A limpid, casual stream flows slyly down as if fearful of discovery. The shrill, demoniac bark of the coyote gives the chickens and the goats warning that the scavenger of the desert is near, seeking to destroy. Then all is hushed again and a luminous silence known only to the few imparts to us the fact that a day has died. But another and another will yet be born--and thus they'll come and go until eternity. * * * * * Life is a bridge of sighs over which memory glides into a torrent of tears. * * * * * There is nothing so serious as fun. * * * * * I have never known a true comedian who was not a master of sentiment. * * * * * All the tragedians whom I have ever known were never more tragic than when they tried to be comic. _Chapter LXXXVI_ I BECOME A BARNSTORMER! While I was at work on my ranch, disgusted with the methods of New York managers, I received a proposition from Oliver Morosco to appear in New York under his management in a new play which I was first to try out with one of his stock companies in Los Angeles. If that play proved a failure Morosco agreed to submit others to me until we finally succeeded in finding a success. Evidently my short season with the opposition stock company had given Morosco pause! It looked like an advantageous offer and I accepted, consenting to appear in "Oliver Twist" in one of his stock houses--among other plays. We had just begun rehearsals of "Oliver Twist" when an accident laid me low. Morosco, who was in New York at the time, sent two of his employees to my house within an hour after I had been carried in and from them and from him, by telegrams, I received repeated assurances that I need not worry, that the contract would continue in force indefinitely. As soon as I should be able to appear on the stage Morosco promised to carry out his part of the agreement to the letter. I was sufficiently recovered in February, 1913, to appear as Fagin. The play ran three weeks at the stock house in Los Angeles and then I found myself wondering what was to become of me! The great Morosco was "back East" somewhere. No one seemed to be able to locate him or to get word to him. So I waited about four or five weeks on the pleasure of this magnate! Finally came word that we were to organize a company on the spot and make a tour of the Coast in "Oliver Twist," extending it to Canada and continuing in it for the remainder of the season. I had heard of but had never known what "barnstorming" meant before. I know now!