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Circa Date
1887
Transcription
27
His life was like a stream with its fountains beneath a cloud, stormy day under a cloud the springs of his action were hidden, one could never foresee what he would do. Now he became suddenly translucent his soul shone out under the stress of danger & seemed more real & manifest than his little hairy body. There was no longer any chance of mistaking his meaning. Every hair of him was telling [controlled by fear] His strength lay in his eyes showing suggesting reserve of hidden power
The dullest of all small dogs I had seen, not then knowing how much had to be allowed for his Indian training, tranquil & shady in his gaze as a squirrel
# A condensed featureless smooth haired nugget as unlike those queer dear merry little terriers as possible a little featureless nobody [ ] unknowable, glum dignity vacancy
What could charm him out of his warm bed into the storm uncalled & breakfastless I don’t know in so wild a morning. His feet so expressionless. They were never seen. Nothing of the [ ] quickens of black & tan or merriness of hairy terriers, Only eyes he had telling
28
Within the cold gloom of the chasm death seemed to be calmly brooding forever
Our struggle for life was just the same only he was not able to satisfy himself so quickly as I as to the grim fateful postiveness of the difficulty
Not enough of him to be interesting
Dullness inherited from many generations of downtrodden ancestors, fathers & mothers in the interior of Alaska in whom life was a serious slavish affair
Sleeping on dozing curled up like a hibernating woodchuck & so his dull days went on.
O I’m wat wat, O I’m wat & weary 303 Hor [Subsee]
Blazed up into a perfect storm of energy
He came to my side on the brink looked into the gulf with those lit [little] keen eyes & then into my face with a certain startled air of surprise as if saying Surely you are not going to try to go down there. This was the first time I ever saw him look deliberately into a crevasse or into my face with a speaking thinking look. A look with thinking & speaking in it. After running back & forth he came again & again to see how I was getting on, displaying more & more excited interest such keen persistent critical thought held firmly
Resource Identifier
MuirReel33 Notebook01 Img016.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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