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THE INDIAN SUMMER OF DRY VALLEY
JOHNSON
BY O. HENRY
AlUr'Io I ( ' "t l , \ :I A s -[IN S .I , jIILIION," ETC.
WI'I'II ILLUSTRATIONS ]EY WILL CRAWFODI2)
RY VAIAL'Y ]( INSON
ihook, the blotle. You
1 khave to shake the bottle
, before using; for sulphur
will not dissolve. Then
I) rv Valle- saturated a
small spn'ge with the
liquid nd rulil it carefully into the roots
of his hair. lBesides sulphur there was
su'ngr of lead in it and tincture of nux
\onlica 1iand hav\ rum1. D)ry \alley found
the recipe in a Sundal nw(v1spaper. You
must next he told why a strong man came
to fI ll a victim to a Beauty int.
1)ry Vnllcy had becn a sheepman. His
real lIm nc \as Ilector, but lie lhad been re-
Chritenede after his range to distinguish
hi from " :lm Creek" Jhnlslon, 1who ran
sheep further down the Frio.
;lany years of living face to face with
'sheep on their o(\n terms wearied Dry
Villey Johnsonl. So, he sold his ranch for
eiighteei thousand dollars and moved to
S,nta RIosa to li\-e a life of gentlemanly
case_. leing Q silent and melancholy
person of thirty -live or perhla thirty-
eiliht-he soon ibecalle tlht curst andt
earth-cumbering thing---an clderlhish bach-
elor with a hobby. Somni one ave him his
can,<t -tr t\\lrrrl to e<i ;t : l e , /l , " :
I)rv \alley bought a four-room cottage
in the village, and a library on strawberry
culture. Behind the cottage 'was a garden
of which he mae mde a straberry patch. In
his old gray woolen shirt, his brown ducking
trousers and high-heeled boots, he sprawled
all day on a canvas cIt under a live-uak
tree at his back door studying the history
of the seductive, scarlet berry.
The school teacher, Miss De Witt, spoke
of him as "a fine, presentable man, for all
his middle age." IBut, the focus of I)Dry
Valley's eve embraced no women. They
were merely beings who flew kirts as it
signal for him to lift awkwardly his heavy,
round-crowned, broad-brimmed felt Stet~ n
whenever he met them, and then hurry
past to get back to hi beloved berries.
And all this recitative by the chorus i
only to bring us to the point where yu
may be told why Dry Valle shooi up lithe
insolublle sulphur in the bottle. So low(-
drawn . and inconsequential a: thing is
history-the anamorphous shd tow of a
milestone reaching down the road between
us and the setting sun.
\\hen hi strawberries were begiining
to ripen Dry Valley bought the heavict
hugv whip in the ,Santa Rosa stoRre. He
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