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Page 36
whole company into the ground, who cared?
Forcing his mind to change the subject, Mike considered what to do that day. He went through the same process every morning. His answer was inevitably to build another table or chair or birdhouse, or to do nothing.
Except recently he had discovered an interest in paleontology after finding a few fossilized creatures and plants. On one of his trips to town, he had bought a couple of volumes on desert paleontological finds, and he now had maps of dry lake beds and other areas where prehistoric Indian sites and fossilized ferns, shells, and skeletonsboth animal and humanhad been excavated. He had an urge that morning to visit an uncharted site he had found the week before at the far side of the mountain pass near his cabin. The afternoon had been late when he had found his first trilobites and brachiopods, and Mike had started back immediately so he could reach his cabin by dark. He had been meaning to return to the site. He felt, suddenly, that this was the right day.
Mike put on thick socks and boots. He packed a couple of sandwiches in his backpack for lunch and set out toward the wash. The clouds in the sky formed a high, fluffy ceiling over the canyon. Along the shadowed, twisting path beneath the mountains, Mike's hike was pleasant and cool. He found himself wondering how many other people had made this journey. The gorge was wide enough to admit cars, if a road had been cut this waybut he was glad it hadn't. The sol-

 
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