Chapter 4
THE OASISAUGUST NAAB'S oasis was an oval valley, level as a floor, green
with leaf and white with blossom, enclosed by a circle of colossal
cliffs of vivid vermilion hue. At its western curve the Colorado
River split the red walls from north to south. When the wind was
west a sullen roar, remote as of some far-off driving mill, filled
the valley; when it was east a dreamy hollow hum, a somnolent song,
murmured through the cottonwoods; when no wind stirred, silence
reigned, a silence not of serene plain or mountain fastness, but
shut in, compressed, strange, and breathless. Safe from the storms
of the elements as well as of the world was this Garden of
Eschtah.
Naab had put Hare to bed on the unroofed porch of a log house,
but routed him out early, and when Hare lifte
