good reason. Reptiles must live for some good
purpose. All things do -- don't you think?" Then,
before he could make a rejoinder, she went on:
"I sometimes feel that these creatures were
originally placed here to encourage other and
higher forms of life to come and locate in the
desert -- were placed here, in other words, to
prove that life is possible in all this desolation."

He glanced at her. "Certainly it has worked
out that way, at any rate," he ventured. "Good
old Genesis!" He smiled.

"It seems to have," she agreed, thoughtfully.
"Because you and I are here. But it goes a long
way back -- to Genesis -- yes. Following the initial
placing, other and higher organisms, finding
in their migratory travels this evidence of life,
accepted the encouragement to remain, and did
remain, feeding upon the life found here in the
shape of toads and lizards -- to carry the theory
forward a step -- even as the toads and lizards -- to
carry it back again -- fed upon the insects which
they in their turn found here. Then along came
other forms of life, higher in the cosmic setting,
and these, rinding encouragement in the presence
of the earlier arrivals, fed upon them and remained.
And so on up, to the forerunners of our present-day
animals -- coyotes and prairie-dogs. And after
these, primitive man -- to find encouragement in
the coyotes and prairie-dogs -- and to feed upon
them and remain. Then after primitive man, the
second type -- the brown man; and after the brown
man, the red man; and after the red man, the

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p115 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p116w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p117

v?