Quite a horse!

     "That horse you see me riding has been hard used, but don't look down upon him. He's carried me into and out of much trouble, and time and again we've been to the wars. Let me put a loop over anything that walks, and that buckskin will hold it, whatever it is.

    "In the saddle of that horse I'd not be afraid to rope a Texas cyclone, rope and hog-tie it, too. He'll climb where it will put scare into a mountain goat, and one time when a man holed me with a Winchester slug, he carried me fifteen miles through the snow, then pawed on the stoop until folks came to the door to take me down.

    "You can call me a dog if you will, sir, but you speak ill of my horse and I'll put lead into you."

(from Ride the Dark Trail, by Louis L'Amour)

Any place there is money to be made

 Rome, London, Paris - all of them sprang from river crossings, and usually there was some bright gent around who was charging toll to cross over. Any time you find a lot of people who have to have something you'll also find somebody there charging them for doing it. When people stop at a stream crossing they camp and look around, and you can bet somebody has set up store with things for them to want.

(from Ride the Dark Trail, by Louis L'Amour)

Education from various places

"Folks who have lived the cornered sort of life most scholars, teachers, and storekeepers live seldom realize what they've missed in the way of conversation. Some of the best talk and the wisest talk I've ever heard was around campfires, in saloons, bunkhouses, and the like. The idea that all the knowledge of the world is bound up in schools and schoolteachers is a mistaken one." (from Ride the Dark Trail, by Louis L'Amour)

This opinion is expressed by a character in a book of fiction, so we don't know whether or not it was the opinion of the author. However, I suspect that it was, since similar thoughts are expressed in other books of his. His point is well taken - up to a point. All useful knowledge is not to be found solely among academics, who frequently know little of life: that much certainly is true. However, wisdom would dictate that one should be careful as to where he looks for wisdom. Those who are engaged in unwise or immoral activities should not be considered founts of wisdom, and L'Amour seems to overlook that qualification.

L'Amour does make one very profound point, however, that much wisdom is communicated through conversation, and just because a person is not well-versed in a formal academic education does not mean that he has not imbibed much that is true. After all, mankind knew how to think before they knew how to read.

High and beautiful

 This was my kind of country. I'm a high-line man. I like the country up yonder where the trees are flagged by the wind, where there's sedge and wild flowers under foot and where the mountains gnaw the sky with gray hard teeth, flecked with a foam of snow gathered in the hollows

(from Ride the Dark Trail, by Louis L'Amour)

Subliminal communication

    "Talon was a man - all man. He walked strong and he thought right, and no man ever left his door hungry, Indian, black man, or white. Nor did he ever take water for any man."

  

  "He was a judge of land," I said, "and of women."

    "We had it good together," Em said quietly, "we walked in a quiet way, the two of us, and never had to say much about it to one another." She paused. "I just looked at him and he looked at me and we knew how it was with each other.

(from Ride the Dark Trail, by Louis L'Amour)

Defending the Empty

     She was old now, and tired. The long, wakeful nights left her trembling, yet she was not afraid. When they came after her in the end she hoped but for one thing, that she would awaken in time to get off a shot. Nothing had frightened her in the old days, but then Pa had always been close by, and now Pa was gone.

    Slowly her tired muscles relaxed. Thunder rumbled out there, and the heat lightning showed brief flashes through the cracks of the shutters. She must take another look soon. In a little while.

    Her eyes closed . . . only for a minute, she told herself, only for one brief, wonderful minute.

(from Ride the Dark Trail, by Louis L'Amour)

Talus

Louis L'Amour seemed to use the term "talus" a great deal in his novels. One definition refers to an ankle bone, but the one that L'Amour no doubt intended was "a slope formed especially by an accumulation of rock debris," or "rock debris at the base of a cliff." It is synonymous with "scree."