As spring ends the people are well satisfied with what they have accomplished for all the necessary work has been done. Houses have been repaired, new houses have been built and several young couples have married. Hunting has been good and the trading journeys, except for the loss of one party, were successful. Several new fields were cleared, much pottery was made and sufficient water is in storage. The fields have all been planted and, above all, the spring ceremonies have been performed. The people of Cliff Palace are happy and contented as Spring turns into summer. 5 SUMMER Summer is an easy time for the people of Cliff Palace, a warm, lazy time. There are certain tasks to be performed but there is also much leisure time for sleeping in the shade, gossiping, gambling and trading. There is not the restless activity which was so evident during the spring. Life proceeds at a slow, easy pace. The early summer is dry and warm. Little rain can be expected until in July; sometimes it does not come until August. The crops in the fields must live on the moisture stored in the earth and the people must live on the water they have stored in their pools and water jars, and the daily flow from the springs. Water is always the critical problem but this year conditions are very favorable. June is often the hottest month of the summer. The sky is cloudless and the sun beats down day after day, drawing the moisture out of the earth. In the sun the temperature is high but the shade is cool and pleasant. The air is dry and a light breeze always blows across the mesa tops. The shade of even a small tree brings relief from the warmth of the sun. Little clothing is worn. The women have small aprons of dangling yucca fiber strings while the men may wear loin-cloths of buckskin or cotton cloth. Children wear nothing at all. Yucca fiber sandals usually are worn by both men and women when they leave the cave but they are not essential about the city itself. The people of Cliff Palace are not clothes conscious and with their rich brown skins they need no protection from the sun. Even the men, who spend long hours in the sunny fields, need no covering. The farmers are all smiles for their crops are growing prodigiously. Corn, beans and squash are growing well. Weeds are also prospering and the men pull them up or chop them out with their digging sticks. If the weeds are not destroyed, they take moisture that the crops need. Every morning, not long after sunrise, the men trot up to the fields. For a few hours they work industriously, chopping weeds or loosening the soil around the plants. Earth is kept piled up around the stalks of corn. It was planted almost a foot deep and this heaping up of the earth around the hills puts the roots even farther underground. At that depth there is an abundance of moisture in the soil.