Page:Honore Willsie--Judith of the godless valley.djvu/177

 knew more about how a fellow could get happiness out of life than any one."

"Nobody in the Valley knows as much as Inez."

"Do you call her happy?"

"No; she's really sad. That's why she knows what real happiness is."

"Judith, how do you suppose Inez will end?"

"Over in the cemetery with a coyote-proof grave like the rest of us. And I ask you, Doug, since that's the end of it, why worry?"

"That's the very reason I worry! Life is so short and if we don't find happiness here, we are clean out of luck, forever."

Judith spurred the nervous Whoop-la into five minutes of active bucking, then she leaped from the saddle and came to perch on the fence beside Douglas. Her gaze wandered from his wistful face to the eternal crimson and orange clouds rolling across Fire Mesa.

"Outside of my riding," she said slowly, "I get most happiness out of my eyes."

Douglas followed her gaze. "Inez likes it too."

Judith nodded. "She got me to using my eyes years ago. She's a funny person. Reads almost nothing but poetry. She's got one she always quotes when she and I are looking at Fire Mesa."

"What is it?" asked Doug.

"I don't know but one verse: