In the Sierra 



food soils him, making necessary much 

 washing and shield-like bibs and napkins. 

 Moles living in the earth and eating slimy 

 worms are yet as clean as seals or fishes, 

 whose lives are one perpetual wash. And, 

 as we have seen, the squirrels in these resiny 

 woods keep themselves clean in some mys- 

 terious way ; not a hair is sticky, though 

 they handle the gummy cones, and glide 

 about apparently without care. The birds, 

 too, are clean, though they seem to make a 

 good deal of fuss washing and cleaning 

 their feathers. Certain flies and ants I see 

 are in a fix, entangled and sealed up in the 

 sugar-wax we threw away, like some of 

 their ancestors in amber. Our stomachs, 

 like tired muscles, are sore with long squirm- 

 ing. Once I was very hungry in the Bona- 

 venture graveyard near Savannah, Georgia, 

 having fasted for several days; then the 

 empty stomach seemed to chafe in much 

 the same way as now, and a somewhat 

 similar tenderness and aching was produced, 



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