Preview
Circa Date
1887
Transcription
11
do we know of them. They might as well be ono the other stars. For all we can learn, [excepting] always those tremendous life & death extremes, then we come to close grips as the Scotch say & all vents are rent asunder [His smallness & feebleness became more & more pathetic as the fears he was sharing with me became more apparent]
# There is little or nothing in all human nature dogs do not share
#All my life I have[d] had a sympathy for dogs – especially for poor despised curs that are kicked & get no kind words or pats of encouragement.
(Collie at Hickory Hill)
With & what an eager passionate gladness of welcome he welcomed me after I had been away for years at college. When I returned to the old farm at Hickory Hill some of the old neighbors had almost forgotten me, failed to recognize me but Collie, a brown shepherd dog & my mother, had kept me warm & gentle in his hearts
Whimsical & perversely obstinate
Foreboding dread was every moment deepening & developing into desperate despair
And so it seems all our best lessons come by suffering to teach us a grand far-reaching lesson Nature has to all but kill us
After every look into the gulf cried no no no
Pert nimble
Wolves howling their [fearful] morning & evening prayers
But shall I go mourn for that my dear?
The pale mood shines by night
And when I wander here & there
I then do [go] most go right
12
# What labyrinth of relationship he had I never tried to trace, probably from the Stick [Stickeen] tribes.
Indian curs are all solemn, even when puppies I suppose from having to work hard they are made beasts of burden as soon as they can carry a pound or two, the Stick Inds [Stickeen Indians], those of the interior of the country are all this used & old & young. Each has its pair of saddlebags according to size, marching solemnly, hiding probably learned in trying to avoid his load.
In many respects a singular character to those acquainted only with civilized dogs, but commonplace enough no doubt among his kindred of the great interior plains, or Alaska
Curling up among the baggage in melancholy resignation he slept the dull days away
Had a slow calm mind full of comfortable hazy glimmering notions somnolent & lazy as long as no adventures were afoot.
A poor forlorn looking beast preternaturally solemn which in so small a dog seemed ridiculous
When we were setting out all the baggage aboard he could never be found. Yet I found out that from the cover of the of the huckleberry [shore] bushes of the shore he was all the time keeping a wary eye on the canoe for he never failed to come forth & follow by swimming as soon as we [set] were fairly off.
Yet he was no imbecile or coward. He kept himself so well in hand as to seem dull.
Resource Identifier
MuirReel33 Notebook01 Img008.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
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