THE LEGEND OF THE SAGEBRUSH

In the beginning, when the Earth was young and but lately emerged from the water, the Great Spirit, while walking to and from in his work of beautifying the world, chanced to overhear the lowly sagebrush murmuring to the night wind and complaining, "Oh, why was I ever born? I am not tall and stately like the pine. I provide no beautiful nor fragrant flowers. I bear no fruit - gnarled, stubby and doomed to wear the same dingy dress even through the Harvest Moon when all others appear in gorgeous colors. It were better had I never been born."

"Hush, little foolish one," said the Great Spirit. "You have honored above many, for to your care I entrust a rare perfume. You shall be the keeper of the Fragrance of the Open Spaces. Your neutral dress is purposely so that it may reflect the greater beauty - the blue of the summer skies. The purple of the evening shadows and silver of the moonlight. Among the tribes of men, you will be the Symbol of the West."

So spoke the Great Spirit and it was so.