In this story, London’s intention is to show the contrast between nature and man. This story is also one of the stories the Cohn brothers included in “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”. If you’d like to hear another short story used in the film, listen to “The Girl Who Got Rattled” by Stewart Edward White. The brothers won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). Well, when you have well written stories to start with, you can’t go wrong. I’ve chosen this story this week because, as it happens, I will be headed up to the Sierras in the next few days. When I read this story, I could feel what London says:  “The spirit of the place was the spirit of the peace of the living”. I can’t wait to get up the mountain and feel that spirit.