they were not supposed to be of equal antiquity with the night born gods that s what she did repeated it word for word and i forgot the for it was solemn a declaration of religion � pagan if you will and clothed in the living of herself and the rest of it was torn away she added a great in her voice it was only a scrap of newspaper but that was a wise man i wish i knew more about him she stopped a moment and i swear her face was holy as she said i could have made him a good wife and then she went on i knew right away as soon as i read that what was the matter with me i was a night bom i who had lived all my life with the day bom was a night bom that was why i had never been satisfied with and that was why i had the night born to run naked in the moonlight and i knew that this dirty little joint was no place for me and right there and then i said i quit i packed up my few rags of clothes and started saw me and tried to stop me what you doing he says you and me i says i m for tall timber and where i belong no you don t he says reaching for me to stop me the has got on your head you listen to me talk before you up and do anything but i pulled a gun � a little s � and says this does my for me and i left emptied his glass and called for another boys do you know what that did she was twenty two she had spent her life over the dish pan and she knew no more about the world than i do of the fourth or the fifth all roads led to her desire no she did n t head for the dance halls on the pan handle it is to travel by water she went down to the beach an indian was start the night born for � you know the kind carved out of a single tree narrow and deep and sixty feet long she gave them a couple of dollars and got on board romance she told me it was romance from the jump there were three families altogether in that and that crowded there was n t room to around with dogs and indian babies over everything and everybody dipping a and making that go and all around the great solemn and tangled of clouds and sunshine and oh the silence the great wonderful silence and once the smoke of a hunter s camp away off in the distance trailing among the trees it was like a a grand and i could see my dreams coming true and i was ready for something to happen most any time and it did and that first camp on the island and the boys fish in the mouth of the creek and the big deer one of the shot just around the point and there were flowers everywhere and in back from the beach the grass was thick and and neck high and some of the girls went this with me and we climbed the behind and picked and roots that the night born tasted sour and were good to cat and we came upon a big bear in the making his supper and he said and ran away as scared as we were and then the camp and the camp smoke and the smell of fresh cooking it was beautiful i was with the night bom at last and i knew that was where i belonged and for the first time in my life it seemed to me i went to bed happy that night looking out under a comer of the canvas at the stars cut off black by a big shoulder of mountain and listening to the night noises and knowing that the same thing would go on next day and forever and ever for i was n t going back and i never did go back romance i got it next day we had to cross a big arm of the ocean � twelve or fifteen miles at least and it came on to blow when we were in the middle that night i was along on shore with one wolf dog and i was the only one left alive picture it yourself broke off to say the was wrecked and lost and everybody to death on the rocks except her she went ashore hanging on to a dog s tail escaping the rocks and washing up on a tiny the only one in miles the night born t for me it was the she l so i headed right away back through the woods and over the mountains and straight on anywhere seemed i was looking for something and knew i d find it i was n t afraid i was ni t bom and the big timber could n t kill me and on the second day i found it i came upon a small clearing and a cabin nobody had been there for years and years the roof had fallen in blankets lay in the and pots and were on the stove but that was not the most curious thing outside along the edge of the trees you can t guess what i found the of eight horses each tied to a tree they had starved to death i reckon and left only little piles of bones scattered some here and there and each horse had had a load on its back there the loads lay in among the bones � painted canvas and inside and inside the � what do you think i she stopped reached under a comer of the bed among the boughs and pulled out 