Page 10 - outland_oldshoebox

Finally there is the shoe box itself. Why, of all things, a shoe
box? It is doubtful that even Charles Lummis would have had the
audacity to request of Mrs. del Valle a shoe box upon which her
guest might sketch some horses. No. There is a more plausible
theory.
Old shoe boxes were and still are handy containers in which to
pack picnic lunches. Is it difficult to imagine Charlie Russell and
Charles Lummis, or possibly William S. Hart, throwing together
a picnic lunch, packing it in the shoe box and riding horseback into
the hills surrounding the Camulos? And to carry the fantasy still
further, is it unreasonable to visualize the men resting in the shade
of a native oak during a warm noontime, with Russell's restless tal-
ent scribbling on the side of that shoe box, now empty, the unique
fly-swatting techniques of his favorite animal; or his companion,
fascinated with the sketch, conjuring up some excuse to carry it
back to the ranch house upon their return?
A fantasy it must remain for the present, to this writer at least.
After all, it was only a shoe box gathering dust in the attic of an
old California adobe ranch house made famous by Helen Hunt
Jackson. But are there any finer ingredients for fantasy?

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