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Show 333. called herding "following the sheep," and describing "the rich mellow light . . . laid on plain and mountain without a tinge of haze." The later author of "wild Wool" awoke, in the hollow he learned to despise the pastoral conventions, the "patriarchal business," as a fabric of lies. I have followed Muir's disillusionment with sheep because it indicates an important and early discovery: love of flowers and pastoralism could not coexist in the same Californian scene. Either one sat in a meadow or one sat in a pasture. Finally Muir would follow Pat Delaney's sheep for a summer in the Sierra only because he needed bread, even after he knew better. Thus it was that early in his Californian life he became disenchanted. He would never associate the shepherd with any ideal world. Following the sheep meant quite literally being led up a trail of shit by stupid beasts over stubble fields where the flowers had been eaten or trampled. Though sheep are not mentioned in his essay, Muir's disenchantment with the pastoral is barely under the surface of a central incident, his encounter with an eagle. The eagle first came into his journal on January 2, 1869. Muir immediately felt a close personal identification with this visitor. At first I could not guess what could bring this strong sailor of the sky to the ground. His great wings, seven or eight feet broad, were folded as he stood, dim, motionless, and clod-like as if all excelsior instincts - all of cloud and sky - were forgotten, |