I could live at ease. As I sat with the stones
glistening in the light before my eyes, my brain grew fevered.
Leaving my hat and coat on the ground, I ran towards my horse, and,
vaulting on his bare back, wildly galloped to and fro, that the
breezes might cool my fevered head. Rich? Oh, how I had worked and
striven! Life had hitherto been a hard fight. When I had gathered
together a few dollars, I had been prostrated with malarial or some
other fever, and they had flown. After two or three months of
enforced idleness I had had to start the battle of life afresh with
diminished funds. Now the past was dead; I could rest from strife.
Rest! How sweet it sounded as I repeated aloud the precious word, and
the distant echoes brought back the word, Rest!
I was awakened from my day dreams by being thrown from my horse! Hope
for the future had so taken possession of me that the present was
forgotten. I had not seen the caves of the prairie dog, but my horse
had given a sudden start aside to avoid them, and I found myself
licking the dust. Bather a humiliating position for a man to be in
who had just found unlimited wealth; Somewhat subdued, I made my way
back to my solitary encampment.
Well, how shall I conclude this short but pregnant chapter of my
life?
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