he has carried the packs of the explorers, pros pectors, surveyors and settlers of uninhabited plateaus and highlands. With his endurance, his co- operation and reliability, it became possible to profitably work the sil ver mines of Mexico land the copper mines of Arizona. He helped to build railroads over the Sierras and across the plains and deserts of New Mexico, California and Arizona. He brought settlers into New Mexico, into Arizona and the Pacific lands, and with settlers came progress and development, peace, education and pros perity. Therefore, all hail to the burro! In grateful recognition of his kindness to me I owe him this commen datory tribute. He has done more for civilization in these lands than many a senator in the halls of the capi-tol or LL. D. from the chair of Harvard. |
