snowbound here. It seems that persons who come from a lower altitude to
this country frequently become bewildered, especially if in poor
health, leave the train at any stop and wander off into the hills,
sometimes dying before they are found. The ex-sheriff cited a case,
that of a young German who was returning from the Philippines, where he
had been discharged after the war. He was the only child of his widowed
mother, who has a ranch a few miles from here. No one knew he was
coming home. One day the cook belonging to the camp of a construction
gang went hunting and came back running, wild with horror. He had found
the body of a man. The coroner and the sheriff were notified, and next
morning went out for the body, but the wolves had almost destroyed it.
High up in a willow, under which the poor man had lain down to die,
they saw a small bundle tied in a red bandanna and fast to a branch.
They found a letter addressed to whoever should find it, saying that
the body was that of Benny Louderer and giving them directions how to
spare his poor old mother the awful knowledge of how he died. Also
there was a letter to his mother asking her not to grieve for him and
to keep their days faithfully. "Their days," I afterward learned, were
anniversaries which they had always kept, to which was added "Benny's
day."

Poor boy! When he realized that death was near his every thought was
for the mother. Well, they followed his wishes, and the casket
containing the bare, gnawed bones was sealed and never opened. And to
this day poor Mrs. Louderer thinks her boy died of some fever while yet
aboard the transport. The manner of his death has been kept so secret
that I am the only one who has heard it.

I was so sorry for the poor mother that I resolved to visit her the
first opportunity I had. I am at liberty to go where I please when