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Show 559. there! Billy became "somewhat demoralized," and showed his true mettle. He says that since the boss has failed to feed him he is not rightly bound to feed the sheep, and swears 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 coyotes and Indians it's different. Good grub, good sheep. That's what I say." Such was Billy's Fourth of July oration. Billy was physically distasteful. Covered with the remains of his food, his trousers were so dirty Muir suspected that they had "geological significance." Such a "queer character" was "hard to place in this wilderness." Young Muir's worst fear was that he might have to take up Billy's duties, as he almost did when the shepherd quarreled with the Don and left for the lowlands in August. The Fears are all there. What if you are what you eat? Worse, what if Muir's participation in this "white" business of sheepherding degraded him into a Billy? Well, he had inner resources of wildness which saved him. Muir would play neither the Don's nor Billy's role, even if he was trapped in a sheep camp. But this mutton eating is a crucial issue. After an idyllic and botanical June, Muir and Billy ran out of bread early in July, and they reached their low ebb just as ripe summer arrived. In an early version of his journal, Muir went into great detail describing the gastric distress occasioned by an all mutton diet. But the real issue in the book is spiritual. |