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and using his eyes and ears,
Woodbury has unawares
the matter-of-fact goodness
people can have when the fates
draw back from them a little.
Goodness may make us happy.
But happiness makes us good
more often, I think.'* I say,
`But then, our topic was facts
just now, because there remain
questions about that testimony -- '
Meeker waits. -- `For example,
I have wondered why Ouray
says what he does about you.
For he was an honest man,
and took the hard way -- so Sprague
the historian argues --
of dealing as best he could
with the whites, instead of dying
in martyrdom's quick splendor
leading a hopeless battle,
leaving those who survived him
to be taken off to die
in Indian Territory
of homesickness and disease.
Why does he lie about you?'
-- `Whether it's lie or error,'
Meeker says, `at his distance
from the events he simply
transferred the government plan
for getting rid of the Utes
to the government's agent,
me. As usual, justice
*cf. Simonides: .