My First Summer 



from the lowlands with a new stock of 

 provisions, and as the flock is to be moved 

 to fresh pastures we shall all be well fed. 

 In the mean time our stock of beans as 

 well as flour has failed everything but 

 mutton, sugar, and tea. The shepherd is 

 somewhat demoralized, and seems to care 

 but little what becomes of his flock. He 

 says that since the boss has failed to feed 

 him he is not rightly bound to feed the 

 sheep, and swears that no decent white 

 man can climb these steep mountains on 

 mutton alone. " It 's not fittin' grub for a 

 white man really white. For dogs and coy- 

 otes and Indians it J s different. Good grub, 

 good sheep. That J s what I say/' Such was 

 Billy's Fourth of July oration. 



Jufy 5. The clouds of noon on the 

 high Sierra seem yet more marvelously, in- 

 describably beautiful from day to day as 

 one becomes more wakeful to see them. 

 The smoke of the gunpowder burned yes- 

 terday on the lowlands, and the eloquence 



