Save in the mirthfulness of which he is an ever-bubbling spring, Posey has become, in looks and gestures, in mode of thought and manner of expression, as much Indian as white.  Nevertheless, he prefers, very greatly, the society of his own race, and likes best that of people of superior mental qualities and force of character.  In Posey’s creed there is but one article, namely, that all men are eternally and immutably equal—­just as good as he is.  That is, that would be the sole article in his creed if he had any creed and if he were conscious that such is his belief.  For it is very certain that Posey never gave thought, in all his life, to the question of human equality.  He simply has an unconscious feeling about it which he has breathed into his being from the mountain air around him and absorbed from the earth which has been his bed for many and many a night.  It is there, just as the dirt on his neck is there, and Posey is equally unconscious of them both.

Formerly, for a good many years, he was a guide in the Yosemite Valley, and once he had in his charge a woman who was a many times millionaire, of social prestige throughout two continents, and known by name all over her own land from the palaces of Newport to the huts in the Sierras.  She found fault with many things, and finally insisted that her stirrup was too small.  Posey, who had cheerfully endeavored to satisfy all her complaints, examined it carefully and then told her, in gentlest voice and politest manner:  “The stirrup ’s all right, madam.  It’s your foot that ’s too damn big.”

Nobody ever saw Posey troubled in the least about anything in this world or the next.  To him, mere existence is a pleasure, and the days of his life have been a linked merriment long drawn out.  He is always ready to listen to and laugh at and join in jokes and fun; and if nothing new of that sort is at hand, old ones will answer the purpose almost as well.  He is quick to repay such entertainment from his own inexhaustible store, and he never fails to turn anything that happens, no matter how serious it may be, into jest and farce.  He has even been known to fling witticisms and ridicule at a bear that was coming at him full speed.  But, no; that is not quite accurate.  Posey has been known to say that he said these things to a charging bruin.  But Posey usually hunts alone.

He is learned in the habits and secrets of the beasts and birds and reptiles and insects of the mountain and the forest, and in the virtues and malefactions of trees and flowers.  But he does not consider this knowledge of any consequence, and sets far more store upon another stock of learning, which he does not display upon ordinary occasions.  For such chance acquaintances among the tourists as he considers unusual in mental attainments he rolls out the scientific names of trees and plants with unction and delight.  Usually they are not recognizable at first, because, having been learned by ear and preserved by memory, their Latin has become somewhat Poseyized.