In the Sierra 



ground covered with crystals, the crystals 

 with mosses and lichens and low-spreading 

 grasses and flowers, these with larger plants 

 leaf over leaf with ever-changing color and 

 form, the broad palms of the firs outspread 

 over these, the azure dome over all like a 

 bell-flower, and star above star. 



Yonder stands the South Dome, its crown 

 high above our camp, though its base is 

 four thousand feet below us ; a most noble 

 rock, it seems full of thought, clothed with 

 living light, no sense of dead stone about 

 it, all spiritualized, neither heavy looking 

 nor light, steadfast in serene strength like 

 a god. 



Our shepherd is a queer character and 

 hard to place in this wilderness. His bed 

 is a hollow made in red dry-rot punky 

 dust beside a log which forms a portion of 

 the south wall of the corral. Here he lies 

 with his wonderful everlasting clothing on, 

 wrapped in a red blanket, breathing not 

 only the dust of the decayed wood but also 



