Emerson's Wife and Other Western StoriesKelly, Florence Finch
General
Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories
Kelly, Florence Finch
Western stories
Everybody who has ever seen him knows him only as "Posey"--a name for
which he is indebted solely to the accident of birth. For in that
Indiana county where he first saw the light, and when he went to
California, some forty years ago, that was the name at once bestowed
upon him, and by it he has been known ever since. It is possible that
Posey has not forgotten what his name really is; but, if so, he is the
only person who has allowed his memory to be burdened with that useless
knowledge.
The traveller is likely to meet him striding along any one of the
forest roads or trails within forty miles of the Yosemite Valley, or
lounging around a stage station, or taking his ease in some
mountaineer's cabin. And he will know at once that that is Posey, for
no one who has ever heard of him can mistake his identity at even the
first glance. Moreover, Sunday is always with him, and Sunday is just
as unmistakable as Posey. Sunday is a very small dog, of about the
bigness of your two fists, that carries within his small skin enough
courage, audacity, and dignity to befit the size of an elephant. He is
also known as "Posey's bear dog"--a sobriquet bestowed upon him partly
in humor, because of his ridiculously small size, and partly in honor,
because of his utter fearlessness.
Posey is a sparely built, muscular man, of medium size, quick and jerky
in his movements, and springy in his gait. His face is broad and
tanned, his cheek bones high, and his nose a snub. His beard is short
and thin and grizzled, and his gray hair, curling at the ends, hangs
around his neck. His shoulders are sloping, his chest deep but not
wide, his arms long, and his hips narrow. He is always dressed in a
blue flannel shirt, blue overalls, hob-nailed shoes, and a gray slouch
hat; and the whole outfit is always very old and very dirty. His
overalls, fastened upon him in some miraculous way, hang far below his
waist. Why they stay in place suggests the goodness of God since it
passeth all understanding.
Nature made a great mistake when she caused Posey to be born a white
man, heir to all the white man's achievement. For he is a child of
earth--a gentle, kindly savage, a white man with the soul of an Indian.
But Posey has done his best to correct nature's mistake, and has made
himself as much of an Indian as his white man's heritage will allow.
He is a nomad, as thorough a nomad as any barbarian who never heard of
those wondrous works of man called civilization. In all that wide
stretch of country which he frequents and in which he has lived for
thirty years and better, there is not one spot which he can call home.
But that is nothing to Posey. He would not know what to do with a home
if he had one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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