<TITLE>11. Par 40-42</TITLE>L-40 What's that thirst in you for? To worship God. Oh, David, he wrote the Psalms, the prophecy. He was an outdoor man; he loved the outdoors. Oh, how wonderful it is to love outdoors. How I remember mountain streams and there go hunting, not to kill the game, just to be alone with God, see Him moving in His bushes, and hear Him in the call of the elk, and the wolf, and all in the bears that squeaking for the... Oh, all in nature, the birds, everything, God's just everywhere.
One day, standing in the Rocky Mountains, I was way high. I was hunting up there with a rancher, and I... There was nobody within, oh, I guess, fifty miles, forty miles anyhow of us, the closest place was way back in behind the Corral Peaks on the...?... pass, many, many miles. And I ranched in there, many, many times, running the cattle, and so forth, even riding the roundups. So we knowed about all the country. I go there to hunt. So it was early, and the elk hadn't come down yet, while we were hunting, because they were up high. The snows hadn't come.

L-41 And I...?... he said, "Now, Billy, I'm going to take the--the northern slope of the mountain, and you take the southern--eastern slope, and we'll meet about three days, and if you happen to get a big bull, hang him up, and we'll pack him on the pack horses coming back."
I said, "Okay, Jeff."
We started out to meet at a certain day. I was in the second day, I was way high, because of some real elk tracks, and they were up high yet. And in the fall, late, the storms come over, and rain, then will snow, and...?... The sun will come and dry it out, and stormy.
And there come a great, sudden gush of wind was coming down with the storm and rain, and I got behind a tree. And I was standing behind the tree just a minute. And the storm went past, and oh, it did blow. And there'd been an old a blow-down there. And after the storm passed, it was cool while it was raining, and icicles was hanging all over the--the evergreens. You know how it gets, and--and just then the great sun begin to set in the crevices in the west, and a great, like a eye of God began to peek through, and a rainbow formed over the valley. I said, "Oh, God, it's good to be here."
Just then I heard the old bull elk bugle, and the herd answered him, the herd being broke up in the time of the storm. My mother's a half-indian, that come off the reservations.

L-42 And then that began to call, the deep. David said, "Calling to the deep." The old gray wolf howled, and the mate answered it down in the valley. Oh my, something struck my spirit and screamed. I got so happy, I said, "God, it's so good to be here. I set my rifle down, and around and around the tree I run, screaming as hard as I could, shaking my hands. If someone would have come in the woods, they'd thought there was a maniac out there. I didn't care; I was a worshipping the Lord, just having a glorious time.
After while, I noticed a little old pine squirrel, a little guy about that long, the fussiest thing in the woods. Jumped up on a stump and begin, "Chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter," like he was going to cut you to pieces.
I said, "Don't get so excited, little fellow, I wouldn't hurt you. Did I make you scared? I'm worshipping the God that created you." Watch this. And around, and around, and around the tree, I went again. I said, "You ought to do that."
And I noticed the little fellow, his eyes bulged out almost on his cheek. Wasn't watching me, but cock his little head, looking around like that. And the storm had forced a big eagle down in there. That what he was scared of.


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