[Stickeen, etc.], [ca.1887], Image 4

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2019
• Subjects: Curl; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmn-st1/4; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmn-st1/article/1003/type/native/viewcontent/MuirReel33_Notebook01_Img004.Jpeg

3 Stick. The small & shorthaired & of no traceable pedigree he took to the water in all kinds of weather as freely as a newfoundland. We tried to cure him of this by going off without him but the lesson did no good. He cared as little for a wetting as a seal or muskrat. In [forfeiting] sound & comfortable stupidity he seemed perfect which was all the more to be wondered at & admired in so small a dog. Small dogs are seldom dull. They are mostly frisky fussy restless things & in the care of the long haired terriers very wise & cunning. But Stickeen was ever uncomplaining & serene under all conditions of weather & luck. His intellect too was so slow & sleepy of moment as to raise doubt as to whether he had any. His immovable serenity seemed only dullness Let the weather blow & roar rain or snow he was calm & uncomplaining as a stone. Seemed an unmitigated booby When we approached the shore he was always first out of the canoe launching into the waves like an otter & in leaving camp he was always last. Never showing himself however loudly we called until we were a 100 yards from shore then he would come out of the woods & swim after us knowing well that we could cease rowing & take him aboard, lifting him by the neck. When he would shower the water from his hair by a vigorous shake & curl himself up among the baggage, never moving until he heard us talking about camp. When he would look up & wait our approach to the land & 4 Then jump off & swim ashore He always maintained a balanced equilibrium like a well [balance] bedded boulder Yet strange to say however sleepy & dull looking he was every ready to go in search of adventures. Let any of the lads go into the woods with a gun looking for deer & Stickeen was seen to be at his heels, or if I went out when the weather was stormy, he would insist on following me as if nothing could please him more that to be caught (and sucked into the vortex of) in a wild storm & whirled in it like a ...