The Arizona copper camp., 1919-11-15

l had long, long ride across the
desert before me and l hated riding
in a train. But it had to be, so, re-
signing myself to the inevitable, /
picked out as comfortable looking
seat as 1 could find, and buried myself
in magazine. In vain! The story
seemed watered and lost interest l
watched a woman across the aisle play
with baby, which soon fell asleep.
Then it dawned upon me that I, too,
might be improving my time in Il
similar way. But sleep was an i'm
possibility, it seemed, so l gave up
the idea. To make matters worse,
the train stopped and the conductor
announced that we would be delayed
there for an hour at least l stared
out of the window, and the pretty
scenes that blended into one lovely
for the long hour that we would have
to wait.
uly: lhOuSAl, III lAOhO Wc1o d
wonderful country; and what spirit
was it that had expressed his artis-
tic ability in creating such a Won
derland? My mind pondered over the
the question, and then l blinked,
blinked hard TOO, not once, but many
times, for over the desert from behind
/ n Ioo oon6 ri tb0rn q
straight towards me, four of the odd
est fairy-folk. One Of them was taller
than the rest, heavy SET and sturdy,
and he looked i'll spite of his fairy
appearance like the personification of
strength and fidelity, an odd combi-
nation, but a stranger creature. An
other was dressed in sort of yellow
ish costume and carried bag hung
| by strap over his shoulder. He
was strongl too; fin fact, when /
looked at them all, they seemed en-
dowed with the gift OF extreme en-
durance. Of the other two, one was
! dressed in green, with patches of
brown here and there, and the other
in bIuish-green with tan trimming.
/ Nearer and near they came, until l
| could hear them talk and | learned
that they were the spirits of mountain
and stream, desert and vegetation.
They were holding reunion that
day as they did every year, and
gathered from their conversation the
following story:
Years ago, when the country was
being put together, these four spirits
had been working for a long, long
time They had made the plains as
plains should be, nice and smooth.
The mountains were not so very rug
ged, but rounded off and only gradu-
ally inclined; the rivers were put in
convenient places and would suit any
purpose, and as for vegetation, there
it was-grass and trees galore. 1t
! had been hard task and the suppress
sion of their desire to take the initia-
tive and work as their individual
genius directed had been maddening.
Near the end of their task they had
met on the edge of large barren
rock which it was their duty to fin
ish into inhabitable land. All! what
wonderful basis on which 10 build
a land of beauty-their country of de-
sire These folk, you know, were
very temperamental, and by com
mon impulse they flung care to the
winds and laughed in glorious joy.
They would disregard all rules and
make land according to their de-
sires. But the time was short Away!
like darts sped the happy, guilty four
conspirators.
From his bag of tools, Desert took
his driest sands and coloring it to
suit his fancy at the moment, scat
tered it over the hard cold rock. Here
and there he fitted, dropping mil
lions upon millions of tiny grains un-
til he was quite exhausted, but oh,
SO happy! Meanwhile Mountain has
to any of his teachers warning and
instructions about precedence and
the mOnotony OF fixed rules, he
hurled his mountains here and there,
his soul aflame with the freedom of
his mischief. Up went mountain
chains, and single mountain peaks,
and ragged, jagged cliffs, full of the
spirit of creating genius. And Vege-
tation! Oh, yes! Vegetation put his
freakish creations wherever his fancy
thought best. There was nothing now
that could stop him and all the
stored-up energy of his imprisoned
artistry was loosened and he glorified
in a strange weird mixture of grasses
and cacti and trees and multitude
of odd, but lovely, flowers. In the
meantime Water poured his liquid
treasure in out-of-the-way hooks and
corners in mad delight. Once he