With this and the amole they ran back to Katy. She knew
how to prepare the amole for roasting. Linda gave her a few
words of instruction concerning the yucca. Then from the
interior of the Bear Cat she drew a tightly rolled section of
wire window screening. Just where a deep, wide pool narrowed at
a rocky defile they sank the screening, jammed it well to the
bottom, fastened it tight at the sides, and against the current
side of it they threw leaves, grass, chunks of moss, any debris
they could gather that would make a temporary dam. Then,
standing on one side with her field knife, Linda began to slice
the remainder of the amole very thin and to throw it over the
surface of the pool. On the other, Donald pounded the big, juicy
bulbs to pulp and scattered it broadcast over the water. Linda
instructed Katy to sit on the bank with a long-handled landing
net and whenever a trout arose, to snatch it out as speedily as
possible, being careful not to take more than they would require.
Then the two youngsters, exhilarated with youth, with living,
with the joy of friendship, with the lure of the valley, with the
heady intoxication of the salt breeze and the gold of the
sunshine, climbed into the Bear Cat and went rolling through the
canyon and out to the valley on the far side. Here they gathered
the tenderest heart shoots of the lupin until Linda said they had
enough. Then to a particular spot that she knew on the desert
they hurried for the enlarged stems of the desert trumpet which
was to serve that day for an appetizer in the stead of pickles.
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