in a short and shallow cañon on the front of oppapago running eastward toward the sun, one may find a clear brown stream called the creek of piñon pines. that is not because it is unusual to find piñon trees on oppapago, but because there are so few of them in the cañon of the stream. there are all sorts higher up on the slopes,—long-leaved yellow pines, thimble cones, tamarack, silver fir and douglas spruce; but here there is only a group of the low-heading, gray nut pines which the earliest inhabitants of that country called piñons.
the cañon of piñon pines has a pleasant outlook and lies open to the sun, but there is not much other cause for the forest rangers to remember it. at the upper end there is no more room by the stream border than will serve for a cattle trail; willows grow in it, choking the path of the water; there are brown birches here and ropes of white clematis tangled over thickets of brier rose. low down the ravine broadens out to inclose a meadow the width of a lark's flight, blossomy and wet and good. here the stream ran once in a maze of soddy banks and watered all the ground, and afterward ran out at the cañon's mouth across the mesa in a wash of bone-white boulders as far as it could. that was not very far, for it was a slender stream. it had its source really on the high crests and hollows of oppapago, in the snow banks that melted and seeped downward through the rocks; but the stream did not know any more of that than you know of what happened to you before you were born, and could give no account of itself except that it crept out from under a great heap of rubble far up in the cañon of the piñon pines. and because it had no pools in it deep enough for trout, and no trees on its borders but gray nut pines; because, try as it might, it could never get across the mesa to the town, the stream had fully made up its mind to run away.
"pray what good will that do you?" said the pines. "if you get to the town, they will turn you into an irrigating ditch and set you to watering crops."
"as to that," said the stream, "if i once get started i will not stop at the town." then it would fret between its banks until the spangled frills of the mimulus were all tattered with its spray. often at the end of the summer it was worn quite thin and small with running, and not able to do more than reach the meadow.
"but some day," it whispered to the stones, "i shall run quite away."
if the stream had been inclined for it, there was no lack of good company on its own borders. birds nested in the willows, rabbits came to drink; one summer a bobcat made its lair up the bank opposite the brown birches, and often deer fed in the meadow. then there was a promise of better things. in the spring of one year two old men came up into the canon of piñon pines. they had been miners and partners together for many years, they had grown rich and grown poor, and had seen many hard places and strange times. it was a day when the creek ran clear and the south wind smelled of the earth. wild bees began to whine among the willows, and the meadow bloomed over with poppy-breasted larks. then said one of the old men, "here is good meadow and water enough; let us build a house and grow trees. we are too old to dig in the mines."
"let us set about it," said the other; for that is the way with two who have been a long time together: what one thinks of, the other is for doing. so they brought their possessions and made a beginning that day, for they felt the spring come on warmly in their blood; they wished to dig in the earth and handle it.
these two men who, in the mining camps where they were known, were called "shorty" and "long tom," and had almost forgotten that they had other names, built a house by the water border and planted trees. shorty was all for an orchard, but long tom preferred vegetables. so they did each what he liked, and were never so happy as when walking in the garden in the cool of the day, touching the growing things as they walked and praising each other's work.
"this will make a good home for our old age," said long tom, "and when we die we can be buried here."
"under the piñon pines," said shorty. "i have marked out a place."
so they were very happy for three years. by this time the stream had become so interested it had almost forgotten about running away. but every year it noted that a larger bit of the meadow was turned under and planted, and more and more the men made dams and ditches to govern its running.
"in fact," said the stream, "i am being made into an irrigating ditch before i have had my fling in the world. i really must make a start."
that very winter by the help of a great storm it went roaring down the meadow over the mesa, and so clean away, with only a track of muddy sand to show the way it had gone. all the winter, however, shorty and long tom brought water for drinking from a spring, and looked for the stream to come back. in the spring they hoped still, for that was the season they looked for the orchard to bear. but no fruit set on the trees, and the seeds long tom planted shriveled in the earth. so by the end of summer, when they understood that the water would not come back at all, they went sadly away.
now what happened to the creek of piñon pines is not very well known to any one, for the stream is not very clear on that point, except that it did not have a happy time. it went out in the world on the wings of the storm and was very much tossed about and mixed up with other waters, lost and bewildered. everywhere it saw water at work, turning mills, watering fields, carrying trade, falling as hail, rain, and snow, and at the last, after many journeys, found itself creeping out from under the rocks of oppapago in the canon of piñon pines. immediately the little stream knew itself and recalled clearly all that had happened to it before.
"after all, home is best," said the stream, and ran about in its choked channels looking for old friends. the willows were there, but grown shabby and dying at the top; the birches were quite dead, but stood still in their places; and there was only rubbish where the white clematis had been. even the rabbits had gone away. the little stream ran whimpering in the meadow, fumbling at the ruined ditches to comfort the fruit-trees which were not quite dead. it was very dull in those days living in the canon of piñon pines.
"but it is really my own fault," said the stream. so it went on repairing the borders with the best heart it could contrive.
about the time the white clematis had come back to hide the ruin of the brown birches, a young man came and camped with his wife and child in the meadow. they were looking for a place to make a home. they looked long at the meadow, for shorty and long tom had taken away their house and it did not appear to belong to any one.
"what a charming place!" said the young wife, "just the right distance from town, and a stream all to ourselves. and look, there are fruit-trees already planted. do let us decide to stay."
then she took off the child's shoes and stockings to let it play in the stream. the water curled all about the bare feet and gurgled delightedly.
"ah, do stay," begged the happy water, "i can be such a help to you, for i know how a garden should be irrigated in the best manner."
the child laughed and stamped the water up to his bare knees. the young wife watched anxiously while her husband walked up and down the stream border and examined the fruit-trees.
"it is a delightful place," he said, "and the soil is rich, but i am afraid the water cannot be depended upon. there are signs of a great drought within the last two or three years. look, there is a clump of birches in the very path of the stream, but all dead; and the largest limbs of the fruit-trees have died. in this country one must be able to make sure of the water supply. i suppose the people who planted them must have abandoned the place when the stream went dry. we must go on farther." so they took their goods and the child and went on farther.
"ah, well," said the stream, "that is what is to be expected when one has a reputation for neglecting one's duty. but i wish they had stayed. that baby and i understood each other."
he had quite made up his mind not to run away again, though he could not be expected to be quite cheerful after all that had happened; in fact, if you go yourself to the cañon of the piñon pines you will notice that the stream, where it goes brokenly about the meadow, has quite a mournful sound.
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