, 



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, 

 1 I 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 longsquirm- 

 1 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, 

 [ 105 ] 



