"Of course much has been done to it since then in the way of enlargement, the making of a more generous provision for light and ventilation, and in the adding of many comforts, but in its general aspect Cliff Castle stands to-day unchanged from the time it was built, many centuries before the continent of America was discovered by Columbus.
"Although so long as my meagre supply of ammunition lasted I had no difficulty in procuring all the meat needed for our table, a supply that Nanahe has kept up since by means of his throw-stick, I began the making of a field as soon as our dwelling was put in order. My greatest labor lay in fencing this against goats and rabbits. When it was ready I planted it with corn, oats, beans, and squashes, the seed for which were yielded by a bag of feed for our poor mules that I had procured in Zuñi. I also set out peach-trees and grape-vines, improving greatly the quality of their fruit by cultivation, and a little later I captured two young goats, from which our present domestic flock has been reared.
"In all our labors, both mine in the field and mother's in the house, Hagar was our invaluable assistant and instructor. She it was who taught me to use the ancient stone hoes and planting sticks of my remote predecessors, to construct wattled fences, to cure meat so that it might be kept, and to work in clay until I could produce rude but serviceable articles of pottery. She taught mother how to spin cotton thread on the stone spindles that we found in this and other cliff dwellings, and afterwards to weave them into a coarse cloth on a rude loom that she herself constructed.
"She gave lessons in making matting of yucca fibre, in plaiting baskets, dressing hides, and in sewing rabbit-skins with bone needles. Before we began to harvest our planted crops, she gathered up large quantities of certain grass-seeds, ground them into flour on old stone metates, and made of this a palatable bread. She taught us where to look for wasp honey, as well as how to extract sugar from grapes and peaches.
"I discovered the deposit of salt that seasons our food, and the selenite that, cleaved into thin sheets, serves instead of glass to close our windows against the cold of winter; but nearly every other comfort with which thee finds us surrounded we owe to the knowledge, skill, and cheerful industry of that splendid woman. She remained with us nearly two years. Then, with her life work nobly accomplished, she left us, and we buried her beside our dear boy.
"Since then Nanahe has been as our own well-loved son, bravely filling his mother's place. With his increasing strength he has gradually assumed the duties that my failing powers have caused me to relinquish, until now he is our mainstay and dependence, as well as the delight of our declining years. He has been quick to learn all that I could teach him, and is fitted for a wider sphere of activity than that in which he now moves. But I know not how we could exist without him, nor how he might gain the outer world, even though we knew in what direction lay its most accessible point.
"In all these years I have not been able to determine our locality nor our distance from any known place, nor have we been visited by any human being beside thyself since coming to the valley. On account of the marvellous coloring of the desolate region surrounding us I have called it the Painted Desert, though I am not certain that the name originated with me, for I have a dim memory of hearing it before. I cannot satisfy myself, however, as to whether the Moqui towns lie to the east or the west of us. I am of the former opinion, but Nanahe, for some reason, inclines to the latter. At the same time, neither of us can form any idea of how far away they may be."
"I do not know," said Todd, "for I am very much ashamed to say that I was so filled with visions of hunting as to neglect my opportunities for gaining profitable information while with my brother's expedition. I too, however, am of the opinion, that the Moqui towns lie to the eastward of this place. Nor do I think they can be at any great distance, certainly no further than two active young chaps such as Nanahe and I might cover without danger during a time of rains. Don't you think, sir, that we might make the attempt?" concluded the boy, eagerly.
"What does thee think would become of mother and me if thee should take Nanahe from us?" asked the old man.
"We would only be gone a short time, and would return with such assistance as would enable you also to rejoin the world from which you have been cut off so long," replied Todd.