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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Passages From The American Notebooks,
+Volume 2., by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+#24 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
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+Title: Passages From The American Notebooks, Volume 2.
+
+Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8089]
+[This file was first posted on June 13, 2003]
+[Last updated on February 7, 2007]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS, V2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+PASSAGES FROM THE AMERICAN NOTE-BOOKS
+
+OF
+
+NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
+
+
+VOL. II.
+
+
+
+[EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE LETTERS.]
+
+
+Brook Farm, Oak Hill, April 13th, 1841.--. . . . Here I am in a polar
+Paradise!  I know not how to interpret this aspect of nature,--whether it
+be of good or evil omen to our enterprise.  But I reflect that the
+Plymouth pilgrims arrived in the midst of storm, and stepped ashore upon
+mountain snowdrifts; and, nevertheless, they prospered, and became a
+great people,--and doubtless it will be the same with us.  I laud my
+stars, however, that you will not have your first impressions of
+(perhaps) our future home from such a day as this. . . . Through faith,
+I persist in believing that Spring and Summer will come in their due
+season; but the unregenerated man shivers within me, and suggests a doubt
+whether I may not have wandered within the precincts of the Arctic
+Circle, and chosen my heritage among everlasting snows. . . . Provide
+yourself with a good stock of furs, and, if you can obtain the skin of a
+polar bear, you will find it a very suitable summer dress for this
+region. . . .
+
+I have not yet taken my first lesson in agriculture, except that I went
+to see our cows foddered, yesterday afternoon.  We have eight of our own;
+and the number is now increased by a transcendental heifer belonging to
+Miss Margaret Fuller.  She is very fractious, I believe, and apt to kick
+over the milk-pail. . . . I intend to convert myself into a milkmaid
+this evening, but I pray Heaven that Mr. Ripley may be moved to assign me
+the kindliest cow in the herd, otherwise I shall perform my duty with
+fear and trembling. . . .
+
+I like my brethren in affliction very well; and, could you see us sitting
+round our table at meal-times, before the great kitchen fire, you would
+call it a cheerful sight.  Mrs. B------ is a most comfortable woman to
+behold.  She looks as if her ample person were stuffed full of
+tenderness,--indeed, as if she were all one great, kind heart.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+April 14th, 10 A. M.--. . . . I did not milk the cows last night, because
+Mr. Ripley was afraid to trust them to my hands, or me to their horns, I
+know not which.  But this morning I have done wonders.  Before breakfast,
+I went out to the barn and began to chop hay for the cattle, and with
+such "righteous vehemence," as Mr. Ripley says, did I labor, that in the
+space of ten minutes I broke the machine.  Then I brought wood and
+replenished the fires; and finally went down to breakfast, and ate up a
+huge mound of buckwheat cakes.  After breakfast, Mr. Ripley put a
+four-pronged instrument into my hands, which he gave me to understand was
+called a pitchfork; and he and Mr. Farley being armed with similar
+weapons, we all three commenced a gallant attack upon a heap of manure.
+This office being concluded, and I having purified myself, I sit down to
+finish this letter. . . .
+
+Miss Fuller's cow hooks the other cows, and has made herself ruler of the
+herd, and behaves in a very tyrannical manner. . . . I shall make an
+excellent husbandman,--I feel the original Adam reviving within me.
+
+
+April 16th.--. . . . Since I last wrote, there has been an addition to
+our community of four gentlemen in sables, who promise to be among our
+most useful and respectable members.  They arrived yesterday about noon.
+Mr. Ripley had proposed to them to join us, no longer ago than that very
+morning.  I had some conversation with them in the afternoon, and was
+glad to hear them express much satisfaction with their new abode and all
+the arrangements.  They do not appear to be very communicative, however,
+--or perhaps it may be merely an external reserve, like my own, to shield
+their delicacy.  Several of their prominent characteristics, as well as
+their black attire, lead me to believe that they are members of the
+clerical profession; but I have not yet ascertained from their own lips
+what has been the nature of their past lives.  I trust to have much
+pleasure in their society, and, sooner or later, that we shall all of us
+derive great strength from our intercourse with them.  I cannot too
+highly applaud the readiness with which these four gentlemen in black
+have thrown aside all the fopperies and flummeries which have their
+origin in a false state of society.  When I last saw them, they looked as
+heroically regardless of the stains and soils incident to our profession
+as I did when I emerged from the gold-mine. . . .
+
+I have milked a cow!!! . . . . The herd has rebelled against the
+usurpation of Miss Fuller's heifer; and, whenever they are turned out of
+the barn, she is compelled to take refuge under our protection.  So much
+did she impede my labors by keeping close to me, that I found it
+necessary to give her two or three gentle pats with a shovel; but still
+she preferred to trust herself to my tender mercies, rather than venture
+among the horns of the herd.  She is not an amiable cow; but she has a
+very intelligent face, and seems to be of a reflective cast of character.
+I doubt not that she will soon perceive the expediency of being on good
+terms with the rest of the sisterhood.
+
+I have not yet been twenty yards from our house and barn; but I begin to
+perceive that this is a beautiful place.  The scenery is of a mild and
+placid character, with nothing bold in its aspect; but I think its
+beauties will grow upon us, and make us love it the more, the longer we
+live here.  There is a brook, so near the house that we shall be able to
+hear its ripple in the summer evenings, . . . . but, for agricultural
+purposes, it has been made to flow in a straight and rectangular fashion,
+which does it infinite damage as a picturesque object. . . .
+
+It was a moment or two before I could think whom you meant by Mr. Dismal
+View.  Why, he is one of the best of the brotherhood, so far as
+cheerfulness goes; for if he do not laugh himself, he makes the rest of
+us laugh continually.  He is the quaintest and queerest personage you
+ever saw,--full of dry jokes, the humor of which is so incorporated with
+the strange twistifications of his physiognomy, that his sayings ought to
+be written down, accompanied with illustrations by Cruikshank.  Then he
+keeps quoting innumerable scraps of Latin, and makes classical allusions,
+while we are turning over the goldmine; and the contrast between the
+nature of his employment and the character of his thoughts is
+irresistibly ludicrous.
+
+I have written this epistle in the parlor, while Farmer Ripley, and
+Farmer Farley, and Farmer Dismal View were talking about their
+agricultural concerns.  So you will not wonder if it is not a classical
+piece of composition, either in point of thought or expression.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Mr. Ripley has bought four black pigs.
+
+
+April 22d.--. . . . What an abominable hand do I scribble!  but I have
+been chopping wood, and turning a grindstone all the forenoon; and such
+occupations are apt to disturb the equilibrium of the muscles and sinews.
+It is an endless surprise to me how much work there is to be done in the
+world; but, thank God, I am able to do my share of it,--and my ability
+increases daily.  What a great, broad-shouldered, elephantine personage I
+shall become by and by!
+
+I milked two cows this morning, and would send you some of the milk, only
+that it is mingled with that which was drawn forth by Mr. Dismal View and
+the rest of the brethren.
+
+
+April 28th.--. . . . I was caught by a cold during my visit to Boston.
+It has not affected my whole frame, but took entire possession of my
+head, as being the weakest and most vulnerable part.  Never did anybody
+sneeze with such vehemence and frequency; and my poor brain has been in a
+thick fog; or, rather, it seemed as if my head were stuffed with coarse
+wool. . . . Sometimes I wanted to wrench it off, and give it a great
+kick, like a football.
+
+This annoyance has made me endure the bad weather with even less than
+ordinary patience; and my faith was so far exhausted that, when they told
+me yesterday that the sun was setting clear, I would not even turn my
+eyes towards the west.  But this morning I am made all over anew, and
+have no greater remnant of my cold than will serve as an excuse for doing
+no work to-day.
+
+The family has been dismal and dolorous throughout the storm.  The night
+before last, William Allen was stung by a wasp on the eyelid; whereupon
+the whole side of his face swelled to an enormous magnitude, so that, at
+the breakfast-table, one half of him looked like a blind giant (the eye
+being closed), and the other half had such a sorrowful and ludicrous
+aspect that I was constrained to laugh out of sheer pity.  The same day,
+a colony of wasps was discovered in my chamber, where they had remained
+throughout the winter, and were now just bestirring themselves, doubtless
+with the intention of stinging me from head to foot  A similar discovery
+was made in Mr. Farley's room.  In short, we seem to have taken up our
+abode in a wasps' nest.  Thus you see a rural life is not one of unbroken
+quiet and serenity.
+
+If the middle of the day prove warm and pleasant, I promise myself to
+take a walk. . . . I have taken one walk with Mr. Farley; and I could
+not have believed that there was such seclusion at so short a distance
+from a great city.  Many spots seem hardly to have been visited for
+ages,--not since John Eliot preached to the Indians here.  If we were to
+travel a thousand miles, we could not escape the world more completely
+than we can here.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+I read no newspapers, and hardly remember who is President, and feel as
+if I had no more concern with what other people trouble themselves about
+than if I dwelt in another planet.
+
+
+May 1st.--. . . . Every day of my life makes me feel more and more how
+seldom a fact is accurately stated; how, almost invariably, when a story
+has passed through the mind of a third person, it becomes, so far as
+regards the impression that it makes in further repetitions, little
+better than a falsehood, and this, too, though the narrator be the
+most truth-seeking person in existence.  How marvellous the tendency
+is! . . .  Is truth a fantasy which we are to pursue forever and never
+grasp?
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+My cold has almost entirely departed.  Were it a sunny day, I should
+consider myself quite fit for labor out of doors; but as the ground is so
+damp, and the atmosphere so chill, and the sky so sullen, I intend to
+keep myself on the sick-list this one day longer, more especially as I
+wish to read Carlyle on Heroes.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+There has been but one flower found in this vicinity,--and that was an
+anemone, a poor, pale, shivering little flower, that had crept under a
+stone-wall for shelter.  Mr. Farley found it, while taking a walk with
+me.
+
+. . . . This is May-day!  Alas, what a difference between the ideal and
+the real!
+
+
+May 4th.--. . . . My cold no longer troubles me, and all the morning I
+have been at work under the clear blue sky, on a hillside.  Sometimes it
+almost seemed as if I were at work in the sky itself, though the material
+in which I wrought was the ore from our gold-mine.  Nevertheless, there
+is nothing so unseemly and disagreeable in this sort of toil as you could
+think.  It defiles the hands, indeed, but not the soul.  This gold ore is
+a pure and wholesome substance, else our mother Nature would not devour
+it so readily, and derive so much nourishment from it, and return such a
+rich abundance of good grain and roots in requital of it.
+
+The farm is growing very beautiful now,--not that we yet see anything of
+the peas and potatoes which we have planted; but the grass blushes green
+on the slopes and hollows.  I wrote that word "blush" almost
+unconsciously; so we will let it go as an inspired utterance.
+
+When I go forth afield, . . . . I look beneath the stonewalls, where the
+verdure is richest, in hopes that a little company of violets, or some
+solitary bud, prophetic of the summer, may be there. . . . But not a
+wildflower have I yet found.  One of the boys gathered some yellow
+cowslips last Sunday; but I am well content not to have found them, for
+they are not precisely what I should like to send to you, though they
+deserve honor and praise, because they come to us when no others will.
+We have our parlor here dressed in evergreen as at Christmas.  That
+beautiful little flower-vase . . . . stands on Mr. Ripley's study-table,
+at which I am now writing.  It contains some daffodils and some
+willow-blossoms.  I brought it here rather than keep it in my chamber,
+because I never sit there, and it gives me many pleasant emotions to look
+round and be surprised--for it is often a surprise, though I well know
+that it is there--by something connected with the idea [of a friend].
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+I do not believe that I should be patient here if I were not engaged in a
+righteous and heaven-blessed way of life.  When I was in the Custom-House
+and then at Salem I was not half so patient. . . .
+
+We had some tableaux last evening, the principal characters being
+sustained by Mr. Farley and Miss Ellen Slade.  They went off very
+well. . . .
+
+I fear it is time for me--sod-compelling as I am--to take the field
+again.
+
+
+May 11th.--. . . . This morning I arose at milking-time in good trim for
+work; and we have been employed partly in an Augean labor of clearing out
+a wood-shed, and partly in carting loads of oak.  This afternoon I hope
+to have something to do in the field, for these jobs about the house are
+not at all to my taste.
+
+
+June 1st.--. . . . I have been too busy to write a long letter by this
+opportunity, for I think this present life of mine gives me an antipathy
+to pen and ink, even more than my Custom-House experience did. . . .
+In the midst of toil, or after a hard day's work in the goldmine, my
+soul obstinately refuses to be poured out on paper.  That abominable
+gold-mine!  Thank God, we anticipate getting rid of its treasures in the
+course of two or three days!  Of all hateful places that is the worst,
+and I shall never comfort myself for having spent so many days of blessed
+sunshine there.  It is my opinion that a man's soul may be buried and
+perish under a dung-heap, or in a furrow of the field, just as well as
+under a pile of money.
+
+Mr. George Bradford will probably be here to-day, so that there will be
+no danger of my being under the necessity of laboring more than I like
+hereafter.  Meantime my health is perfect, and my spirits buoyant, even
+in the gold-mine.
+
+
+August 12th.--. . . . I am very well, and not at all weary, for
+yesterday's rain gave us a holiday; and, moreover, the labors of the farm
+are not so pressing as they have been.  And, joyful thought! in a little
+more than a fortnight; I shall be free from my bondage,--. . . . free to
+enjoy Nature,--free to think and feel! . . . . Even my Custom-House
+experience was not such a thraldom and weariness; my mind and heart were
+free.  O, labor is the curse of the world, and nobody can meddle with it
+without becoming proportionably brutified!  Is it a praiseworthy matter
+that I have spent five golden months in providing food for cows and
+horses?  It is not so.
+
+
+August 18th.--I am very well, only somewhat tired with walking half a
+dozen miles immediately after breakfast, and raking hay ever since.  We
+shall quite finish haying this week, and then there will be no more very
+hard or constant labor during the one other week that I shall remain a
+slave.
+
+
+August 22d.--. . . . I had an indispensable engagement in the bean-field,
+whither, indeed, I was glad to betake myself, in order to escape a
+parting scene with ------.  He was quite out of his wits the night
+before, and I sat up with him till long past midnight.  The farm is
+pleasanter now that he is gone; for his unappeasable wretchedness threw a
+gloom over everything.  Since I last wrote, we have done haying, and the
+remainder of my bondage will probably be light.  It will be a long time,
+however, before I shall know how to make a good use of leisure, either as
+regards enjoyment or literary occupation. . . .
+
+It is extremely doubtful whether Mr. Ripley will succeed in locating his
+community on this farm.  He can bring Mr. E------ to no terms, and the
+more they talk about the matter, the further they appear to be from a
+settlement.  We must form other plans for ourselves; for I can see few or
+no signs that Providence purposes to give us a home here.  I am weary,
+weary, thrice weary, of waiting so many ages.  Whatever may be my gifts,
+I have not hitherto shown a single one that may avail to gather gold.  I
+confess that I have strong hopes of good from this arrangement with
+M------; but when I look at the scanty avails of my past literary
+efforts, I do not feel authorized to expect much from the future.  Well,
+we shall see.  Other persons have bought large estates and built splendid
+mansions with such little books as I mean to write; so that perhaps it is
+not unreasonable to hope that mine may enable me to build a little
+cottage, or, at least, to buy or hire one.  But I am becoming more and
+more convinced that we must not lean upon this community.  Whatever is to
+be done must be done by my own undivided strength.  I shall not remain
+here through the winter, unless with an absolute certainty that there
+will be a house ready for us in the spring.  Otherwise, I shall return to
+Boston;--still, however, considering myself an associate of the
+community, so that we may take advantage of any more favorable aspect of
+affairs.  How much depends on these little books!  Methinks if anything
+could draw out my whole strength, it would be the motives that now press
+upon me.  Yet, after all, I must keep these considerations out of my
+mind, because an external pressure always disturbs instead of assisting
+me.
+
+
+Salem, September 3d.--. . . . But really I should judge it to be twenty
+years since I left Brook Farm; and I take this to be one proof that my
+life there was an unnatural and unsuitable, and therefore an unreal one.
+It already looks like a dream behind me.  The real Me was never an
+associate of the community; there has been a spectral Appearance there,
+sounding the horn at daybreak, and milking the cows, and hoeing potatoes,
+and raking hay, toiling in the sun, and doing me the honor to assume my
+name.  But this spectre was not myself.  Nevertheless, it is somewhat
+remarkable that my hands have, during the past summer, grown very brown
+and rough, insomuch that many people persist in believing that I, after
+all, was the aforesaid spectral horn-sounder, cow-milker, potato-hoer,
+and hay-raker.  But such people do not know a reality from a shadow.
+Enough of nonsense.  I know not exactly how soon I shall return to the
+farm.  Perhaps not sooner than a fortnight, from to-morrow.
+
+
+Salem, September 14th.--. . . . Master Cheever is a very good subject for
+a sketch, especially if he be portrayed in the very act of executing
+judgment on an evildoer.  The little urchin may be laid across his knee,
+and his arms and legs, and whole person indeed, should be flying all
+abroad, in an agony of nervous excitement and corporeal smart.  The
+Master, on the other hand, must be calm, rigid, without anger or pity,
+the very personification of that immitigable law whereby suffering
+follows sin.  Meantime the lion's head should have a sort of sly twist on
+one side of its mouth, and a wink of one eye, in order to give the
+impression that, after all, the crime and the punishment are neither of
+them the most serious things in the world.  I could draw the sketch
+myself, if I had but the use of ------'s magic fingers.
+
+Then the Acadians will do very well for the second sketch.  They might be
+represented as just landing on the wharf; or as presenting themselves
+before Governor Shirley, seated in the great chair.  Another subject
+might be old Cotton Mather, venerable in a three-cornered hat and other
+antique attire, walking the streets of Boston, and lifting up his hands
+to bless the people, while they all revile him.  An old dame should be
+seen, flinging water, or emptying some vials of medicine on his head from
+the latticed window of an old-fashioned house; and all around must be
+tokens of pestilence and mourning,--as a coffin borne along,--a woman or
+children weeping on a doorstep.  Can the tolling of the Old South bell be
+painted?
+
+If not this, then the military council, holden at Boston by the Earl of
+Loudon and other captains and governors, might be taken, his lordship in
+the great chair, an old-fashioned, military figure, with a star on his
+breast.  Some of Louis XV.'s commanders will give the costume.  On the
+table, and scattered about the room, must be symbols of warfare,--swords,
+pistols, plumed hats, a drum, trumpet, and rolled-up banner in one leap.
+It were not amiss to introduce the armed figure of an Indian chief, as
+taking part in the council,--or standing apart from the English, erect
+and stern.
+
+Now for Liberty Tree.  There is an engraving of that famous vegetable in
+Snow's History of Boston.  If represented, I see not what scene can be
+beneath it, save poor Mr. Oliver, taking the oath.  He must have on a
+bag-wig, ruffled sleeves, embroidered coat, and all such ornaments,
+because he is the representative of aristocracy and an artificial system.
+The people may be as rough and wild as the fancy can make them;
+nevertheless, there must be one or two grave, puritanical figures in the
+midst.  Such an one might sit in the great chair, and be an emblem of
+that stern, considerate spirit which brought about the Revolution.  But
+this would be a hard subject.
+
+But what a dolt am I to obtrude my counsel. . . .
+
+
+September 16th.--. . . . I do not very well recollect Monsieur du Miroir,
+but, as to Mrs. Bullfrog, I give her up to the severest reprehension.
+The story was written as a mere experiment in that style; it did not come
+from any depth within me,--neither my heart nor mind had anything to do
+with it.  I recollect that the Man of Adamant seemed a fine idea to nee
+when I looked at it prophetically; but I failed in giving shape and
+substance to the vision which I saw.  I don't think it can be very
+good. . . .
+
+I cannot believe all these stories about ------, because such a rascal
+never could be sustained and countenanced by respectable men.  I take him
+to be neither better nor worse than the average of his tribe.  However, I
+intend to have all my copyrights taken out in my own name; and, if he
+cheat me once, I will have nothing more to do with him, but will
+straightway be cheated by some other publisher,--that being, of course,
+the only alternative.
+
+Governor Shirley's young French wife might be the subject of one of the
+cuts.  She should sit in the great chair,--perhaps with a dressing-glass
+before her,--and arrayed in all manner of fantastic finery, and with an
+outre French air, while the old Governor is leaning fondly over her, and
+a puritanic councillor or two are manifesting their disgust in the
+background.  A negro footman and a French waiting-maid might be in
+attendance.
+
+In Liberty Tree might be a vignette, representing the chair in a very
+shattered, battered, and forlorn condition, after it had been ejected
+from Hutchinson's house.  This would serve to impress the reader with the
+woful vicissitudes of sublunary things. . . .
+
+Did you ever behold such a vile scribble as I write since I became a
+farmer?  My chirography always was abominable, but now it is outrageous.
+
+
+Brook Farm, September 22d, 1841.--. . . . Here I am again, slowly
+adapting myself to the life of this queer community, whence I seem to
+have been absent half a lifetime, so utterly have I grown apart from the
+spirit, and manners of the place. . . . I was most kindly received; and
+the fields and woods looked very pleasant in the bright sunshine of the
+day before yesterday.  I have a friendlier disposition towards the farm,
+now that I am no longer obliged to toil in its stubborn furrows.
+Yesterday and to-day, however, the weather has been intolerable,--cold,
+chill, sullen, so that it is impossible to be on kindly terms with Mother
+Nature. . . .
+
+I doubt whether I shall succeed in writing another volume of
+Grandfather's Library while I remain here.  I have not the sense of
+perfect seclusion which has always been essential to my power of
+producing anything.  It is true, nobody intrudes into my room; but still
+I cannot be quiet.  Nothing here is settled; everything is but beginning
+to arrange itself, and though I would seem to have little to do with
+aught beside my own thoughts, still I cannot but partake of the ferment
+around me.  My mind will not be abstracted.  I must observe, and think,
+and feel, and content myself with catching glimpses of things which may
+be wrought out hereafter.  Perhaps it will be quite as well that I find
+myself unable to set seriously about literary occupation for the present.
+It will be good to have a longer interval between my labor of the body
+and that of the mind.  I shall work to the better purpose after the
+beginning of November.  Meantime I shall see these people and their
+enterprise under a new point of view, and perhaps be able to determine
+whether we have any call to cast in our lot among them.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+I do wish the weather would put off this sulky mood.  Had it not been for
+the warmth and brightness of Monday, when I arrived here, I should have
+supposed that all sunshine had left Brook Farm forever.  I have no
+disposition to take long walks in such a state of the sky; nor have I any
+buoyancy of spirit.  I am a very dull person just at this time.
+
+
+September 25th.--. . . . One thing is certain.  I cannot and will not
+spend the winter here.  The time would be absolutely thrown away so far
+as regards any literary labor to be performed. . . .
+
+The intrusion of an outward necessity into labors of the imagination and
+intellect is, to me, very painful. . . .
+
+I had rather a pleasant walk to a distant meadow a day or two ago, and we
+found white and purple grapes in great abundance, ripe, and gushing with
+rich, pure juice when the hand pressed the clusters.  Did you know what
+treasures of wild grapes there are in this land?  If we dwell here, we
+will make our own wine. . . .
+
+
+September 27th.--. . . . Now, as to the affair with ------, I fully
+confide in your opinion that he intends to make an unequal bargain with
+poor, simple, innocent me,--never having doubted this myself.  But how is
+he to accomplish it?  I am not, nor shall be, the least in his power,
+whereas he is, to a certain extent, in mine.  He might announce his
+projected Library, with me for the editor, in all the newspapers in the
+universe; but still I could not be bound to become the editor, unless by
+my own act; nor should I have the slightest scruple in refusing to be so,
+at the last moment, if he persisted in treating me with injustice.  Then,
+as for his printing Grandfather's Chair, I have the copyright in my own
+hands, and could and would prevent the sale, or make him account to me
+for the profits, in case of need.  Meantime he is making arrangements for
+publishing the Library, contracting with other booksellers, and with
+printers and engravers, and, with every step, making it more difficult
+for himself to draw back.  I, on the other hand, do nothing which I
+should not do if the affair with ------ were at an end; for, if I write a
+book, it will be just as available for some other publisher as for him.
+Instead of getting me into his power by this delay, he has trusted to my
+ignorance and simplicity, and has put himself in my power.
+
+He is not insensible of this.  At our last interview, he himself
+introduced the subject of the bargain, and appeared desirous to close it.
+But I was not prepared,--among other reasons, because I do not yet see
+what materials I shall have for the republications in the Library; the
+works that he has shown me being ill adapted for that purpose; and I wish
+first to see some French and German books which he has sent for to New
+York.  And, before concluding the bargain, I have promised George Hillard
+to consult him, and let him do the business.  Is not this consummate
+discretion? and am I not perfectly safe? . . . . I look at the matter
+with perfect composure, and see all round my own position, and know that
+it is impregnable.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+I was elected to two high offices last night,--viz. to be a trustee of
+the Brook Farm estate, and Chairman of the Committee of Finance! . . . .
+From the nature of my office, I shall have the chief direction of all the
+money affairs of the community, the making of bargains, the supervision
+of receipts and expenditures, etc., etc., etc. . . .
+
+My accession to these august offices does not at all decide the question
+of my remaining here permanently.  I told Mr. Ripley that I could not
+spend the winter at the farm, and that it was quite uncertain whether I
+returned in the spring. . . .
+
+Take no part, I beseech you, in these magnetic miracles.  I am unwilling
+that a power should be exercised on you of which we know neither the
+origin nor consequence, and the phenomena of which seem rather calculated
+to bewilder us than to teach us any truths about the present or future
+state of being. . . . Supposing that the power arises from the
+transfusion of one spirit into another, it seems to me that the
+sacredness of an individual is violated by it; there would be an intruder
+into the holy of holies. . . . I have no faith whatever, that people
+are raised to the seventh heaven, or to any heaven at all, or that they
+gain any insight into the mysteries of life beyond death by means of this
+strange science.  Without distrusting that the phenomena have really
+occurred, I think that they are to be accounted for as the result of a
+material and physical, not of a spiritual, influence.  Opium has produced
+many a brighter vision of heaven, I fancy, and just as susceptible of
+proof as these.  They are dreams. . . . And what delusion can be more
+lamentable and mischievous, than to mistake the physical and material for
+the spiritual? what so miserable as to lose the soul's true, though
+hidden knowledge and consciousness of heaven in the mist of an earth-born
+vision?  If we would know what heaven is before we come thither, let us
+retire into the depths of our own spirits, and we shall find it there
+among holy thoughts and feelings; but let us not degrade high heaven
+and its inhabitants into any such symbols and forms as Miss L------
+describes; do not let an earthly effluence from Mrs. P------'s corporeal
+system bewilder and perhaps contaminate something spiritual and sacred.
+I should as soon think of seeking revelations of the future state in the
+rottenness of the grave,--where so many do seek it. . . .
+
+The view which I take of this matter is caused by no want of faith in
+mysteries; but from a deep reverence of the soul, and of the mysteries
+which it knows within itself, but never transmits to the earthly eye and
+ear.  Keep the imagination sane,--that is one of the truest conditions of
+communion with heaven.
+
+
+Brook Farm, September 26th.--A walk this morning along the Needham road.
+A clear, breezy morning, after nearly a week of cloudy and showery
+weather.  The grass is much more fresh and vivid than it was last month,
+and trees still retain much of their verdure, though here and there is a
+shrub or a bough arrayed in scarlet and gold.  Along the road, in the
+midst of a beaten track, I saw mushrooms or toadstools which had sprung
+up probably during the night.
+
+The houses in this vicinity are, many of them, quite antique, with long,
+sloping roots, commencing at a few feet from the ground, and ending in a
+lofty peak.  Some of them have huge old elms overshadowing the yard.  One
+may see the family sleigh near the door, it having stood there all
+through the summer sunshine, and perhaps with weeds sprouting through the
+crevices of its bottom, the growth of the months since snow departed.
+Old barns, patched and supported by timbers leaning against the sides,
+and stained with the excrement of past ages.
+
+In the forenoon I walked along the edge of the meadow towards Cow Island.
+Large trees, almost a wood, principally of pine with the green
+pasture-glades intermixed, and cattle feeding.  They cease grazing when
+an intruder appears, and look at him with long and wary observation, then
+bend their heads to the pasture again.  Where the firm ground of the
+pasture ceases, the meadow begins, loose, spongy, yielding to the tread,
+sometimes permitting the foot to sink into black mud, or perhaps over
+ankles in water.  Cattle-paths, somewhat firmer than the general surface,
+traverse the dense shrubbery which has overgrown the meadow.  This
+shrubbery consists of small birch, elders, maples, and other trees, with
+here and there white-pines of larger growth.  The whole is tangled and
+wild and thick-set, so that it is necessary to part the nestling stems
+and branches, and go crashing through.  There are creeping plants of
+various sorts which clamber up the trees; and some of them have changed
+color in the slight frosts which already have befallen these low grounds,
+so that one sees a spiral wreath of scarlet leaves twining up to the top
+of a green tree, intermingling its bright hues with their verdure, as if
+all were of one piece.  Sometimes, instead of scarlet, the spiral wreath
+is of a golden yellow.
+
+Within the verge of the meadow, mostly near the firm shore of pasture
+ground, I found several grapevines, hung with an abundance of large
+purple grapes.  The vines had caught hold of maples and alders, and
+climbed to the summit, curling round about and interwreathing their
+twisted folds in so intimate a manner that it was not easy to tell the
+parasite from the supporting tree or shrub.  Sometimes the same vine had
+enveloped several shrubs, and caused a strange, tangled confusion,
+converting all these poor plants to the purpose of its own support, and
+hindering their growing to their own benefit and convenience.  The broad
+vine-leaves, some of them yellow or yellowish-tinged, were seen
+apparently growing on the same stems with the silver-mapled leaves, and
+those of the other shrubs, thus married against their will by the
+conjugal twine; and the purple clusters of grapes hung down from above
+and in the midst so that one might "gather grapes," if not "of thorns,"
+yet of as alien bushes.
+
+One vine had ascended almost to the tip of a large white-pine, spreading
+its leaves and hanging its purple clusters among all its boughs,--still
+climbing and clambering, as if it would not be content till it had
+crowned the very summit with a wreath of its own foliage and bunches of
+grapes.  I mounted high into the tree, and ate the fruit there, while the
+vine wreathed still higher into the depths above my head.  The grapes
+were sour, being not yet fully ripe.  Some of them, however, were sweet
+and pleasant.
+
+
+September 27th.--A ride to Brighton yesterday morning, it being the day
+of the weekly cattle-fair.  William Allen and myself went in a wagon,
+carrying a calf to be sold at the fair.  The calf had not had his
+breakfast, as his mother had preceded him to Brighton, and he kept
+expressing his hunger and discomfort by loud, sonorous baas, especially
+when we passed any cattle in the fields or in the road.  The cows,
+grazing within hearing, expressed great interest, and some of them came
+galloping to the roadside to behold the calf.  Little children, also, on
+their way to school, stopped to laugh and point at poor little Bessie.
+He was a prettily behaved urchin, and kept thrusting his hairy muzzle
+between William and myself, apparently wishing to be stroked and patted.
+It was an ugly thought that his confidence in human nature, and nature in
+general, was to be so ill rewarded as by cutting his throat, and selling
+him in quarters.  This, I suppose, has been his fate before now!
+
+It was a beautiful morning, clear as crystal, with an invigorating, but
+not disagreeable coolness.  The general aspect of the country was as
+green as summer,--greener indeed than mid or latter summer,--and there
+were occasional interminglings of the brilliant hues of autumn, which
+made the scenery more beautiful, both visibly and in sentiment.  We saw
+no absolutely mean nor poor-looking abodes along the road.  There were
+warm and comfortable farm-houses, ancient, with the porch, the sloping
+roof, the antique peak, the clustered chimney, of old times; and modern
+cottages, smart and tasteful; and villas, with terraces before them, and
+dense shade, and wooden urns on pillars, and other such tokens of
+gentility.  Pleasant groves of oak and walnut, also, there were,
+sometimes stretching along valleys, sometimes ascending a hill and
+clothing it all round, so as to make it a great clump of verdure.
+Frequently we passed people with cows, oxen, sheep, or pigs for Brighton
+Fair.
+
+On arriving at Brighton, we found the village thronged with people,
+horses, and vehicles.  Probably there is no place in New England where
+the character of an agricultural population may be so well studied.
+Almost all the farmers within a reasonable distance make it a point, I
+suppose, to attend Brighton Fair pretty frequently, if not on business,
+yet as amateurs.  Then there are all the cattle-people and butchers who
+supply the Boston market, and dealers from far and near; and every man
+who has a cow or a yoke of oxen, whether to sell or buy, goes to Brighton
+on Monday.  There were a thousand or two of cattle in the extensive pens
+belonging to the tavern-keeper, besides many that were standing about.
+One could hardly stir a step without running upon the horns of one
+dilemma or another, in the shape of ox, cow, bull, or ram.  The yeomen
+appeared to be more in their element than I have ever seen them anywhere
+else, except, indeed, at labor,--more so than at musterings and such
+gatherings of amusement.  And yet this was a sort of festal day, as well
+as a day of business.  Most of the people were of a bulky make, with much
+bone and muscle, and some good store of fat, as if they had lived on
+flesh-diet; with mottled faces, too, hard and red, like those of persons
+who adhered to the old fashion of spirit-drinking.  Great, round-paunched
+country squires were there too, sitting under the porch of the tavern, or
+waddling about, whip in hand, discussing the points of the cattle.  There
+were also gentlemen-farmers, neatly, trimly, and fashionably dressed, in
+handsome surtouts, and trousers strapped under their boots.  Yeomen, too,
+in their black or blue Sunday suits, cut by country tailors, and
+awkwardly worn.  Others (like myself) had on the blue stuff frocks which
+they wear in the fields, the most comfortable garments that ever were
+invented.  Country loafers were among the throng,--men who looked
+wistfully at the liquors in the bar, and waited for some friend to invite
+them to drink,--poor, shabby, out-at-elbowed devils.  Also, dandies from
+the city, corseted and buckramed, who had come to see the humors of
+Brighton Fair.  All these, and other varieties of mankind, either
+thronged the spacious bar-room of the hotel, drinking, smoking, talking,
+bargaining, or walked about among the cattle-pens, looking with knowing
+eyes at the horned people.  The owners of the cattle stood near at hand,
+waiting for offers.  There was something indescribable in their aspect,
+that showed them to be the owners, though they mixed among the crowd.
+The cattle, brought from a hundred separate farms, or rather from a
+thousand, seemed to agree very well together, not quarrelling in the
+least.  They almost all had a history, no doubt, if they could but have
+told it.  The cows had each given her milk to support families,--had
+roamed the pastures, and come home to the barn-yard, had been looked upon
+as a sort of member of the domestic circle, and was known by a name, as
+Brindle or Cherry.  The oxen, with their necks bent by the heavy yoke,
+had toiled in the plough-field and in haying-time for many years, and
+knew their master's stall as well as the master himself knew his own
+table.  Even the young steers and the little calves had something of
+domestic sacredness about them; for children had watched their growth,
+and petted them, and played with them.  And here they all were, old and
+young, gathered from their thousand homes to Brighton Fair; whence the
+great chance was that they would go to the slaughter-house, and thence be
+transmitted, in sirloins, joints, and such pieces, to the tables of the
+Boston folk.
+
+William Allen had come to buy four little pigs to take the places of four
+who have now grown large at our farm, and are to be fatted and killed
+within a few weeks.  There were several hundreds, in pens appropriated to
+their use, grunting discordantly, and apparently in no very good humor
+with their companions or the world at large.  Most or many of these pigs
+had been imported from the State of New York.  The drovers set out with a
+large number, and peddle them along the road till they arrive at Brighton
+with the remainder.  William selected four, and bought them at five cents
+per pound.  These poor little porkers were forthwith seized by the tails,
+their legs tied, and they thrown into our wagon, where they kept up a
+continual grunt and squeal till we got home.  Two of them were yellowish,
+or light gold-color, the other two were black and white speckled; and all
+four of very piggish aspect and deportment.  One of them snapped at
+William's finger most spitefully, and bit it to the bone.
+
+All the scene of the Fair was very characteristic and peculiar,--cheerful
+and lively, too, in the bright, warm sun.  I must see it again; for it
+ought to be studied.
+
+
+September 28th.--A picnic party in the woods, yesterday, in honor of
+little Frank Dana's birthday, he being six years old.  I strolled out,
+after dinner, with Mr. Bradford, and in a lonesome glade we met the
+apparition of an Indian chief, dressed in appropriate costume of blanket,
+feathers, and paint, and armed with a musket.  Almost at the same time, a
+young gypsy fortune-teller came from among the trees, and proposed to
+tell my fortune.  While she was doing this, the goddess Diana let fly an
+arrow, and hit me smartly in the hand.  The fortune-teller and goddess
+were in fine contrast, Diana being a blonde, fair, quiet, with a moderate
+composure; and the gypsy (O. G.) a bright, vivacious, dark-haired,
+rich-complexioned damsel,--both of them very pretty, at least pretty
+enough to make fifteen years enchanting.  Accompanied by these denizens
+of the wild wood, we went onward, and came to a company of fantastic
+figures, arranged in a ring for a dance or a game.  There was a Swiss
+girl, an Indian squaw, a negro of the Jim Crow order, one or two
+foresters, and several people in Christian attire, besides children of
+all ages.  Then followed childish games, in which the grown people took
+part with mirth enough,--while I, whose nature it is to be a mere
+spectator both of sport and serious business, lay under the trees and
+looked on.  Meanwhile, Mr. Emerson and Miss Fuller, who arrived an hour
+or two before, came forth into the little glade where we were assembled.
+Here followed much talk.  The ceremonies of the day concluded with a cold
+collation of cakes and fruit.  All was pleasant enough,--an excellent
+piece of work,--"would 't were done!"  It has left a fantastic impression
+on my memory, this intermingling of wild and fabulous characters with
+real and homely ones, in the secluded nook of the woods.  I remember
+them, with the sunlight breaking through overshadowing branches, and they
+appearing and disappearing confusedly,--perhaps starting out of the
+earth; as if the every-day laws of nature were suspended for this
+particular occasion.  There were the children, too, laughing and sporting
+about, as if they were at home among such strange shapes,--and anon
+bursting into loud uproar of lamentation, when the rude gambols of the
+merry archers chanced to overturn them.  And apart, with a shrewd, Yankee
+observation of the scene, stands our friend Orange, a thick-set, sturdy
+figure, enjoying the fun well enough, yet rather laughing with a
+perception of its nonsensicalness than at all entering into the spirit of
+the thing.
+
+This morning I have been helping to gather apples.  The principal farm
+labors at this time are ploughing for winter rye, and breaking up the
+
+greensward for next year's crop of potatoes, gathering squashes, and not
+much else, except such year-round employments as milking.  The crop of
+rye, to be sure, is in process of being thrashed, at odd intervals.
+
+I ought to have mentioned among the diverse and incongruous growths of
+the picnic party our two Spanish boys from Manilla;--Lucas, with his
+heavy features and almost mulatto complexion; and Jose, slighter, with
+rather a feminine face,--not a gay, girlish one, but grave, reserved,
+eying you sometimes with an earnest but secret expression, and causing
+you to question what sort of person he is.
+
+
+Friday, October 1st.--I have been looking at our four swine,--not of the
+last lot, but those in process of fattening.  They lie among the clean
+rye straw in the sty, nestling close together; for they seem to be beasts
+sensitive to the cold, and this is a clear, bright, crystal morning, with
+a cool northwest-wind.  So there lie these four black swine, as deep
+among the straw as they can burrow, the very symbols of slothful ease and
+sensuous comfort.  They seem to be actually oppressed and overburdened
+with comfort.  They are quick to notice any one's approach, and utter a
+low grunt thereupon,--not drawing a breath for that particular purpose,
+but grunting with their ordinary breath,--at the same time turning an
+observant, though dull and sluggish eye upon the visitor.  They seem to
+be involved and buried in their own corporeal substance, and to look
+dimly forth at the outer world.  They breathe not easily, and yet not
+with difficulty nor discomfort; for the very unreadiness and oppression
+with which their breath cones appears to make them sensible of the deep
+sensual satisfaction which they feel.  Swill, the remnant of their last
+meal, remains in the trough, denoting that their food is more abundant
+than even a hog can demand.  Anon they fall asleep, drawing short and
+heavy breaths, which heave their huge sides up and down; but at the
+slightest noise they sluggishly unclose their eyes, and give another
+gentle grunt.  They also grunt among themselves, without any external
+cause; but merely to express their swinish sympathy.  I suppose it is the
+knowledge that these four grunters are doomed to die within two or three
+weeks that gives them a sort of awfulness in my conception.  It makes me
+contrast their present gross substance of fleshly life with the
+nothingness speedily to come.  Meantime the four newly bought pigs are
+running about the cow-yard, lean, active, shrewd, investigating
+everything, as their nature is.  When I throw an apple among them, they
+scramble with one another for the prize, and the successful one scampers
+away to eat it at leisure.  They thrust their snouts into the mud, and
+pick a grain of corn out of the rubbish.  Nothing within their sphere do
+they leave unexamined, grunting all the time with infinite variety of
+expression.  Their language is the most copious of that of any quadruped,
+and, indeed, there is something deeply and indefinably interesting in the
+swinish race.  They appear the more a mystery the longer one gazes at
+them.  It seems as if there were an important meaning to them, if one
+could but find it out.  One interesting trait in them is their perfect
+independence of character.  They care not for man, and will not adapt
+themselves to his notions, as other beasts do; but are true to
+themselves, and act out their hoggish nature.
+
+
+October 7th.--Since Saturday last (it being now Thursday), I have been in
+Boston and Salem, and there has been a violent storm and rain during the
+whole time.  This morning shone as bright as if it meant to make up for
+all the dismalness of the past days.  Our brook, which in the summer was
+no longer a running stream, but stood in pools along its pebbly course,
+is now full from one grassy verge to the other, and hurries along with a
+murmuring rush.  It will continue to swell, I suppose, and in the winter
+and spring it will flood all the broad meadows through which it flows.
+
+I have taken a long walk this forenoon along the Needham road, and across
+the bridge, thence pursuing a cross-road through the woods, parallel with
+the river, which I crossed again at Dedham.  Most of the road lay through
+a growth of young oaks principally.  They still retain their verdure,
+though, looking closely in among them, one perceives the broken sunshine
+falling on a few sere or bright-hued tufts of shrubbery.  In low, marshy
+spots, on the verge of the meadows or along the river-side, there is a
+much more marked autumnal change.  Whole ranges of bushes are there
+painted with many variegated lines, not of the brightest tint, but of a
+sober cheerfulness.  I suppose this is owing more to the late rains than
+to the frost; for a heavy rain changes the foliage somewhat at this
+season.  The first marked frost was seen last Saturday morning.  Soon
+after sunrise it lay, white as snow, over all the grass, and on the tops
+of the fences, and in the yard, on the heap of firewood.  On Sunday, I
+think, there was a fall of snow, which, however, did not lie on the
+ground a moment.
+
+There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on,
+and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.
+The sunshine is peculiarly genial; and in sheltered places, as on the
+side of a bank, or of a barn or house, one becomes acquainted and
+friendly with the sunshine.  It seems to be of a kindly and homely
+nature.  And the green grass, strewn with a few withered leaves, looks
+the more green and beautiful for them.  In summer or spring, Nature is
+farther from one's sympathies.
+
+
+October 8th.--Another gloomy day, lowering with portents of rain close at
+hand.  I have walked up into the pastures this morning, and looked about
+me a little.  The woods present a very diversified appearance just now,
+with perhaps more varieties of tint than they are destined to wear at a
+somewhat later period.  There are some strong yellow hues, and some deep
+red; there are innumerable shades of green, some few having the depth of
+summer; others, partially changed towards yellow, look freshly verdant
+with the delicate tinge of early summer or of May.  Then there is the
+solemn and dark green of the pines.  The effect is, that every tree in
+the wood and every bush among the shrubbery has a separate existence,
+since, confusedly intermingled, each wears its peculiar color, instead of
+being lost in the universal emerald of summer.  And yet there is a
+oneness of effect likewise, when we choose to look at a whole sweep of
+woodland instead of analyzing its component trees.  Scattered over the
+pasture, which the late rains have kept tolerably green, there are spots
+or islands of dusky red,--a deep, substantial line, very well fit to be
+close to the ground,--while the yellow, and light, fantastic shades of
+green soar upward to the sky.  These red spots are the blueberry and
+whortleberry bushes.  The sweetfern is changed mostly to russet, but
+still retains its wild and delightful fragrance when pressed in the hand.
+Wild China-asters are scattered about, but beginning to wither.  A little
+while ago, mushrooms or toadstools were very numerous along the
+wood-paths and by the roadsides, especially after rain.  Some were of
+spotless white, some yellow, and some scarlet.  They are always mysteries
+and objects of interest to me, springing as they do so suddenly from no
+root or seed, and growing one wonders why.  I think, too, that some
+varieties are pretty objects, little fairy tables, centre-tables,
+standing on one leg.  But their growth appears to be checked now, and
+they are of a brown tint and decayed.
+
+The farm business to-day is to dig potatoes.  I worked a little at it.
+The process is to grasp all the stems of a hill and pull them up.  A
+great many of the potatoes are thus pulled, clinging to the stems and to
+one another in curious shapes,--long red things, and little round ones,
+imbedded in the earth which clings to the roots.  These being plucked
+off, the rest of the potatoes are dug out of the hill with a hoe, the
+tops being flung into a heap for the cow-yard.  On my way home, I paused
+to inspect the squash-field.  Some of the squashes lay in heaps as they
+were gathered, presenting much variety of shape and hue,--as golden
+yellow, like great lumps of gold, dark green, striped and variegated; and
+some were round, and some lay curling their long necks, nestling, as it
+were, and seeming as if they had life.
+
+In my walk yesterday forenoon I passed an old house which seemed
+to be quite deserted.  It was a two-story, wooden house, dark and
+weather-beaten.  The front windows, some of them, were shattered and
+open, and others were boarded up.  Trees and shrubbery were growing
+neglected, so as quite to block up the lower part.  There was an aged
+barn near at hand, so ruinous that it had been necessary to prop it up.
+There were two old carts, both of which had lost a wheel.  Everything was
+in keeping.  At first I supposed that there would be no inhabitants in
+such a dilapidated place; but, passing on, I looked back, and saw a
+decrepit and infirm old man at the angle of the house, its fit occupant.
+The grass, however, was very green and beautiful around this dwelling,
+and, the sunshine falling brightly on it, the whole effect was cheerful
+and pleasant.  It seemed as if the world was so glad that this desolate
+old place, where there was never to be any more hope and happiness, could
+not at all lessen the general effect of joy.
+
+I found a small turtle by the roadside, where he had crept to warm
+himself in the genial sunshine.  He had a sable back, and underneath his
+shell was yellow, and at the edges bright scarlet.  His head, tail, and
+claws were striped yellow, black, and red.  He withdrew himself as far as
+he possibly could into his shell, and absolutely refused to peep out,
+even when I put him into the water.  Finally, I threw him into a deep
+pool and left him.  These mailed gentlemen, from the size of a foot or
+more down to an inch, were very numerous in the spring; and now the
+
+smaller kind appear again.
+
+
+Saturday, October 9th.--Still dismal weather.  Our household, being
+composed in great measure of children and young people, is generally a
+cheerful one enough, even in gloomy weather.  For a week past we have
+been especially gladdened with a little seamstress from Boston, about
+seventeen years old; but of such a petite figure, that, at first view,
+one would take her to be hardly in her teens.  She is very vivacious and
+smart, laughing and singing and talking all the time,--talking sensibly;
+but still taking the view of matters that a city girl naturally would.
+If she were larger than she is, and of less pleasing aspect, I think she
+might be intolerable; but being so small, and with a fair skin, and as
+healthy as a wild-flower, she is really very agreeable; and to look at
+her face is like being shone upon by a ray of the sun.  She never walks,
+but bounds and dances along, and this motion, in her diminutive person,
+does not give the idea of violence.  It is like a bird, hopping from twig
+to twig, and chirping merrily all the time.  Sometimes she is rather
+vulgar, but even that works well enough into her character, and accords
+with it.  On continued observation, one discovers that she is not a
+little girl, but really a little woman, with all the prerogatives and
+liabilities of a woman.  This gives a new aspect to her, while the
+girlish impression still remains, and is strangely combined with the
+sense that this frolicsome maiden has the material for the sober bearing
+of a wife.  She romps with the boys, runs races with them in the yard,
+and up and down the stairs, and is heard scolding laughingly at their
+rough play.  She asks William Allen to place her "on top of that horse,"
+whereupon he puts his large brown hands about her waist, and, swinging
+her to and fro, lifts her on horseback.  William threatens to rivet two
+horseshoes round her neck, for having clambered, with the other girls and
+boys, upon a load of hay, whereby the said load lost its balance and slid
+off the cart.  She strings the seed-berries of roses together, making a
+scarlet necklace of them, which she fastens about her throat.  She
+gathers flowers of everlasting to wear in her bonnet, arranging them with
+the skill of a dress-maker.  In the evening, she sits singing by the
+hour, with the musical part of the establishment, often breaking into
+laughter, whereto she is incited by the tricks of the boys.  The last
+thing one hears of her, she is tripping up stairs to bed, talking
+lightsomely or warbling; and one meets her in the morning, the very image
+of bright morn itself, smiling briskly at you, so that one takes her for
+a promise of cheerfulness through the day.  Be it said, with all the
+rest, that there is a perfect maiden modesty in her deportment.  She has
+just gone away, and the last I saw of her was her vivacious face peeping
+through the curtain of the cariole, and nodding a gay farewell to the
+family, who were shouting their adieus at the door.  With her other
+merits, she is an excellent daughter, and supports her mother by the
+labor of her hands.  It would be difficult to conceive beforehand how
+much can be added to the enjoyment of a household by mere sunniness of
+temper and liveliness of disposition; for her intellect is very ordinary,
+and she never says anything worth hearing, or even laughing at, in
+itself.  But she herself is an expression well worth studying.
+
+
+Brook Farm, October 9th.--A walk this afternoon to Cow Island.  The
+clouds had broken away towards noon, and let forth a few sunbeams, and
+more and more blue sky ventured to appear, till at last it was really
+warm and sunny,--indeed, rather too warm in the sheltered hollows, though
+it is delightful to be too warm now, after so much stormy chillness.  O
+the beauty of grassy slopes, and the hollow ways of paths winding between
+hills, and the intervals between the road and wood-lots, where Summer
+lingers and sits down, strewing dandelions of gold, and blue asters, as
+her parting gifts and memorials!  I went to a grapevine, which I have
+already visited several times, and found some clusters of grapes still
+remaining, and now perfectly ripe.  Coming within view of the river, I
+saw several wild ducks under the shadow of the opposite shore, which was
+high, and covered with a grove of pines.  I should not have discovered
+the ducks had they not risen and skimmed the surface of the glassy
+stream, breaking its dark water with a bright streak, and, sweeping
+round, gradually rose high enough to fly away.  I likewise started a
+partridge just within the verge of the woods, and in another place a
+large squirrel ran across the wood-path from one shelter of trees to the
+other.  Small birds, in flocks, were flitting about the fields, seeking
+and finding I know not what sort of food.  There were little fish, also,
+darting in shoals through the pools and depths of the brooks, which are
+now replenished to their brims, and rush towards the river with a swift,
+amber-colored current.
+
+Cow Island is not an island,--at least, at this season,--though, I
+believe, in the time of freshets, the marshy Charles floods the meadows
+all round about it, and extends across its communication with the
+mainland.  The path to it is a very secluded one, threading a wood of
+pines, and just wide enough to admit the loads of meadow hay which are
+drawn from the splashy shore of the river.  The island has a growth of
+stately pines, with tall and ponderous stems, standing at distance enough
+to admit the eve to travel far among them; and, as there is no
+underbrush, the effect is somewhat like looking among the pillars of a
+church.
+
+I returned home by the high-road.  On my right, separated from the road
+by a level field, perhaps fifty yards across, was a range of young
+forest-trees, dressed in their garb of autumnal glory.  The sun shone
+directly upon them; and sunlight is like the breath of life to the pomp
+of autumn.  In its absence, one doubts whether there be any truth in what
+poets have told about the splendor of an American autumn; but when this
+charm is added, one feels that the effect is beyond description.  As I
+beheld it to-day, there was nothing dazzling; it was gentle and mild,
+though brilliant and diversified, and had a most quiet and pensive
+influence.  And yet there were some trees that seemed really made of
+sunshine, and others were of a sunny red, and the whole picture was
+painted with but little relief of darksome lines, only a few evergreens.
+But there was nothing inharmonious; and, on closer examination, it
+appeared that all the tints had a relationship among themselves.  And
+this, I suppose, is the reason that, while nature seems to scatter them
+so carelessly, they still never shock the beholder by their contrasts,
+nor disturb, but only soothe.  The brilliant scarlet and the brilliant
+yellow are different lines of the maple-leaves, and the first changes
+into the last.  I saw one maple-tree, its centre yellow as gold, set in a
+framework of red.  The native poplars have different shades of green,
+verging towards yellow, and are very cheerful in the sunshine.  Most of
+the oak-leaves have still the deep verdure of summer; but where a change
+has taken place, it is into a russet-red, warm, but sober.  These colors,
+infinitely varied by the progress which different trees have made in
+their decay, constitute almost the whole glory of autumnal woods; but it
+is impossible to conceive how much is done with such scanty materials.
+In my whole walk I saw only one man, and he was at a distance, in the
+obscurity of the trees.  He had a horse and a wagon, and was getting a
+load of dry brushwood.
+
+
+Sunday, October 10th.--I visited my grapevine this afternoon, and ate the
+last of its clusters.  This vine climbs around a young maple-tree, which
+has now assumed the yellow leaf.  The leaves of the vine are more decayed
+than those of the maple.  Thence to Cow Island, a solemn and thoughtful
+walk.  Returned by another path of the width of a wagon, passing through
+a grove of hard wood, the lightsome hues of which make the walk more
+cheerful than among the pines.  The roots of oaks emerged from the soil,
+and contorted themselves across the path.  The sunlight, also, broke
+across in spots, and otherwheres the shadow was deep; but still there was
+intermingling enough of bright hues to keep off the gloom from the whole
+path.
+
+Brooks and pools have a peculiar aspect at this season.  One knows that
+the water must be cold, and one shivers a little at the sight of it; and
+yet the grass about the pool may be of the deepest green, and the sun may
+be shining into it.  The withered leaves which overhanging trees shed
+upon its surface contribute much to the effect.
+
+Insects have mostly vanished in the fields and woods.  I hear locusts
+yet, singing in the sunny hours, and crickets have not yet finished their
+song.  Once in a while I see a caterpillar,--this afternoon, for
+instance, a red, hairy one, with black head and tail.  They do not appear
+to be active, and it makes one rather melancholy to look at them.
+
+
+Tuesday, October 12th.--The cawing of the crow resounds among the woods.
+A sentinel is aware of your approach a great way off, and gives the alarm
+to his comrades loudly and eagerly,--Caw, caw, caw!  Immediately the
+whole conclave replies, and you behold them rising above the trees,
+flapping darkly, and winging their way to deeper solitudes.  Sometimes,
+however, they remain till you come near enough to discern their sable
+gravity of aspect, each occupying a separate bough, or perhaps the
+blasted tip-top of a pine.  As you approach, one after another, with loud
+cawing, flaps his wings and throws himself upon the air.
+
+There is hardly a more striking feature in the landscape nowadays than
+the red patches of blueberry and whortleberry bushes, as seen on a
+sloping hillside, like islands among the grass, with trees growing in
+them; or crowning the summit of a bare, brown hill with their somewhat
+russet liveliness; or circling round the base of an earth-imbedded rock.
+At a distance, this hue, clothing spots and patches of the earth, looks
+more like a picture than anything else,--yet such a picture as I never
+saw painted.
+
+The oaks are now beginning to look sere, and their leaves have withered
+borders.  It is pleasant to notice the wide circle of greener grass
+beneath the circumference of an overshadowing oak.  Passing an orchard,
+one hears an uneasy rustling in the trees, and not as if they were
+struggling with the wind.  Scattered about are barrels to contain the
+gathered apples; and perhaps a great heap of golden or scarlet apples is
+collected in one place.
+
+
+Wednesday, October 13th.--A good view, from an upland swell of our
+pasture, across the valley of the river Charles.  There is the meadow, as
+level as a floor, and carpeted with green, perhaps two miles from the
+rising ground on this side of the river to that on the opposite side.
+The stream winds through the midst of the flat space, without any banks
+at all; for it fills its bed almost to the brim, and bathes the meadow
+grass on either side.  A tuft of shrubbery, at broken intervals, is
+scattered along its border; and thus it meanders sluggishly along,
+without other life than what it gains from gleaming in the sun.  Now,
+into the broad, smooth meadow, as into a lake, capes and headlands put
+themselves forth, and shores of firm woodland border it, covered with
+variegated foliage, making the contrast so much the stronger of their
+height and rough outline with the even spread of the plain.  And beyond,
+and far away, rises a long, gradual swell of country, covered with an
+apparently dense growth of foliage for miles, till the horizon terminates
+it; and here and there is a house, or perhaps two, among the contiguity
+of trees.  Everywhere the trees wear their autumnal dress, so that the
+whole landscape is red, russet, orange, and yellow, blending in the
+distance into a rich tint of brown-orange, or nearly that,--except the
+green expanse so definitely hemmed in by the higher ground.
+
+I took a long walk this morning, going first nearly to Newton, thence
+nearly to Brighton, thence to Jamaica Plain, and thence home.  It was a
+fine morning, with a northwest-wind; cool when facing the wind, but warm
+and most genially pleasant in sheltered spots; and warm enough everywhere
+while I was in motion.  I traversed most of the by-ways which offered
+themselves to me; and, passing through one in which there was a double
+line of grass between the wheel-tracks and that of the horses' feet, I
+came to where had once stood a farm-house, which appeared to have been
+recently torn down.  Most of the old timber and boards had been carted
+away; a pile of it, however, remained.  The cellar of the house was
+uncovered, and beside it stood the base and middle height of the chimney.
+The oven, in which household bread had been baked for daily food, and
+puddings and cake and jolly pumpkin-pies for festivals, opened its month,
+being deprived of its iron door.  The fireplace was close at hand.  All
+round the site of the house was a pleasant, sunny, green space, with old
+fruit-trees in pretty fair condition, though aged.  There was a barn,
+also aged, but in decent repair; and a ruinous shed, on the corner of
+which was nailed a boy's windmill, where it had probably been turning and
+clattering for years together, till now it was black with time and
+weather-stain.  It was broken, but still it went round whenever the wind
+stirred.  The spot was entirely secluded, there being no other house
+within a mile or two.
+
+No language can give an idea of the beauty and glory of the trees, just
+at this moment.  It would be easy, by a process of word-daubing, to set
+down a confused group of gorgeous colors, like a bunch of tangled skeins
+of bright silk; but there is nothing of the reality in the glare which
+would thus be produced.  And yet the splendor both of individual clusters
+and of whole scenes is unsurpassable.  The oaks are now far advanced in
+their change of hue; and, in certain positions relatively to the sun,
+they light up and gleam with a most magnificent deep gold, varying
+according as portions of the foliage are in shadow or sunlight.  On the
+sides which receive the direct rays, the effect is altogether rich; and
+in other points of view it is equally beautiful, if less brilliant.  This
+color of the oak is more superb than the lighter yellow of the maples and
+walnuts.  The whole landscape is now covered with this indescribable
+pomp; it is discerned on the uplands afar off; and Blue Hill in Milton,
+at the distance of several miles, actually glistens with rich, dark
+light,--no, not glistens, nor gleams,--but perhaps to say glows subduedly
+will be a truer expression for it.
+
+Met few people this morning; a grown girl, in company with a little boy,
+gathering barberries in a secluded lane; a portly, autumnal gentleman,
+wrapped in a greatcoat, who asked the way to Mr. Joseph Goddard's; and a
+fish-cart from the city, the driver of which sounded his horn along the
+lonesome way.
+
+
+Monday, October 18th.--There has been a succession of days which were
+cold and bright in the forenoon, and gray, sullen, and chill towards
+night.  The woods have now taken a soberer tint than they wore at my last
+date.  Many of the shrubs which looked brightest a little while ago are
+now wholly bare of leaves.  The oaks have generally a russet-brown shade,
+although some of them are still green, as are likewise other scattered
+trees in the forests.  The bright yellow and the rich scarlet are no more
+to be seen.  Scarcely any of them will now bear a close examination; for
+this shows them to be rugged, wilted, and of faded, frost-bitten hue; but
+at a distance, and in the mass, and enlivened by the sun, they have still
+somewhat of the varied splendor which distinguished them a week ago.  It
+is wonderful what a difference the sunshine makes; it is like varnish,
+bringing out the hidden veins in a piece of rich wood.  In the cold, gray
+atmosphere, such as that of most of our afternoons now, the landscape
+lies dark,--brown, and in a much deeper shadow than if it were clothed in
+green.  But, perchance, a gleam of sun falls on a certain spot of distant
+shrubbery or woodland, and we see it brighten with many lines, standing
+forth prominently from the dimness around it.  The sunlight gradually
+spreads, and the whole sombre scene is changed to a motley picture,--the
+sun bringing out many shades of color, and converting its gloom to an
+almost laughing cheerfulness.  At such times I almost doubt whether the
+foliage has lost any of its brilliancy.  But the clouds intercept the sun
+again, and lo! old Autumn appears, clad in his cloak of russet-brown.
+
+Beautiful now, while the general landscape lies in shadow, looks the
+summit of a distant hill (say a mile off), with the sunshine brightening
+the trees that cover it.  It is noticeable that the outlines of hills,
+and the whole bulk of them at the distance of several miles, become
+stronger, denser, and more substantial in this autumn atmosphere and in
+these autumnal tints than in summer.  Then they looked blue, misty, and
+dim.  Now they show their great humpbacks more plainly, as if they had
+drawn nearer to us.
+
+A waste of shrubbery and small trees, such as overruns the borders of the
+meadows for miles together, looks much more rugged, wild, and savage in
+its present brown color than when clad in green.
+
+I passed through a very pleasant wood-path yesterday, quite shut in and
+sheltered by trees that had not thrown off their yellow robes.  The sun
+shone strongly in among them, and quite kindled them; so that the path
+was brighter for their shade than if it had been quite exposed to the
+sun.
+
+In the village graveyard, which lies contiguous to the street, I saw a
+man digging a grave, and one inhabitant after another turned aside from
+his way to look into the grave and talk with the digger.  I heard him
+laugh, with the traditionary mirthfulness of men of that occupation.
+
+In the hollow of the woods, yesterday afternoon, I lay a long while
+watching a squirrel, who was capering about among the trees over my head
+(oaks and white-pines, so close together that their branches
+intermingled).  The squirrel seemed not to approve of my presence,
+for he frequently uttered a sharp, quick, angry noise, like that of a
+scissors-grinder's wheel.  Sometimes I could see him sitting on an
+impending bough, with his tail over his hack, looking down pryingly upon
+me.  It seems to be a natural posture with him, to sit on his hind legs,
+holding up his fore paws.  Anon, with a peculiarly quick start, he would
+scramble along the branch, and be lost to sight in another part of the
+tree, whence his shrill chatter would again be heard.  Then I would see
+him rapidly descending the trunk, and running along the ground; and a
+moment afterwards, casting my eye upward, I beheld him flitting like a
+bird among the high limbs at the summit, directly above me.  Afterwards,
+he apparently became accustomed to my society, and set about some
+business of his own.  He came down to the ground, took up a piece of a
+decayed bough (a heavy burden for such a small personage), and, with this
+in his mouth, again climbed up and passed from the branches of one tree
+to those of another, and thus onward and onward till he went out of
+sight.  Shortly afterwards he returned for another burden, and this he
+repeated several times.  I suppose he was building a nest,--at least, I
+know not what else could have been his object.  Never was there such an
+active, cheerful, choleric, continually-in-motion fellow as this little
+red squirrel, talking to himself, chattering at me, and as sociable in
+his own person as if he had half a dozen companions, instead of being
+alone in the lonesome wood.  Indeed, he flitted about so quickly, and
+showed himself in different places so suddenly, that I was in some doubt
+whether there were not two or three of them.
+
+I must mention again the very beautiful effect produced by the masses of
+berry-bushes, lying like scarlet islands in the midst of withered
+pasture-ground, or crowning the tops of barren hills.  Their hue, at a
+distance, is lustrous scarlet, although it does not look nearly as bright
+and gorgeous when examined close at hand.  But at a proper distance it is
+a beautiful fringe on Autumn's petticoat.
+
+
+Friday, October 22d.--A continued succession of unpleasant, Novembery
+days, and autumn has made rapid progress in the work of decay.  It is now
+somewhat of a rare good fortune to find a verdant, grassy spot, on some
+slope, or in a dell; and even such seldom-seen oases are bestrewn with
+dried brown leaves,--which, however, methinks, make the short, fresh
+grass look greener around them.  Dry leaves are now plentiful everywhere,
+save where there are none but pine-trees.  They rustle beneath the tread,
+and there is nothing more autumnal than that sound.  Nevertheless, in a
+walk this afternoon, I have seen two oaks which retained almost the
+greenness of summer.  They grew close to the huge Pulpit Rock, so that
+portions of their trunks appeared to grasp the rough surface; and they
+were rooted beneath it, and, ascending high into the air, overshadowed
+the gray crag with verdure.  Other oaks, here and there, have a few green
+leaves or boughs among their rustling and rugged shade.
+
+Yet, dreary as the woods are in a bleak, sullen day, there is a very
+peculiar sense of warmth and a sort of richness of effect in the slope of
+a bank and in sheltered spots, where bright sunshine falls, and the brown
+oaken foliage is gladdened by it.  There is then a feeling of comfort,
+and consequently of heart-warmth, which cannot be experienced in summer.
+
+I walked this afternoon along a pleasant wood-path, gently winding, so
+that but little of it could be seen at a time, and going up and down
+small mounds, now plunging into a denser shadow and now emerging
+from it.  Part of the way it was strewn with the dusky, yellow leaves of
+white-pines,--the cast-off garments of last year; part of the way with
+green grass, close-cropped, and very fresh for the season.  Sometimes the
+trees met across it; sometimes it was bordered on one side by an old
+rail-fence of moss-grown cedar, with bushes sprouting beneath it, and
+thrusting their branches through it; sometimes by a stone-wall of unknown
+antiquity, older than the wood it closed in.  A stone-wall, when
+shrubbery has grown around it, and thrust its roots beneath it, becomes a
+very pleasant and meditative object.  It does not belong too evidently to
+man, having been built so long ago.  It seems a part of nature.
+
+Yesterday I found two mushrooms in the woods, probably of the preceding
+night's growth.  Also I saw a mosquito, frost-pinched, and so wretched
+that I felt avenged for all the injuries which his tribe inflicted upon
+me last summer, and so did not molest this lone survivor.
+
+Walnuts in their green rinds are falling from the trees, and so are
+chestnut-burrs.
+
+I found a maple-leaf to-day, yellow all over, except its extremest point,
+which was bright scarlet.  It looked as if a drop of blood were hanging
+from it.  The first change of the maple-leaf is to scarlet; the next, to
+yellow.  Then it withers, wilts, and drops off, as most of them have
+already done.
+
+
+October 27th.--Fringed gentians,--I found the last, probably, that will
+be seen this year, growing on the margin of the brook.
+
+
+1842.--Some man of powerful character to command a person, morally
+subjected to him, to perform some act.  The commanding person suddenly to
+die; and, for all the rest of his life, the subjected one continues to
+perform that act.
+
+"Solomon dies during the building of the temple, but his body remains
+leaning on a staff, and overlooking the workmen, as if it were alive."
+
+A tri-weekly paper, to be called the Tertian Ague.
+
+Subject for a picture,--Satan's reappearance in Pandemonium, shining out
+from a mist, with "shape star-bright."
+
+Five points of Theology,--Five Points at New York.
+
+It seems a greater pity that an accomplished worker with the hand should
+perish prematurely, than a person of great intellect; because
+intellectual arts may be cultivated in the next world, but not physical
+ones.
+
+To trace out the influence of a frightful and disgraceful crime in
+debasing and destroying a character naturally high and noble, the guilty
+person being alone conscious of the crime.
+
+A man, virtuous in his general conduct, but committing habitually some
+monstrous crime,--as murder,--and doing this without the sense of guilt,
+but with a peaceful conscience,--habit, probably, reconciling him to it;
+but something (for instance, discovery) occurs to make him sensible of
+his enormity.  His horror then.
+
+The strangeness, if they could be foreseen and forethought, of events
+which do not seem so strange after they have happened.  As, for instance,
+to muse over a child's cradle, and foresee all the persons in different
+parts of the world with whom he would have relations.
+
+A man to swallow a small snake,--and it to be a symbol of a cherished
+sin.
+
+Questions as to unsettled points of history, and mysteries of nature, to
+be asked of a mesmerized person.
+
+Gordier, a young man of the Island of Jersey, was paying his addresses to
+a young lady of Guernsey.  He visited the latter island, intending to be
+married.  He disappeared on his way from the beach to his mistress's
+residence, and was afterwards found dead in a cavity of the rocks.  After
+a time, Galliard, a merchant of Guernsey, paid his addresses to the young
+lady; but she always felt a strong, unaccountable antipathy to him.  He
+presented her with a beautiful trinket.  The mother of Gordier, chancing
+to see this trinket, recognized it as having been bought by her dead son
+as a present for his mistress.  She expired on learning this; and
+Galliard, being suspected of the murder, committed suicide.
+
+The cure of Montreux in Switzerland, ninety-six years old, still vigorous
+in mind and body, and able to preach.  He had a twin-brother, also a
+preacher, and the exact likeness of himself.  Sometimes strangers have
+beheld a white-haired, venerable, clerical personage, nearly a century
+old; and, upon riding a few miles farther, have been astonished to meet
+again this white-haired, venerable, century-old personage.
+
+When the body of Lord Mohun (killed in a duel) was carried home,
+bleeding, to his house, Lady Mohun was very angry because it was "flung
+upon the best bed."
+
+A prophecy, somewhat in the style of Swift's about Partridge, but
+embracing various events and personages.
+
+An incident that befell Dr. Harris, while a Junior at college.  Being in
+great want of money to buy shirts or other necessaries, and not knowing
+how to obtain it, he set out on a walk from Cambridge to Boston.  On the
+way, he cut a stick, and, after walking a short distance, perceived that
+something had become attached to the end of it.  It proved to be a gold
+ring, with the motto, "God speed thee, friend."
+
+Brobdingnag lay on the northwest coast of the American continent.
+
+People with false hair and other artifices may be supposed to deceive
+Death himself; so that he does not know when their hour is come.
+
+Bees are sometimes drowned (or suffocated) in the honey which they
+collect.  So some writers are lost in their collected learning.
+
+Advice of Lady Pepperell's father on her marriage,--never to work one
+moment after Saturday sunset,--never to lay down her knitting except in
+the middle of the needle,--always to rise with the sun,--to pass an hour
+daily with the housekeeper,--to visit every room daily from garret to
+cellar,--to attend herself to the brewing of beer and the baking of
+bread,--and to instruct every member of the family in their religious
+duties.
+
+Service of plate, presented by the city of London to Sir William
+Pepperell, together with a table of solid silver.  The table very narrow,
+but long; the articles of plate numerous, but of small dimensions,--the
+tureen not holding more than three pints.  At the close of the
+Revolution, when the Pepperell and Sparhawk property was confiscated,
+this plate was sent to the grandson of Sir William, in London.  It was so
+valuable, that Sheriff Moulton of old York, with six well-armed men,
+accompanied it to Boston.  Pepperell's only daughter married Colonel
+Sparhawk, a fine gentleman of the day.  Andrew Pepperell, the son, was
+rejected by a young lady (afterwards the mother of Mrs. General Knox), to
+whom he was on the point of marriage, as being addicted to low company
+and low pleasures.  The lover, two days afterwards, in the streets of
+Portsmouth, was sun-struck, and fell down dead.  Sir William had built an
+elegant house for his son and his intended wife; but after the death of
+the former he never entered it.  He lost his cheerfulness and social
+qualities, and gave up intercourse with people, except on business.  Very
+anxious to secure his property to his descendants by the provisions of
+his will, which was drawn up by Judge Sewall, then a young lawyer.  Yet
+the Judge lived to see two of Sir William's grandchildren so reduced that
+they were to have been numbered among the town's poor, and were only
+rescued from this fate by private charity.
+
+The arms and crest of the Pepperell family were displayed over the door
+of every room in Sir William's house.  In Colonel Sparhawk's house there
+were forty portraits, most of them in full length.  The house built for
+Sir William's son was occupied as barracks during the Revolution, and
+much injured.  A few years after the peace, it was blown down by a
+violent tempest, and finally no vestige of it was left, but there
+remained only a summer-house and the family tomb.
+
+At Sir William's death, his mansion was hung with black, while the body
+lay in state for a week.  All the Sparhawk portraits were covered with
+black crape, and the family pew was draped with black.  Two oxen were
+roasted, and liquid hospitality dispensed in proportion.
+
+Old lady's dress seventy or eighty years ago.  Brown brocade gown, with a
+nice lawn handkerchief and apron,--short sleeves, with a little ruffle,
+just below the elbow,--black mittens,--a lawn cap, with rich lace
+border,--a black velvet hood on the back of the head, tied with black
+ribbon under the chin.  She sat in an old-fashioned easy-chair, in a
+small, low parlor,--the wainscot painted entirely black, and the walls
+hung with a dark velvet paper.
+
+A table, stationary ever since the house was built, extending the whole
+length of a room.  One end was raised two steps higher than the rest.
+The Lady Ursula, an early Colonial heroine, was wont to dine at the upper
+end, while her servants sat below.  This was in the kitchen.  An old
+garden and summer-house, and roses, currant-bushes, and tulips, which
+Lady Ursula had brought from Grondale Abbey in Old England.  Although a
+hundred and fifty years before, and though their roots were propagated
+all over the country, they were still flourishing in the original garden.
+This Lady Ursula was the daughter of Lord Thomas Cutts of Grondale Abbey
+in England.  She had been in love with an officer named Fowler, who was
+supposed to have been slain in battle.  After the death of her father and
+mother, Lady Ursula came to Kittery, bringing twenty men-servants and
+several women.  After a time, a letter arrived from her lover, who was
+not killed, but merely a prisoner to the French.  He announced his
+purpose to come to America, where he would arrive in October.  A few days
+after the letter came, she went out in a low carriage to visit her
+work-people, and was blessing the food for their luncheon, when she fell
+dead, struck by an Indian tomahawk, as did all the rest save one.  They
+were buried where the massacre took place, and a stone was erected, which
+(possibly) still remains.  The lady's family had a grant from Sir
+Ferdinando Gorges of the territory thereabout, and her brother had
+likewise come over and settled in the vicinity.  I believe very little of
+this story.  Long afterwards, at about the commencement of the
+Revolution, a descendant of Fowler came from England, and applied to the
+Judge of Probate to search the records for a will, supposed to have been
+made by Lady Ursula in favor of her lover as soon as she heard of his
+existence.  In the mean time the estate had been sold to Colonel Whipple.
+No will could be found.  (Lady Ursula was old Mrs. Cutts, widow of
+President Cutts.)
+
+The mode of living of Lady Ursula's brother in Kittery.  A drawbridge to
+the house, which was raised every evening, and lowered in the morning,
+for the laborers and the family to pass out.  They kept thirty cows, a
+hundred sheep, and several horses.  The house spacious,--one room large
+enough to contain forty or fifty guests.  Two silver branches for
+candles,--the walls ornamented with paintings and needlework.  The floors
+were daily rubbed with wax, and shone like a mahogany table.  A domestic
+chaplain, who said prayers every morning and evening in a small apartment
+called the chapel.  Also a steward and butler.  The family attended the
+Episcopal Church at Christmas, Easter, and Good Friday, and gave a grand
+entertainment once a year.
+
+Madam Cutts, at the last of these entertainments, wore a black damask
+gown, and cuffs with double lace ruffles, velvet shoes, blue silk
+stockings, white and silver stomacher.  The daughter and granddaughters
+in rich brocades and yellow satin.  Old Major Cutts in brown velvet,
+laced with gold, and a large wig.  The parson in his silk cassock, and
+his helpmate in brown damask.  Old General Atkinson in scarlet velvet,
+and his wife and daughters in white damask.  The Governor in black
+velvet, and his lady in crimson tabby trimmed with silver.  The ladies
+wore bell-hoops, high-heeled shoes, paste buckles, silk stockings, and
+enormously high head-dresses, with lappets of Brussels lace hanging
+thence to the waist.
+
+Among the eatables, a silver tub of the capacity of four gallons, holding
+a pyramid of pancakes powdered with white sugar.
+
+The date assigned to all this about 1690.
+
+What is the price of a day's labor in Lapland, where the sun never sets
+for six months?
+
+Miss Asphyxia Davis!
+
+A life, generally of a grave hue, may be said to be embroidered with
+occasional sports and fantasies.
+
+A father confessor,--his reflections on character, and the contrast of
+the inward man with the outward, as he looks around on his congregation,
+all whose secret sins are known to him.
+
+A person with an ice-cold hand,--his right hand, which people ever
+afterwards remember when once they have grasped it.
+
+A stove possessed by a Devil.
+
+
+June 1st, 1842.--One of my chief amusements is to see the boys sail their
+miniature vessels on the Frog Pond.  There is a great variety of shipping
+owned among the young people, and they appear to have a considerable
+knowledge of the art of managing vessels.  There is a full-rigged
+man-of-war, with, I believe, every spar, rope, and sail, that sometimes
+makes its appearance; and, when on a voyage across the pond, it so
+identically resembles a great ship, except in size, that it has the
+effect of a picture.  All its motions,--its tossing up and down on the
+small waves, and its sinking and rising in a calm swell, its heeling to
+the breeze,--the whole effect, in short, is that of a real ship at sea;
+while, moreover, there is something that kindles the imagination more
+than the reality would do.  If we see a real, great ship, the mind grasps
+and possesses, within its real clutch, all that there is of it; while
+here the mimic ship is the representation of an ideal one, and so gives
+us a more imaginative pleasure.  There are many schooners that ply to and
+fro on the pond, and pilot-boats, all perfectly rigged.  I saw a race,
+the other day, between the ship above mentioned and a pilot-boat, in
+which the latter came off conqueror.  The boys appear to be well
+acquainted with all the ropes and sails, and can call them by their
+nautical names.  One of the owners of the vessels remains on one side of
+the pond, and the other on the opposite side, and so they send the little
+bark to and fro, like merchants of different countries, consigning their
+vessels to one another.
+
+Generally, when any vessel is on the pond, there are full-grown
+spectators, who look on with as much interest as the boys themselves.
+Towards sunset, this is especially the case: for then are seen young
+girls and their lovers; mothers, with their little boys in hand;
+schoolgirls, beating hoops round about, and occasionally running to the
+side of the pond; rough tars, or perhaps masters or young mates of
+vessels, who make remarks about the miniature shipping, and occasionally
+give professional advice to the navigators; visitors from the country;
+gloved and caned young gentlemen;--in short, everybody stops to take a
+look.  In the mean time; dogs are continually plunging into the pond, and
+swimming about, with noses pointed upward, and snatching at floating
+chips; then, emerging, they shake themselves, scattering a horizontal
+shower on the clean gowns of ladies and trousers of gentlemen; then
+scamper to and fro on the grass, with joyous barks.
+
+Some boys cast off lines of twine with pin-hooks, and perhaps pull out a
+horned-pout,--that being, I think, the only kind of fish that inhabits
+the Frog Pond.
+
+The ship-of-war above mentioned is about three feet from stem to stern,
+or possibly a few inches more.  This, if I mistake not, was the size of a
+ship-of-the-line in the navy of Liliput.
+
+Fancy pictures of familiar places which one has never been in, as the
+green-room of a theatre, etc.
+
+The famous characters of history,--to imagine their spirits now extant on
+earth, in the guise of various public or private personages.
+
+The case quoted in Combe's Physiology of a young man of great talents and
+profound knowledge of chemistry, who had in view some new discovery of
+importance.  In order to put his mind into the highest possible activity,
+he shut himself up for several successive days, and used various methods
+of excitement.  He had a singing-girl, he drank spirits, smelled,
+penetrating odors, sprinkled Cologne-water round the room, etc., etc.
+Eight days thus passed, when he was seized with a fit of frenzy which
+terminated in mania.
+
+Flesh and Blood,--a firm of butchers.
+
+Miss Polly Syllable, a schoolmistress.
+
+Mankind are earthen jugs with spirits in them.
+
+A spendthrift,--in one sense he has his money's worth by the purchase of
+large lots of repentance and other dolorous commodities.
+
+To symbolize moral or spiritual disease by disease of the body; as thus,
+--when a person committed any sin, it might appear in some form on the
+body,--this to be wrought out.
+
+"Shrieking fish," a strange idea of Leigh Hunt.
+
+In my museum, all the ducal rings that have been thrown into the
+Adriatic.
+
+An association of literary men in the other world,--or dialogues of the
+dead, or something of that kind.
+
+Imaginary diseases to be cured by impossible remedies,--as a dose of the
+Grand Elixir, in the yolk of a Phoenix's egg.  The disease may be either
+moral or physical.
+
+A physician for the cure of moral diseases.
+
+To point out the moral slavery of one who deems himself a free man.
+
+A stray leaf from the book of fate, picked up in the street.
+
+
+Concord, August 5th.--A rainy day,--a rainy day.  I am commanded to take
+pen in hand, and I am therefore banished to the little ten-foot-square
+apartment misnamed my study; but perhaps the dismalness of the day and
+the dulness of my solitude will be the prominent characteristics of what
+I write.  And what is there to write about?  Happiness has no succession
+of events, because it is a part of eternity; and we have been living in
+eternity ever since we came to this old manse.  Like Enoch, we seem to
+have been translated to the other state of being, without having passed
+through death.  Our spirits must have flitted away unconsciously, and we
+can only perceive that we have cast off our mortal part by the more real
+and earnest life of our souls.  Externally, our Paradise has very much
+the aspect of a pleasant old domicile on earth.  This antique house--for
+it looks antique, though it was created by Providence expressly for our
+use, and at the precise time when we wanted it--stands behind a noble
+avenue of balm-of-Gilead trees; and when we chance to observe a passing
+traveller through the sunshine and the shadow of this long avenue, his
+figure appears too dim and remote to disturb the sense of blissful
+seclusion.  Few, indeed, are the mortals who venture within our sacred
+precincts.  George Prescott, who has not yet grown earthly enough, I
+suppose, to be debarred from occasional visits to Paradise, comes daily
+to bring three pints of milk from some ambrosial cow; occasionally, also,
+he makes an offering of mortal flowers.  Mr. Emerson comes sometimes, and
+has been feasted on our nectar and ambrosia.  Mr. Thoreau has twice
+listened to the music of the spheres, which, for our private convenience,
+we have packed into a musical-box.  E. H------, who is much more at home
+among spirits than among fleshly bodies, came hither a few times merely
+to welcome us to the ethereal world; but latterly she has vanished into
+some other region of infinite space.  One rash mortal, on the second
+Sunday after our arrival, obtruded himself upon us in a gig.  There have
+since been three or four callers, who preposterously think that the
+courtesies of the lower world are to be responded to by people whose home
+is in Paradise.  I must not forget to mention that the butcher comes
+twice or thrice a week; and we have so far improved upon the custom of
+Adam and Eve, that we generally furnish forth our feasts with portions of
+some delicate calf or lamb, whose unspotted innocence entitles them to
+the happiness of becoming our sustenance.  Would that I were permitted to
+record the celestial dainties that kind Heaven provided for us on the
+first day of our arrival!  Never, surely, was such food heard of on
+earth,--at least, not by me.  Well, the above-mentioned persons are
+nearly all that have entered into the hallowed shade of our avenue;
+except, indeed, a certain sinner who came to bargain for the grass in our
+orchard, and another who came with a new cistern.  For it is one of the
+drawbacks upon our Eden that it contains no water fit either to drink or
+to bathe in; so that the showers have become, in good truth, a godsend.
+I wonder why Providence does not cause a clear, cold fountain to bubble
+up at our doorstep; methinks it would not be unreasonable to pray for
+such a favor.  At present we are under the ridiculous necessity of
+sending to the outer world for water.  Only imagine Adam trudging out of
+Paradise with a bucket in each hand, to get water to drink, or for Eve to
+bathe in!  Intolerable! (though our stout handmaiden really fetches our
+water.)  In other respects Providence has treated us pretty tolerably
+well; but here I shall expect something further to be done.  Also, in the
+way of future favors, a kitten would be very acceptable.  Animals
+(except, perhaps, a pig) seem never out of place, even in the most
+paradisiacal spheres.  And, by the way, a young colt comes up our avenue,
+now and then, to crop the seldom-trodden herbage; and so does a company
+of cows, whose sweet breath well repays us for the food which they
+obtain.  There are likewise a few hens, whose quiet cluck is heard
+pleasantly about the house.  A black dog sometimes stands at the farther
+extremity of the avenue, and looks wistfully hitherward; but when I
+whistle to him, he puts his tail between his legs, and trots away.
+Foolish dog! if he had more faith, he should have bones enough.
+
+
+Saturday, August 6th.--Still a dull day, threatening rain, yet without
+energy of character enough to rain outright.  However, yesterday there
+were showers enough to supply us well with their beneficent outpouring.
+As to the new cistern, it seems to be bewitched; for, while the spout
+pours into it like a cataract, it still remains almost empty.  I wonder
+where Mr. Hosmer got it; perhaps from Tantalus, under the eaves of whose
+palace it must formerly have stood; for, like his drinking-cup in Hades,
+it has the property of filling itself forever, and never being full.
+
+After breakfast I took my fishing-rod, and went down through our orchard
+to the river-side; but as three or four boys were already in possession
+of the best spots along the shore, I did not fish.  This river of ours is
+the most sluggish stream that I ever was acquainted with.  I had spent
+three weeks by its side, and swam across it every day, before I could
+determine which way its current ran; and then I was compelled to decide
+the question by the testimony of others, and not by my own observation.
+Owing to this torpor of the stream, it has nowhere a bright, pebbly
+shore, nor is there so much as a narrow strip of glistening sand in any
+part of its course; but it slumbers along between broad meadows, or
+kisses the tangled grass of mowing-fields and pastures, or bathes the
+overhanging boughs of elder-bushes and other waterloving plants.  Flags
+and rushes grow along its shallow margin.  The yellow water-lily spreads
+its broad flat leaves upon its surface; and the fragrant white pond-lily
+occurs in many favored spots,--generally selecting a situation just so
+far from the river's brink that it cannot be grasped except at the hazard
+of plunging in.  But thanks be to the beautiful flower for growing at any
+rate.  It is a marvel whence it derives its loveliness and perfume,
+sprouting as it does from the black mud over which the river sleeps, and
+from which the yellow lily likewise draws its unclean life and noisome
+odor.  So it is with many people in this world; the same soil and
+circumstances may produce the good and beautiful, and the wicked and
+ugly.  Some have the faculty of assimilating to themselves only what is
+evil, and so they become as noisome as the yellow water-lily.  Some
+assimilate none but good influences, and their emblem is the fragrant and
+spotless pond-lily, whose very breath is a blessing to all the region
+round about. . . . Among the productions of the river's margin, I must
+not forget the pickerel-weed, which grows just on the edge of the water,
+and shoots up a long stalk crowned with a blue spire, from among large
+green leaves.  Both the flower and the leaves look well in a vase with
+pond-lilies, and relieve the unvaried whiteness of the latter; and, being
+all alike children of the waters, they are perfectly in keeping with one
+another. . . .
+
+I bathe once, and often twice, a day in our river; but one dip into the
+salt sea would be worth more than a whole week's soaking in such a
+lifeless tide.  I have read of a river somewhere (whether it be in
+classic regions or among our Western Indians I know not) which seemed to
+dissolve and steal away the vigor of those who bathed in it.  Perhaps our
+stream will be found to have this property.  Its water, however, is
+pleasant in its immediate effect, being as soft as milk, and always
+warmer than the air.  Its hue has a slight tinge of gold, and my limbs,
+when I behold them through its medium, look tawny.  I am not aware that
+the inhabitants of Concord resemble their native river in any of their
+moral characteristics.  Their forefathers, certainly, seem to have had
+the energy and impetus of a mountain torrent, rather than the torpor of
+this listless stream,--as it was proved by the blood with which they
+stained their river of Peace.  It is said there are plenty of fish in it;
+but my most important captures hitherto have been a mud-turtle and an
+enormous eel.  The former made his escape to his native element,--the
+latter we ate; and truly he had the taste of the whole river in his
+flesh, with a very prominent flavor of mud.  On the whole, Concord River
+is no great favorite of mine; but I am glad to have any river at all so
+near at hand, it being just at the bottom of our orchard.  Neither is it
+without a degree and kind of picturesqueness, both in its nearness and in
+the distance, when a blue gleam from its surface, among the green meadows
+and woods, seems like an open eye in Earth's countenance.  Pleasant it
+is, too, to behold a little flat-bottomed skiff gliding over its bosom,
+which yields lazily to the stroke of the paddle, and allows the boat to
+go against its current almost as freely as with it.  Pleasant, too, to
+watch an angler, as he strays along the brink, sometimes sheltering
+himself behind a tuft of bushes, and trailing his line along the water,
+in hopes to catch a pickerel.  But, taking the river for all in all, I
+can find nothing more fit to compare it with than one of the half-torpid
+earthworms which I dig up for bait.  The worm is sluggish, and so is the
+river,--the river is muddy, and so is the worm.  You hardly know whether
+either of them be alive or dead; but still, in the course of time, they
+both manage to creep away.  The best aspect of the Concord is when there
+is a northwestern breeze curling its surface, in a bright, sunshiny day.
+It then assumes a vivacity not its own.  Moonlight, also, gives it
+beauty, as it does to all scenery of earth or water.
+
+
+Sunday, August 7th.--At sunset last evening I ascended the hill-top
+opposite our house; and, looking downward at the long extent of the
+river, it struck me that I had done it some injustice in my remarks.
+Perhaps, like other gentle and quiet characters, it will be better
+appreciated the longer I am acquainted with it.  Certainly, as I beheld
+it then, it was one of the loveliest features in a scene of great rural
+beauty.  It was visible through a course of two or three miles, sweeping
+in a semicircle round the hill on which I stood, and being the central
+line of a broad vale on either side.  At a distance, it looked like a
+strip of sky set into the earth, which it so etherealized and idealized
+that it seemed akin to the upper regions.  Nearer the base of the hill, I
+could discern the shadows of every tree and rock, imaged with a
+distinctness that made them even more charming than the reality; because,
+knowing them to be unsubstantial, they assumed the ideality which the
+soul always craves in the contemplation of earthly beauty.  All the sky,
+too, and the rich clouds of sunset, were reflected in the peaceful bosom
+of the river; and surely, if its bosom can give back such an adequate
+reflection of heaven, it cannot be so gross and impure as I described it
+yesterday.  Or, if so, it shall be a symbol to me that even a human
+breast, which may appear least spiritual in some aspects, may still have
+the capability of reflecting an infinite heaven in its depths, and
+therefore of enjoying it.  It is a comfortable thought, that the smallest
+and most turbid mud-puddle can contain its own picture of heaven.  Let us
+remember this, when we feel inclined to deny all spiritual life to some
+people, in whom, nevertheless, our Father may perhaps see the image of
+His face.  This dull river has a deep religion of its own: so, let us
+trust, has the dullest human soul, though, perhaps, unconsciously.
+
+The scenery of Concord, as I beheld it from the summit of the hill, has
+no very marked characteristics, but has a great deal of quiet beauty, in
+keeping with the river.  There are broad and peaceful meadows, which, I
+think, are among the most satisfying objects in natural scenery.  The
+heart reposes on them with a feeling that few things else can give,
+because almost all other objects are abrupt and clearly defined; but a
+meadow stretches out like a small infinity, yet with a secure homeliness
+which we do not find either in an expanse of water or of air.  The hills
+which border these meadows are wide swells of land, or long and gradual
+ridges, some of them densely covered with wood.  The white village, at a
+distance on the left, appears to be embosomed among wooded hills.  The
+verdure of the country is much more perfect than is usual at this season
+of the year, when the autumnal hue has generally made considerable
+progress over trees and grass.  Last evening, after the copious showers
+of the preceding two days, it was worthy of early June, or, indeed, of a
+world just created.  Had I not then been alone, I should have had a far
+deeper sense of beauty, for I should have looked through the medium of
+another spirit.  Along the horizon there were masses of those deep clouds
+in which the fancy may see images of all things that ever existed or were
+dreamed of.  Over our old manse, of which I could catch but a glimpse
+among its embowering trees, appeared the immensely gigantic figure of a
+hound, crouching down with head erect, as if keeping watchful guard while
+the master of the mansion was away. . . . How sweet it was to draw near
+my own home, after having lived homeless in the world so long! . . . .
+With thoughts like these, I descended the hill, and clambered over the
+stone-wall, and crossed the road, and passed up our avenue, while the
+quaint old house put on an aspect of welcome.
+
+
+Monday, August 8th.--I wish I could give a description of our house, for
+it really has a character of its own, which is more than can be said of
+most edifices in these days.  It is two stories high, with a third story
+of attic chambers in the gable-roof.  When I first visited it, early in
+June, it looked pretty much as it did during the old clergyman's
+lifetime, showing all the dust and disarray that might be supposed to
+have gathered about him in the course of sixty years of occupancy.  The
+rooms seemed never to have been painted; at all events, the walls and
+panels, as well as the huge cross-beams, had a venerable and most dismal
+tinge of brown.  The furniture consisted of high-backed, short-legged,
+rheumatic chairs, small, old tables, bedsteads with lofty posts, stately
+chests of drawers, looking-glasses in antique black frames, all of which
+were probably fashionable in the days of Dr. Ripley's predecessor.  It
+required some energy of imagination to conceive the idea of transforming
+this ancient edifice into a comfortable modern residence.  However, it
+has been successfully accomplished.  The old Doctor's sleeping-apartment,
+which was the front room on the ground-floor, we have converted into a
+parlor; and by the aid of cheerful paint and paper, a gladsome carpet,
+pictures and engravings, new furniture, bijouterie, and a daily supply of
+flowers, it has become one of the prettiest and pleasantest rooms in the
+whole world.  The shade of our departed host will never haunt it; for its
+aspect has been changed as completely as the scenery of a theatre.
+Probably the ghost gave one peep into it, uttered a groan, and vanished
+forever.  The opposite room has been metamorphosed into a store-room.
+Through the house, both in the first and second story, runs a spacious
+hall or entry, occupying more space than is usually devoted to such a
+purpose in modern times.  This feature contributes to give the whole
+house an airy, roomy, and convenient appearance; we can breathe the freer
+by the aid of the broad passageway.  The front door of the hall looks up
+the stately avenue, which I have already mentioned; and the opposite door
+opens into the orchard, through which a path descends to the river.  In
+the second story we have at present fitted up three rooms,--one being our
+own chamber, and the opposite one a guest-chamber, which contains the
+most presentable of the old Doctor's ante-Revolutionary furniture.  After
+all, the moderns have invented nothing better, as chamber furniture, than
+these chests of drawers, which stand on four slender legs, and rear an
+absolute tower of mahogany to the ceiling, the whole terminating in a
+fantastically carved summit.  Such a venerable structure adorns our
+guest-chamber.  In the rear of the house is the little room which I call
+my study, and which, in its day, has witnessed the intellectual labors of
+better students than myself.  It contains, with some additions and
+alterations, the furniture of my bachelor-room in Boston; but there is a
+happier disposal of things now.  There is a little vase of flowers on one
+of the bookcases, and a larger bronze vase of graceful ferns that
+surmounts the bureau.  In size the room is just what it ought to be; for
+I never could compress my thoughts sufficiently to write in a very
+spacious room.  It has three windows, two of which are shaded by a large
+and beautiful willow-tree, which sweeps against the overhanging eaves.
+On this side we have a view into the orchard, and, beyond, a glimpse of
+the river.  The other window is the one from which Mr. Emerson, the
+predecessor of Dr. Ripley, beheld the first fight of the Revolution,--
+which he might well do, as the British troops were drawn up within a
+hundred yards of the house; and on looking forth just now, I could still
+perceive the western abutments of the old bridge, the passage of which
+was contested.  The new monument is visible from base to summit.
+
+Notwithstanding all we have done to modernize the old place, we seem
+scarcely to have disturbed its air of antiquity.  It is evident that
+other wedded pairs have spent their honeymoons here, that children have
+been born here, and people have grown old and died in these rooms,
+although for our behoof the same apartments have consented to look
+cheerful once again.  Then there are dark closets, and strange nooks and
+corners, where the ghosts of former occupants might hide themselves in
+the daytime, and stalk forth when night conceals all our sacrilegious
+improvements.  We have seen no apparitions as yet; but we hear strange
+noises, especially in the kitchen, and last night, while sitting in the
+parlor, we heard a thumping and pounding as of somebody at work in my
+study.  Nay, if I mistake not (for I was half asleep), there was a sound
+as of some person crumpling paper in his hand in our very bedchamber.
+This must have been old Dr. Ripley with one of his sermons.  There is a
+whole chest of them in the garret; but he need have no apprehensions of
+our disturbing them.  I never saw the old patriarch myself, which I
+regret, as I should have been glad to associate his venerable figure at
+ninety years of age with the house in which he dwelt.
+
+Externally the house presents the same appearance as in the Doctor's day.
+It had once a coat of white paint; but the storms and sunshine of many
+years have almost obliterated it, and produced a sober, grayish hue,
+which entirely suits the antique form of the structure.  To repaint its
+reverend face would be a real sacrilege.  It would look like old Dr.
+Ripley in a brown wig.  I hardly know why it is that our cheerful and
+lightsome repairs and improvements in the interior of the house seem to
+be in perfectly good taste, though the heavy old beams and high
+wainscoting of the walls speak of ages gone by.  But so it is.  The
+cheerful paper-hangings have the air of belonging to the old walls; and
+such modernisms as astral lamps, card-tables, gilded Cologne-bottles,
+silver taper-stands, and bronze and alabaster flower-vases do not seem at
+all impertinent.  It is thus that an aged man may keep his heart warm for
+new things and new friends, and often furnish himself anew with ideas;
+though it would not be graceful for him to attempt to suit his exterior
+to the passing fashions of the day.
+
+
+August 9th.--Our orchard in its day has been a very productive and
+profitable one; and we were told that in one year it returned Dr. Ripley
+a hundred dollars, besides defraying the expense of repairing the house.
+It is now long past its prime: many of the trees are moss-grown, and have
+dead and rotten branches intermixed among the green and fruitful ones.
+And it may well be so; for I suppose some of the trees may have been set
+out by Mr. Emerson, who died in the first year of the Revolutionary War.
+Neither will the fruit, probably, bear comparison with the delicate
+productions of modern pomology.  Most of the trees seem to have abundant
+burdens upon them; but they are homely russet apples, fit only for baking
+and cooking.  (But we are yet to have practical experience of our fruit.)
+Justice Shallow's orchard, with its choice pippins and leather-coats, was
+doubtless much superior.  Nevertheless, it pleases me to think of the
+good minister, walking in the shadows of these old, fantastically shaped
+apples-trees, here plucking some of the fruit to taste, there pruning
+away a too luxuriant branch, and all the while computing how many barrels
+may be filled, and how large a sum will be added to his stipend by their
+sale.  And the same trees offer their fruit to me as freely as they did
+to him,--their old branches, like withered hands and arms, holding out
+apples of the same flavor as they held out to Dr. Ripley in his lifetime.
+Thus the trees, as living existences, form a peculiar link between the
+dead and us.  My fancy has always found something very interesting in an
+orchard.  Apple-trees, and all fruit-trees, have a domestic character
+which brings them into relationship with man.  They have lost, in a great
+measure, the wild nature of the forest-tree, and have grown humanized by
+receiving the care of man, and by contributing to his wants.  They have
+become a part of the family; and their individual characters are as well
+understood and appreciated as those of the human members.  One tree is
+harsh and crabbed, another mild; one is churlish and illiberal, another
+exhausts itself with its free-hearted bounties.  Even the shapes of
+apple-trees have great individuality, into such strange postures do they
+put themselves, and thrust their contorted branches so grotesquely in all
+directions.  And when they have stood around a house for many years, and
+held converse with successive dynasties of occupants, and gladdened their
+hearts so often in the fruitful autumn, then it would seem almost
+sacrilege to cut them down.
+
+Besides the apple-trees, there are various other kinds of fruit in close
+vicinity to the house.  When we first arrived, there were several trees
+of ripe cherries, but so sour that we allowed them to wither upon the
+branches.  Two long rows of currant-bushes supplied us abundantly for
+nearly four weeks.  There are a good many peach-trees, but all of an old
+date,--their branches rotten, gummy, and mossy,--and their fruit, I fear,
+will be of very inferior quality.  They produce most abundantly,
+however,--the peaches being almost as numerous as the leaves; and even
+the sprouts and suckers from the roots of the old trees have fruit upon
+them.  Then three are pear-trees of various kinds, and one or two
+quince-trees.  On the whole, these fruit-trees, and the other items and
+adjuncts of the place, convey a very agreeable idea of the outward
+comfort in which the good old Doctor must have spent his life.
+Everything seems to have fallen to his lot that could possibly be
+supposed to render the life of a country clergyman easy and prosperous.
+There is a barn, which probably used to be filled annually with his hay
+and other agricultural products.  There are sheds, and a hen-house, and a
+pigeon-house, and an old stone pigsty, the open portion of which is
+overgrown with tall weeds, indicating that no grunter has recently
+occupied it. . . . I have serious thoughts of inducting a new incumbent
+in this part of the parsonage.  It is our duty to support a pig, even if
+we have no design of feasting upon him; and, for my own part, I have a
+great sympathy and interest for the whole race of porkers, and should
+have much amusement in studying the character of a pig.  Perhaps I might
+try to bring out his moral and intellectual nature, and cultivate his
+affections.  A cat, too, and perhaps a dog, would be desirable additions
+to our household.
+
+
+August 10th.--The natural taste of man for the original Adam's occupation
+is fast developing itself in me.  I find that I am a good deal interested
+in our garden, although, as it was planted before we came here, I do not
+feel the same affection for the plants that I should if the seed had been
+sown by my own hands.  It is something like nursing and educating another
+person's children.  Still, it was a very pleasant moment when I gathered
+the first string-beans, which were the earliest esculent that the garden
+contributed to our table.  And I love to watch the successive development
+of each new vegetable, and mark its daily growth, which always affects me
+with surprise.  It is as if something were being created under my own
+inspection, and partly by my own aid.  One day, perchance, I look at my
+bean-vines, and see only the green leaves clambering up the poles; again,
+to-morrow, I give a second glance, and there are the delicate blossoms;
+and a third day, on a somewhat closer observation, I discover the tender
+young beans, hiding among the foliage.  Then, each morning, I watch the
+swelling of the pods and calculate how soon they will be ready to yield
+their treasures.  All this gives a pleasure and an ideality, hitherto
+unthought of, to the business of providing sustenance for my family.  I
+suppose Adam felt it in Paradise; and, of merely and exclusively earthly
+enjoyments, there are few purer and more harmless to be experienced.
+Speaking of beans, by the way, they are a classical food, and their
+culture must have been the occupation of many ancient sages and heroes.
+Summer-squashes are a very pleasant vegetable to be acquainted with.
+They grow in the forms of urns and vases,--some shallow, others deeper,
+and all with a beautifully scalloped edge.  Almost any squash in our
+garden might be copied by a sculptor, and would look lovely in marble, or
+in china; and, if I could afford it, I would have exact imitations of the
+real vegetable as portions of my dining-service.  They would be very
+appropriate dishes for holding garden-vegetables.  Besides the
+summer-squashes, we have the crook-necked winter-squash, which I always
+delight to look at, when it turns up its big rotundity to ripen in the
+autumn sun.  Except a pumpkin, there is no vegetable production that
+imparts such an idea of warmth and comfort to the beholder.  Our own
+crop, however, does not promise to be very abundant; for the leaves
+formed such a superfluous shade over the young blossoms, that most of
+them dropped off without producing the germ of fruit.  Yesterday and
+to-day I have cut off an immense number of leaves, and have thus given
+the remaining blossoms a chance to profit by the air and sunshine; but
+the season is too far advanced, I am afraid, for the squashes to attain
+any great bulk, and grow yellow in the sun.  We have muskmelons and
+watermelons, which promise to supply us with as many as we can eat.
+After all, the greatest interest of these vegetables does not seem to
+consist in their being articles of food.  It is rather that we love to
+see something born into the world; and when a great squash or melon is
+produced, it is a large and tangible existence, which the imagination can
+seize hold of and rejoice in.  I love, also, to see my own works
+contributing to the life and well-being of animate nature.  It is
+pleasant to have the bees come and suck honey out of my squash-blossoms,
+though, when they have laden themselves, they fly away to some unknown
+hive, which will give me back nothing in return for what my garden has
+given them.  But there is much more honey in the world, and so I am
+content.  Indian corn, in the prime and glory of its verdure, is a very
+beautiful vegetable, both considered in the separate plant, and in a mass
+in a broad field, rustling and waving, and surging up and down in the
+breeze and sunshine of a summer afternoon.  We have as many as fifty
+hills, I should think, which will give us an abundant supply.  Pray
+Heaven that we may be able to eat it all! for it is not pleasant to think
+that anything which Nature has been at the pains to produce should be
+thrown away.  But the hens will be glad of our superfluity, and so will
+the pigs, though we have neither hens nor pigs of our own.  But hens we
+must certainly keep.  There is something very sociable and quiet, and
+soothing, too, in their soliloquies and converse among themselves; and,
+in an idle and half-meditative mood, it is very pleasant to watch a party
+of hens picking up their daily subsistence, with a gallant chanticleer in
+the midst of them.  Milton had evidently contemplated such a picture with
+delight.
+
+I find that I have not given a very complete idea of our garden, although
+it certainly deserves an ample record in this chronicle, since my labors
+in it are the only present labors of my life.  Besides what I have
+mentioned, we have cucumber-vines, which to-day yielded us the first
+cucumber of the season, a bed of beets, and another of carrots, and
+another of parsnips and turnips, none of which promise us a very abundant
+harvest.  In truth, the soil is worn out, and, moreover, received very
+little manure this season.  Also, we have cabbages in superfluous
+abundance, inasmuch as we neither of us have the least affection for
+them; and it would be unreasonable to expect Sarah, the cook, to eat
+fifty head of cabbages.  Tomatoes, too, we shall have by and by.  At our
+first arrival, we found green peas ready for gathering, and these,
+instead of the string-beans, were the first offering of the garden to our
+board.
+
+
+Saturday, August 13th.--My life, at this time, is more like that of a
+boy, externally, than it has been since I was really a boy.  It is
+usually supposed that the cares of life come with matrimony; but I seem
+to have cast off all care, and live on with as much easy trust in
+Providence as Adam could possibly have felt before he had learned that
+there was a world beyond Paradise.  My chief anxiety consists in watching
+the prosperity of my vegetables, in observing how they are affected by
+the rain or sunshine, in lamenting the blight of one squash and rejoicing
+at the luxurious growth of another.  It is as if the original relation
+between man and Nature were restored in my case, and as if I were to look
+exclusively to her for the support of my Eve and myself,--to trust to her
+for food and clothing, and all things needful, with the full assurance
+that she would not fail me.  The fight with the world,--the struggle of a
+man among men,--the agony of the universal effort to wrench the means of
+living from a host of greedy competitors,--all this seems like a dream to
+me.  My business is merely to live and to enjoy; and whatever is
+essential to life and enjoyment will come as naturally as the dew from
+heaven.  This is, practically at least, my faith.  And so I awake in the
+morning with a boyish thoughtlessness as to how the outgoings of the day
+are to be provided for, and its incomings rendered certain.  After
+breakfast, I go forth into my garden, and gather whatever the bountiful
+Mother has made fit for our present sustenance; and of late days she
+generally gives me two squashes and a cucumber, and promises me green
+corn and shell-beans very soon.  Then I pass down through our orchard to
+the river-side, and ramble along its margin in search of flowers.
+Usually I discern a fragrant white lily, here and there along the shore,
+growing, with sweet prudishness, beyond the grasp of mortal arm.  But it
+does not escape me so.  I know what is its fitting destiny better than
+the silly flower knows for itself; so I wade in, heedless of wet
+trousers, and seize the shy lily by its slender stem.  Thus I make prize
+of five or six, which are as many as usually blossom within my reach in a
+single morning;--some of them partially worm-eaten or blighted, like
+virgins with an eating sorrow at the heart; others as fair and perfect as
+Nature's own idea was, when she first imagined this lovely flower.  A
+perfect pond-lily is the most satisfactory of flowers.  Besides these, I
+gather whatever else of beautiful chances to be growing in the moist soil
+by the river-side,--an amphibious tribe, yet with more richness and grace
+than the wild-flowers of the deep and dry woodlands and hedge-rows,--
+sometimes the white arrow-head, always the blue spires and broad green
+leaves of the pickerel-flower, which contrast and harmonize so well with
+the white lilies.  For the last two or three days, I have found scattered
+stalks of the cardinal-flower, the gorgeous scarlet of which it is a joy
+even to remember.  The world is made brighter and sunnier by flowers of
+such a hue.  Even perfume, which otherwise is the soul and spirit of a
+flower, may be spared when it arrays itself in this scarlet glory.  It is
+a flower of thought and feeling, too; it seems to have its roots deep
+down in the hearts of those who gaze at it.  Other bright flowers
+sometimes impress me as wanting sentiment; but it is not so with this.
+
+Well, having made up my bunch of flowers, I return home with them.
+. . . . Then I ascend to my study, and generally read, or perchance
+scribble in this journal, and otherwise suffer Time to loiter onward at
+his own pleasure, till the dinner-hour.  In pleasant days, the chief
+event of the afternoon, and the happiest one of the day, is our walk.
+. . . . So comes the night; and I look back upon a day spent in what the
+world would call idleness, and for which I myself can suggest no more
+appropriate epithet, but which, nevertheless, I cannot feel to have been
+spent amiss.  True, it might be a sin and shame, in such a world as ours,
+to spend a lifetime in this manner; but for a few summer weeks it is good
+to live as if this world were heaven.  And so it is, and so it shall be,
+although, in a little while, a flitting shadow of earthly care and toil
+will mingle itself with our realities.
+
+
+Monday, August 15th.--George Hillard and his wife arrived from Boston in
+the dusk of Saturday evening, to spend Sunday with us.  It was a pleasant
+sensation, when the coach rumbled up our avenue, and wheeled round at the
+door; for I felt that I was regarded as a man with a household, a man
+having a tangible existence and locality in the world,--when friends came
+to avail themselves of our hospitality.  It was a sort of acknowledgment
+and reception of us into the corps of married people,--a sanction by no
+means essential to our peace and well-being, but yet agreeable enough to
+receive.  So we welcomed them cordially at the door, and ushered them
+into our parlor, and soon into the supper-room. . . . The night flitted
+over us all, and passed away, and up rose a gray and sullen morning,
+. . . . and we had a splendid breakfast of flapjacks, or slapjacks, and
+whortleberries, which I gathered on a neighboring hill, and perch, bream,
+and pout, which I hooked out of the river the evening before.  About nine
+o'clock, Hillard and I set out for a walk to Walden Pond, calling by the
+way at Mr. Emerson's, to obtain his guidance or directions, and he
+accompanied us in his own illustrious person.  We turned aside a little
+from our way, to visit Mr. ------, a yeoman, of whose homely and
+self-acquired wisdom Mr. Emerson has a very high opinion.  We found him
+walking in his fields, a short and stalwart and sturdy personage of
+middle age, with a face of shrewd and kind expression, and manners of
+natural courtesy.  He had a very free flow of talk; for, with a little
+induction from Mr. Emerson, he began to discourse about the state of the
+nation, agriculture, and business in general, uttering thoughts that had
+come to him at the plough, and which had a sort of flavor of the fresh
+earth about them.  His views were sensible and characteristic, and had
+grown in the soil where we found them; . . . . and he is certainly a man
+of intellectual and moral substance, a sturdy fact, a reality, something
+to be felt and touched, whose ideas seem to be dug out of his mind as he
+digs potatoes, beets, carrots, and turnips out of the ground.
+
+After leaving Mr. ------, we proceeded through wood-paths to Walden Pond,
+picking blackberries of enormous size along the way.  The pond itself was
+beautiful and refreshing to my soul, after such long and exclusive
+familiarity with our tawny and sluggish river.  It lies embosomed among
+wooded hills, it is not very extensive, but large enough for waves to
+dance upon its surface, and to look like a piece of blue firmament,
+earthen-circled.  The shore has a narrow, pebbly strand, which it was
+worth a day's journey to look at, for the sake of the contrast between it
+and the weedy, oozy margin of the river.  Farther within its depths, you
+perceive a bottom of pure white sand, sparkling through the transparent
+water, which, methought, was the very purest liquid in the world.  After
+Mr. Emerson left us, Hillard and I bathed in the pond, and it does really
+seem as if my spirit, as well as corporeal person, were refreshed by that
+bath.  A good deal of mud and river slime had accumulated on my soul; but
+these bright waters washed them all away.
+
+We returned home in due season for dinner. . . . To my misfortune,
+however, a box of Mediterranean wine proved to have undergone the acetous
+fermentation; so that the splendor of the festival suffered some
+diminution.  Nevertheless, we ate our dinner with a good appetite, and
+afterwards went universally to take our several siestas.  Meantime there
+came a shower, which so besprinkled the grass and shrubbery as to make it
+rather wet for our after-tea ramble.  The chief result of the walk was
+the bringing home of an immense burden of the trailing clematis-vine, now
+just in blossom, and with which all our flower-stands and vases are this
+morning decorated.  On our return we found Mr. and Mrs. S------, and E.
+H------, who shortly took their leave, and we sat up late, telling
+ghost-stories.  This morning, at seven, our friends left us.  We were
+both pleased with the visit, and so, I think, were our guests.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Monday, August 22d.--I took a walk through the woods yesterday afternoon,
+to Mr. Emerson's, with a book which Margaret Fuller had left, after a
+call on Saturday eve.  I missed the nearest way, and wandered into a very
+secluded portion of the forest; for forest it might justly be called, so
+dense and sombre was the shade of oaks and pines.  Once I wandered into a
+tract so overgrown with bushes and underbrush that I could scarcely force
+a passage through.  Nothing is more annoying than a walk of this kind,
+where one is tormented by an innumerable host of petty impediments.  It
+incenses and depresses me at the same time.  Always when I flounder into
+the midst of bushes, which cross and intertwine themselves about my legs,
+and brush my face, and seize hold of my clothes, with their multitudinous
+grip,--always, in such a difficulty, I feel as if it were almost as well
+to lie down and die in rage and despair as to go one step farther.  It is
+laughable, after I have got out of the moil, to think how miserably it
+affected me for the moment; but I had better learn patience betimes, for
+there are many such bushy tracts in this vicinity, on the margins of
+meadows, and my walks will often lead me into them.  Escaping from the
+bushes, I soon came to an open space among the woods,--a very lovely
+spot, with the tall old trees standing around as quietly as if no one had
+intruded there throughout the whole summer.  A company of crows were
+holding their Sabbath on their summits.  Apparently they felt themselves
+injured or insulted by my presence; for, with one consent, they began to
+Caw! caw! caw! and, launching themselves sullenly on the air, took flight
+to some securer solitude.  Mine, probably, was the first human shape that
+they had seen all day long,--at least, if they had been stationary in
+that spot; but perhaps they had winged their way over miles and miles of
+country, had breakfasted on the summit of Graylock, and dined at the base
+of Wachusett, and were merely come to sup and sleep among the quiet woods
+of Concord.  But it was my impression at the time, that they had sat
+still and silent on the tops of the trees all through the Sabbath day,
+and I felt like one who should unawares disturb an assembly of
+worshippers.  A crow, however, has no real pretensions to religion, in
+spite of his gravity of mien and black attire.  Crows are certainly
+thieves, and probably infidels.  Nevertheless, their voices yesterday
+were in admirable accordance with the influences of the quiet, sunny,
+warm, yet autumnal afternoon.  They were so far above my head that their
+loud clamor added to the quiet of the scene, instead of disturbing it.
+There was no other sound, except the song of the cricket, which is but an
+audible stillness; for, though it be very loud and heard afar, yet the
+mind does not take note of it as a sound, so entirely does it mingle and
+lose its individuality among the other characteristics of coming autumn.
+Alas for the summer!  The grass is still verdant on the hills and in the
+valleys; the foliage of the trees is as dense as ever, and as green;
+the flowers are abundant along the margin of the river, and in the
+hedge-rows, and deep among the woods; the days, too, are as fervid as
+they were a month ago; and yet in every breath of wind and in every beam
+of sunshine there is an autumnal influence.  I know not how to describe
+it.  Methinks there is a sort of coolness amid all the heat, and a
+mildness in the brightest of the sunshine.  A breeze cannot stir without
+thrilling me with the breath of autumn, and I behold its pensive glory in
+the far, golden gleams among the long shadows of the trees.  The flowers,
+even the brightest of them,--the golden-rod and the gorgeous cardinals,--
+the most glorious flowers of the year,--have this gentle sadness amid
+their pomp.  Pensive autumn is expressed in the glow of every one of
+them.  I have felt this influence earlier in some years than in others.
+Sometimes autumn may be perceived even in the early days of July.  There
+is no other feeling like that caused by this faint, doubtful, yet real
+perception, or rather prophecy, of the year's decay, so deliciously sweet
+and sad at the same time.
+
+After leaving the book at Mr. Emerson's I returned through the woods,
+and, entering Sleepy Hollow, I perceived a lady reclining near the path
+which bends along its verge.  It was Margaret herself.  She had been
+there the whole afternoon, meditating or reading; for she had a book in
+her hand, with some strange title, which I did not understand, and have
+forgotten.  She said that nobody had broken her solitude, and was just
+giving utterance to a theory that no inhabitant of Concord ever visited
+Sleepy Hollow, when we saw a group of people entering the sacred
+precincts.  Most of them followed a path which led them away from us; but
+an old man passed near us, and smiled to see Margaret reclining on the
+ground, and me sitting by her side.  He made some remark about the beauty
+of the afternoon, and withdrew himself into the shadow of the wood.  Then
+we talked about autumn, and about the pleasures of being lost in the
+woods, and about the crows, whose voices Margaret had heard; and about
+the experiences of early childhood, whose influence remains upon the
+character after the recollection of them has passed away; and about the
+sight of mountains from a distance, and the view from their summits; and
+about other matters of high and low philosophy.  In the midst of our
+talk, we heard footsteps above us, on the high bank; and while the person
+was still hidden among the trees, he called to Margaret, of whom he had
+gotten a glimpse.  Then he emerged from the green shade, and, behold! it
+was Mr. Emerson.  He appeared to have had a pleasant time; for he said
+that there were Muses in the woods to-day, and whispers to be heard in
+the breezes.  It being now nearly six o'clock, we separated,--Margaret
+and Mr. Emerson towards his home, and I towards mine. . . .
+
+Last evening there was the most beautiful moonlight that ever hallowed
+this earthly world; and when I went to bathe in the river, which was as
+calm as death, it seemed like plunging down into the sky.  But I had
+rather be on earth than even in the seventh heaven, just now.
+
+
+Wednesday, August 24th.--I left home at five o'clock this morning to
+catch some fish for breakfast.  I shook our summer apple-tree, and ate
+the golden apple which fell from it.  Methinks these early apples, which
+come as a golden promise before the treasures of autumnal fruit, are
+almost more delicious than anything that comes afterwards.  We have but
+one such tree in our orchard; but it supplies us with a daily abundance,
+and probably will do so for at least a week to come.  Meantime other
+trees begin to cast their ripening windfalls upon the grass; and when I
+taste them, and perceive their mellowed flavor and blackening seeds, I
+feel somewhat overwhelmed with the impending bounties of Providence.  I
+suppose Adam, in Paradise, did not like to see his fruits decaying on the
+ground, after he had watched them through the sunny days of the world's
+first summer.  However, insects, at the worst, will hold a festival upon
+them, so that they will not be thrown away, in the great scheme of
+Nature.  Moreover, I have one advantage over the primeval Adam, inasmuch
+as there is a chance of disposing of my superfluous fruits among people
+who inhabit no Paradise of their own.
+
+Passing a little way down along the river-side, I threw in my line, and
+soon drew out one of the smallest possible of fishes.  It seemed to be a
+pretty good morning for the angler,--an autumnal coolness in the air, a
+clear sky, but with a fog across the lowlands and on the surface of the
+river, which a gentle breeze sometimes condensed into wreaths.  At first
+I could barely discern the opposite shore of the river; but, as the sun
+arose, the vapors gradually dispersed, till only a warm, smoky tint was
+left along the water's surface.  The farm-houses across the river made
+their appearance out of the dusky cloud; the voices of boys were heard,
+shouting to the cattle as they drove them to the pastures; a man whetted
+his scythe, and set to work in a neighboring meadow.  Meantime, I
+continued to stand on the oozy margin of the stream, beguiling the little
+fish; and though the scaly inhabitants of our river partake somewhat of
+the character of their native element, and are but sluggish biters, still
+I contrived to pull out not far from two dozen.  They were all bream, a
+broad, flat, almost circular fish, shaped a good deal like a flounder,
+but swimming on their edges, instead of on their sides.  As far as mere
+pleasure is concerned, it is hardly worth while to fish in our river, it
+is so much like angling in a mud-puddle; and one does not attach the idea
+of freshness and purity to the fishes, as we do to those which inhabit
+swift, transparent streams, or haunt the shores of the great briny deep.
+Standing on the weedy margin, and throwing the line over the elder-bushes
+that dip into the water, it seems as if we could catch nothing but frogs
+and mud-turtles, or reptiles akin to them.  And even when a fish of
+reputable aspect is drawn out, one feels a shyness about touching him.
+As to our river, its character was admirably expressed last night by some
+one who said "it was too lazy to keep itself clean."  I might write pages
+and pages, and only obscure the impression which this brief sentence
+conveys.  Nevertheless, we made bold to eat some of my fish for
+breakfast, and found them very savory; and the rest shall meet with due
+entertainment at dinner, together with some shell-beans, green corn, and
+cucumbers from our garden; so this day's food comes directly and entirely
+from beneficent Nature, without the intervention of any third person
+between her and us.
+
+
+Saturday, August 27th.--A peach-tree, which grows beside our house and
+brushes against the window, is so burdened with fruit that I have had to
+prop it up.  I never saw more splendid peaches in appearance,--great,
+round, crimson-cheeked beauties, clustering all over the tree.  A
+pear-tree, likewise, is maturing a generous burden of small, sweet fruit,
+which will require to be eaten at about the same time as the peaches.
+There is something pleasantly annoying in this superfluous abundance; it
+is like standing under a tree of ripe apples, and giving it a shake, with
+the intention of bringing down a single one, when, behold, a dozen come
+thumping about our ears.  But the idea of the infinite generosity and
+exhaustless bounty of our Mother Nature is well worth attaining; and I
+never had it so vividly as now, when I find myself, with the few mouths
+which I am to feed, the sole inheritor of the old clergyman's wealth of
+fruits.  His children, his friends in the village, and the clerical
+guests who came to preach in his pulpit, were all wont to eat and be
+filled from these trees.  Now, all these hearty old people have passed
+away, and in their stead is a solitary pair, whose appetites are more
+than satisfied with the windfalls which the trees throw down at their
+feet.  Howbeit, we shall have now and then a guest to keep our peaches
+and pears from decaying.
+
+G. B------, my old fellow-laborer at the community at Brook Farm, called
+on me last evening, and dined here to-day.  He has been cultivating
+vegetables at Plymouth this summer, and selling them in the market.  What
+a singular mode of life for a man of education and refinement,--to spend
+his days in hard and earnest bodily toil, and then to convey the products
+of his labor, in a wheelbarrow, to the public market, and there retail
+them out,--a peck of peas or beans, a bunch of turnips, a squash, a dozen
+ears of green corn!  Few men, without some eccentricity of character,
+would have the moral strength to do this; and it is very striking to find
+such strength combined with the utmost gentleness, and an uncommon
+regularity of nature.  Occasionally he returns for a day or two to resume
+his place among scholars and idle people, as, for instance, the present
+week, when he has thrown aside his spade and hoe to attend the
+Commencement at Cambridge.  He is a rare man,--a perfect original, yet
+without any one salient point; a character to be felt and understood, but
+almost impossible to describe: for, should you seize upon any
+characteristic, it would inevitably be altered and distorted in the
+process of writing it down.
+
+Our few remaining days of summer have been latterly grievously darkened
+with clouds.  To-day there has been an hour or two of hot sunshine; but
+the sun rose amid cloud and mist, and before he could dry up the moisture
+of last night's shower upon the trees and grass, the clouds have gathered
+between him and us again.  This afternoon the thunder rumbles in the
+distance, and I believe a few drops of rain have fallen; but the weight
+of the shower has burst elsewhere, leaving us nothing but its sullen
+gloom.  There is a muggy warmth in the atmosphere, which takes all the
+spring and vivacity out of the mind and body.
+
+
+Sunday, August 28th.--Still another rainy day,--the heaviest rain, I
+believe, that has fallen since we came to Concord (not two months ago).
+There never was a more sombre aspect of all external nature.  I gaze from
+the open window of my study somewhat disconsolately, and observe the
+great willow-tree which shades the house, and which has caught and
+retained a whole cataract of rain among its leaves and boughs; and all
+the fruit-trees, too, are dripping continually, even in the brief
+intervals when the clouds give us a respite.  If shaken to bring down the
+fruit, they will discharge a shower upon the head of him who stands
+beneath.  The rain is warm, coming from some southern region; but the
+willow attests that it is an autumnal spell of weather, by scattering
+down no infrequent multitude of yellow leaves, which rest upon the
+sloping roof of the house, and strew the gravel-path and the grass.  The
+other trees do not yet shed their leaves, though in some of them a
+lighter tint of verdure, tending towards yellow, is perceptible.  All day
+long we hear the water drip, drip, dripping, splash, splash, splashing,
+from the eaves, and babbling and foaming into the tubs which have been
+set out to receive it.  The old unpainted shingles and boards of the
+mansion and out-houses are black with the moisture which they have
+imbibed.  Looking at the river, we perceive that its usually smooth and
+mirrored surface is blurred by the infinity of rain-drops; the whole
+landscape--grass, trees, and houses--has a completely water-soaked
+aspect, as if the earth were wet through.  The wooded hill, about a mile
+distant, whither we went to gather whortleberries, has a mist upon its
+summit, as if the demon of the rain were enthroned there; and if we look
+to the sky, it seems as if all the water that had been poured down upon
+us were as nothing to what is to come.  Once in a while, indeed, there is
+a gleam of sky along the horizon, or a half-cheerful, half-sullen
+lighting up of the atmosphere; the rain-drops cease to patter down,
+except when the trees shake off a gentle shower; but soon we hear the
+broad, quiet, slow, and sure recommencement of the rain.  The river, if I
+mistake not, has risen considerably during the day, and its current will
+acquire some degree of energy.
+
+In this sombre weather, when some mortals almost forget that there ever
+was any golden sunshine, or ever will be any hereafter, others seem
+absolutely to radiate it from their own hearts and minds.  The gloom
+cannot pervade them; they conquer it, and drive it quite out of their
+sphere, and create a moral rainbow of hope upon the blackest cloud.  As
+for myself, I am little other than a cloud at such seasons, but such
+persons contrive to make me a sunny one, shining all through me.  And
+thus, even without the support of a stated occupation, I survive these
+sullen days and am happy.
+
+This morning we read the Sermon on the Mount.  In the course of the
+forenoon, the rain abated for a season, and I went out and gathered some
+corn and summer-squashes, and picked up the windfalls of apples and pears
+and peaches.  Wet, wet, wet,--everything was wet; the blades of the
+corn-stalks moistened me; the wet grass soaked my boots quite through;
+the trees threw their reserved showers upon my head; and soon the
+remorseless rain began anew, and drove me into the house.  When shall we
+be able to walk again to the far hills, and plunge into the deep woods,
+and gather more cardinals along the river's margin?  The track along
+which we trod is probably under water now.  How inhospitable Nature is
+during a rain!  In the fervid heat of sunny days, she still retains some
+degree of mercy for us; she has shady spots, whither the sun cannot come;
+but she provides no shelter against her storms.  It makes one shiver to
+think how dripping with wet are those deep, umbrageous nooks, those
+overshadowed banks, where we find such enjoyment during sultry
+afternoons.  And what becomes of the birds in such a soaking rain as
+this?  Is hope and an instinctive faith so mixed up with their nature
+that they can be cheered by the thought that the sunshine will return?
+or do they think, as I almost do, that there is to be no sunshine any
+more?  Very disconsolate must they be among the dripping leaves; and when
+a single summer makes so important a portion of their lives, it seems
+hard that so much of it should be dissolved in rain.  I, likewise, am
+greedy of the summer days for my own sake; the life of man does not
+contain so many of them that one can be spared without regret.
+
+
+Tuesday, August 30th.--I was promised, in the midst of Sunday's rain,
+that Monday should be fair, and, behold! the sun came back to us, and
+brought one of the most perfect days ever made since Adam was driven out
+of Paradise.  By the by, was there ever any rain in Paradise?  If so, how
+comfortless must Eve's bower have been! and what a wretched and rheumatic
+time must they have had on their bed of wet roses!  It makes me shiver to
+think of it.  Well, it seemed as if the world was newly created yesterday
+morning, and I beheld its birth; for I had risen before the sun was over
+the hill, and had gone forth to fish.  How instantaneously did all
+dreariness and heaviness of the earth's spirit flit away before one smile
+of the beneficent sun!  This proves that all gloom is but a dream and a
+shadow, and that cheerfulness is the real truth.  It requires many
+clouds, long brooding over us, to make us sad, but one gleam of sunshine
+always suffices to cheer up the landscape.  The banks of the river
+actually laughed when the sunshine fell upon them; and the river itself
+was alive and cheerful, and, by way of fun and amusement, it had swept
+away many wreaths of meadow-hay, and old, rotten branches of trees, and
+all such trumpery.  These matters came floating downwards, whirling round
+and round in the eddies, or hastening onward in the main current; and
+many of them, before this time, have probably been carried into the
+Merrimack, and will be borne onward to the sea.  The spots where I stood
+to fish, on my preceding excursion, were now under water; and the tops of
+many of the bushes, along the river's margin, barely emerged from the
+stream.  Large spaces of meadow are overflowed.
+
+There was a northwest-wind throughout the day; and as many clouds, the
+remnants of departed gloom, were scattered about the sky, the breeze was
+continually blowing them across the sun.  For the most part, they were
+gone again in a moment; but sometimes the shadow remained long enough to
+make me dread a return of sulky weather.  Then would come the burst of
+sunshine, making me feel as if a rainy day were henceforth an
+impossibility. . . .
+
+In the afternoon Mr. Emerson called, bringing Mr. ------.  He is a good
+sort of humdrum parson enough, and well fitted to increase the stock of
+manuscript sermons, of which there must be a fearful quantity already in
+the world.  Mr. ------, however, is probably one of the best and most
+useful of his class, because no suspicion of the necessity of his
+profession, constituted as it now is, to mankind, and of his own
+usefulness and success in it, has hitherto disturbed him; and therefore
+he labors with faith and confidence, as ministers did a hundred years
+ago.
+
+After the visitors were gone, I sat at the gallery window, looking down
+the avenue; and soon there appeared an elderly woman,--a homely, decent
+old matron, dressed in a dark gown, and with what seemed a manuscript
+book under her arm.  The wind sported with her gown, and blew her veil
+across her face, and seemed to make game of her, though on a nearer view
+she looked like a sad old creature, with a pale, thin countenance, and
+somewhat of a wild and wandering expression.  She had a singular gait,
+reeling, as it were, and yet not quite reeling, from one side of the path
+to the other; going onward as if it were not much matter whether she went
+straight or crooked.  Such were my observations as she approached through
+the scattered sunshine and shade of our long avenue, until, reaching the
+door, she gave a knock, and inquired for the lady of the house.  Her
+manuscript contained a certificate, stating that the old woman was a
+widow from a foreign land, who had recently lost her son, and was now
+utterly destitute of friends and kindred, and without means of support.
+Appended to the certificate there was a list of names of people who had
+bestowed charity on her, with the amounts of their several donations,--
+none, as I recollect, higher than twenty-five cents.  Here is a strange
+life, and a character fit for romance and poetry.  All the early part of
+her life, I suppose, and much of her widowhood, were spent in the quiet
+of a home, with kinsfolk around her, and children, and the lifelong
+gossiping acquaintances that some women always create about them.  But in
+her decline she has wandered away from all these, and from her native
+country itself, and is a vagrant, yet with something of the homeliness
+and decency of aspect belonging to one who has been a wife and mother,
+and has had a roof of her own above her head,--and, with all this, a
+wildness proper to her present life.  I have a liking for vagrants of all
+sorts, and never, that I know of, refused my mite to a wandering beggar,
+when I had anything in my own pocket.  There is so much wretchedness in
+the world, that we may safely take the word of any mortal professing to
+need our assistance; and, even should we be deceived, still the good to
+ourselves resulting from a kind act is worth more than the trifle by
+which we purchase it.  It is desirable, I think, that such persons should
+be permitted to roam through our land of plenty, scattering the seeds of
+tenderness and charity, as birds of passage bear the seeds of precious
+plants from land to land, without even dreaming of the office which they
+perform.
+
+
+Thursday, September 1st.--Mr. Thoreau dined with us yesterday. . . . He
+is a keen and delicate observer of nature,--a genuine observer,--which, I
+suspect, is almost as rare a character as even an original poet; and
+Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her especial child,
+and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness.  He is
+familiar with beast, fish, fowl, and reptile, and has strange stories to
+tell of adventures and friendly passages with these lower brethren of
+mortality.  Herb and flower, likewise, wherever they grow, whether in
+garden or wildwood, are his familiar friends.  He is also on intimate
+terms with the clouds, and can tell the portents of storms.  It is a
+characteristic trait, that he has a great regard for the memory of the
+Indian tribes, whose wild life would have suited him so well; and,
+strange to say, he seldom walks over a ploughed field without picking up
+an arrow-point, spearhead, or other relic of the red man, as if their
+spirits willed him to be the inheritor of their simple wealth.
+
+With all this he has more than a tincture of literature,--a deep and true
+taste for poetry, especially for the elder poets, and he is a good
+writer,--at least he has written a good article, a rambling disquisition
+on Natural History, in the last Dial, which, he says, was chiefly made up
+from journals of his own observations.  Methinks this article gives a
+very fair image of his mind and character,--so true, innate, and literal
+in observation, yet giving the spirit as well as letter of what he sees,
+even as a lake reflects its wooded banks, showing every leaf, yet giving
+the wild beauty of the whole scene.  Then there are in the article
+passages of cloudy and dreamy metaphysics, and also passages where his
+thoughts seem to measure and attune themselves into spontaneous verse, as
+they rightfully may, since there is real poetry in them.  There is a
+basis of good sense and of moral truth, too, throughout the article,
+which also is a reflection of his character; for he is not unwise to
+think and feel, and I find him a healthy and wholesome man to know.
+
+After dinner (at which we cut the first watermelon and muskmelon that our
+garden has grown), Mr. Thoreau and I walked up the bank of the river, and
+at a certain point he shouted for his boat.  Forthwith a young man
+paddled it across, and Mr. Thoreau and I voyaged farther up the stream,
+which soon became more beautiful than any picture, with its dark and
+quiet sheet of water, half shaded, half sunny, between high and wooded
+banks.  The late rains have swollen the stream so much that many trees
+are standing up to their knees, as it were, in the water, and boughs,
+which lately swung high in air, now dip and drink deep of the passing
+wave.  As to the poor cardinals which glowed upon the bank a few days
+since, I could see only a few of their scarlet hats, peeping above the
+tide.  Mr. Thoreau managed the boat so perfectly, either with two paddles
+or with one, that it seemed instinct with his own will, and to require no
+physical effort to guide it.  He said that, when some Indians visited
+Concord a few years ago, he found that he had acquired, without a
+teacher, their precise method of propelling and steering a canoe.
+Nevertheless he was desirous of selling the boat of which he was so fit a
+pilot, and which was built by his own hands; so I agreed to take it, and
+accordingly became possessor of the Musketaquid.  I wish I could acquire
+the aquatic skill of the original owner.
+
+
+September 2d.--Yesterday afternoon Mr. Thoreau arrived with the boat.
+The adjacent meadow being overflowed by the rise of the stream, he had
+rowed directly to the foot of the orchard, and landed at the bars, after
+floating over forty or fifty yards of water where people were lately
+making hay.  I entered the boat with him, in order to have the benefit of
+a lesson in rowing and paddling. . . . I managed, indeed, to propel the
+boat by rowing with two oars, but the use of the single paddle is quite
+beyond my present skill.  Mr. Thoreau had assured me that it was only
+necessary to will the boat to go in any particular direction, and she
+would immediately take that course, as if imbued with the spirit of the
+steersman.  It may be so with him, but it is certainly not so with me.
+The boat seemed to be bewitched, and turned its head to every point of
+the compass except the right one.  He then took the paddle himself, and,
+though I could observe nothing peculiar in his management of it, the
+Musketaquid immediately became as docile as a trained steed.  I suspect
+that she has not yet transferred her affections from her old master to
+her new one.  By and by, when we are better acquainted, she will grow
+more tractable. . . . We propose to change her name from Musketaquid
+(the Indian name of the Concord River, meaning the river of meadows) to
+the Pond-Lily, which will be very beautiful and appropriate, as, during
+the summer season, she will bring home many a cargo of pond-lilies from
+along the river's weedy shore.  It is not very likely that I shall make
+such long voyages in her as Mr. Thoreau has made.  He once followed our
+river down to the Merrimack, and thence, I believe, to Newburyport in
+this little craft.
+
+In the evening, ---- ------ called to see us, wishing to talk with me
+about a Boston periodical, of which he had heard that I was to be editor,
+and to which he desired to contribute.  He is an odd and clever young
+man, with nothing very peculiar about him,--some originality and
+self-inspiration in his character, but none, or, very little, in his
+intellect.  Nevertheless, the lad himself seems to feel as if he were a
+genius.  I like him well enough, however; but, after all, these originals
+in a small way, after one has seen a few of them, become more dull and
+commonplace than even those who keep the ordinary pathway of life.  They
+have a rule and a routine, which they follow with as little variety as
+other people do their rule and routine; and when once we have fathomed
+their mystery, nothing can be more wearisome.  An innate perception and
+reflection of truth give the only sort of originality that does not
+finally grow intolerable.
+
+
+September 4th.--I made a voyage in the Pond-Lily all by myself yesterday
+morning, and was much encouraged by my success in causing the boat to go
+whither I would.  I have always liked to be afloat, but I think I have
+never adequately conceived of the enjoyment till now, when I begin to
+feel a power over that which supports me.  I suppose I must have felt
+something like this sense of triumph when I first learned to swim; but I
+have forgotten it.  O that I could run wild!--that is, that I could put
+myself into a true relation with Nature, and be on friendly terms with
+all congenial elements.
+
+We had a thunder-storm last evening; and to-day has been a cool, breezy
+autumnal day, such as my soul and body love.
+
+
+September 18th.--How the summer-time flits away, even while it seems to
+be loitering onward, arm in arm with autumn!  Of late I have walked but
+little over the hills and through the woods, my leisure being chiefly
+occupied with my boat, which I have now learned to manage with tolerable
+skill.  Yesterday afternoon I made a voyage alone up the North Branch of
+Concord River.  There was a strong west-wind blowing dead against me,
+which, together with the current, increased by the height of the water,
+made the first part of the passage pretty toilsome.  The black river was
+all dimpled over with little eddies and whirlpools; and the breeze,
+moreover, caused the billows to beat against the bow of the boat, with a
+sound like the flapping of a bird's wing.  The water-weeds, where they
+were discernible through the tawny water, were straight outstretched by
+the force of the current, looking as if they were forced to hold on to
+their roots with all their might.  If for a moment I desisted from
+paddling, the head of the boat was swept round by the combined might of
+wind and tide.  However, I toiled onward stoutly, and, entering the North
+Branch, soon found myself floating quietly along a tranquil stream,
+sheltered from the breeze by the woods and a lofty hill.  The current,
+likewise, lingered along so gently that it was merely a pleasure to
+propel the boat against it.  I never could have conceived that there was
+so beautiful a river-scene in Concord as this of the North Branch.  The
+stream flows through the midmost privacy and deepest heart of a wood,
+which, as if but half satisfied with its presence, calm, gentle, and
+unobtrusive as it is, seems to crowd upon it, and barely to allow it
+passage; for the trees are rooted on the very verge of the water, and dip
+their pendent branches into it.  On one side there is a high bank,
+forming the side of a hill, the Indian name of which I have forgotten,
+though Mr. Thoreau told it to me; and here, in some instances, the trees
+stand leaning over the river, stretching out their arms as if about to
+plunge in headlong.  On the other side, the bank is almost on a level
+with the water; and there the quiet congregation of trees stood with feet
+in the flood, and fringed with foliage down to its very surface.  Vines
+here and there twine themselves about bushes or aspens or alder-trees,
+and hang their clusters (though scanty and infrequent this season) so
+that I can reach them from my boat.  I scarcely remember a scene of more
+complete and lovely seclusion than the passage of the river through this
+wood.  Even an Indian canoe, in olden times, could not have floated
+onward in deeper solitude than my boat.  I have never elsewhere had such
+an opportunity to observe how much more beautiful reflection is than what
+we call reality.  The sky, and the clustering foliage on either hand, and
+the effect of sunlight as it found its way through the shade, giving
+lightsome hues in contrast with the quiet depth of the prevailing tints,
+--all these seemed unsurpassably beautiful when beheld in upper air.  But
+on gazing downward, there they were, the same even to the minutest
+particular, yet arrayed in ideal beauty, which satisfied the spirit
+incomparably more than the actual scene.  I am half convinced that the
+reflection is indeed the reality, the real thing which Nature imperfectly
+images to our grosser sense.  At any rate, the disembodied shadow is
+nearest to the soul.
+
+There were many tokens of autumn in this beautiful picture.  Two or three
+of the trees were actually dressed in their coats of many colors,--the
+real scarlet and gold which they wear before they put on mourning.  These
+stood on low, marshy spots, where a frost has probably touched them
+already.  Others were of a light, fresh green, resembling the hues of
+spring, though this, likewise, is a token of decay.  The great mass of
+the foliage, however, appears unchanged; but ever and anon down came a
+yellow leaf, half flitting upon the air, half falling through it, and
+finally settling upon the water.  A multitude of these were floating here
+and there along the river, many of them curling upward, so as to form
+little boats, fit for fairies to voyage in.  They looked strangely
+pretty, with yet a melancholy prettiness, as they floated along.  The
+general aspect of the river, however, differed but little from that of
+summer,--at least the difference defies expression.  It is more in the
+character of the rich yellow sunlight than in aught else.  The water of
+the stream has now a thrill of autumnal coolness; yet whenever a broad
+gleam fell across it, through an interstice of the foliage, multitudes of
+insects were darting to and fro upon its surface.  The sunshine, thus
+falling across the dark river, has a most beautiful effect.  It burnishes
+it, as it were, and yet leaves it as dark as ever.
+
+On my return, I suffered the boat to float almost of its own will down
+the stream, and caught fish enough for this morning's breakfast.  But,
+partly from a qualm of conscience, I finally put them all into the water
+again, and saw them swim away as if nothing had happened.
+
+
+Monday, October 10th.--A long while, indeed, since my last date.  But the
+weather has been generally sunny and pleasant, though often very cold;
+and I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by
+staying in the house.  So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in
+the open air.  My chief amusement has been boating up and down the river.
+A week or two ago (September 27 and 28) I went on a pedestrian excursion
+with Mr. Emerson, and was gone two days and one night, it being the first
+and only night that I have spent away from home.  We were that night at
+the village of Harvard, and the next morning walked three miles farther,
+to the Shaker village, where we breakfasted.  Mr. Emerson had a
+theological discussion with two of the Shaker brethren; but the
+particulars of it have faded from my memory; and all the other adventures
+of the tour have now so lost their freshness that I cannot adequately
+recall them.  Wherefore let them rest untold.  I recollect nothing so
+well as the aspect of some fringed gentians, which we saw growing by the
+roadside, and which were so beautiful that I longed to turn back and
+pluck them.  After an arduous journey, we arrived safe home in the
+afternoon of the second day,--the first time that I ever came home in my
+life; for I never had a home before.  On Saturday of the same week, my
+friend D. R------ came to see us, and stayed till Tuesday morning.  On
+Wednesday there was a cattleshow in the village, of which I would give a
+description, if it had possessed any picturesque points.  The foregoing
+are the chief outward events of our life.
+
+In the mean time autumn has been advancing, and is said to be a month
+earlier than usual.  We had frosts, sufficient to kill the bean and
+squash vines, more than a fortnight ago; but there has since been some of
+the most delicious Indian-summer weather that I ever experienced,--mild,
+sweet, perfect days, in which the warm sunshine seemed to embrace the
+earth and all earth's children with love and tenderness.  Generally,
+however, the bright days have been vexed with winds from the northwest,
+somewhat too keen and high for comfort.  These winds have strewn our
+avenue with withered leaves, although the trees still retain some density
+of foliage, which is now imbrowned or otherwise variegated by autumn.
+Our apples, too, have been falling, falling, falling; and we have picked
+the fairest of them from the dewy grass, and put them in our store-room
+and elsewhere.  On Thursday, John Flint began to gather those which
+remained on the trees; and I suppose they will amount to nearly twenty
+barrels, or perhaps more.  As usual when I have anything to sell, apples
+are very low indeed in price, and will not fetch me more than a dollar a
+barrel.  I have sold my share of the potato-field for twenty dollars and
+ten bushels of potatoes for my own use.  This may suffice for the
+economical history of our recent life.
+
+
+12 o'clock, M.--Just now I heard a sharp tapping at the window of my
+study, and, looking up from my book (a volume of Rabelais), behold! the
+head of a little bird, who seemed to demand admittance!  He was probably
+attempting to get a fly, which was on the pane of glass against which he
+rapped; and on my first motion the feathered visitor took wing.  This
+incident had a curious effect on me.  It impressed me as if the bird had
+been a spiritual visitant, so strange was it that this little wild thing
+should seem to ask our hospitality.
+
+
+November 8th.--I am sorry that our journal has fallen so into neglect;
+but I see no chance of amendment.  All my scribbling propensities will be
+far more than gratified in writing nonsense for the press; so that any
+gratuitous labor of the pen becomes peculiarly distasteful.  Since the
+last date, we have paid a visit of nine days to Boston and Salem, whence
+we returned a week ago yesterday.  Thus we lost above a week of delicious
+autumnal weather, which should have been spent in the woods or upon the
+river.  Ever since our return, however, until to-day, there has been a
+succession of genuine Indian-summer days, with gentle winds or none at
+all, and a misty atmosphere, which idealizes all nature, and a mild,
+beneficent sunshine, inviting one to lie down in a nook and forget all
+earthly care.  To-day the sky is dark and lowering, and occasionally lets
+fall a few sullen tears.  I suppose we must bid farewell to Indian summer
+now, and expect no more love and tenderness from Mother Nature till next
+spring be well advanced.  She has already made herself as unlovely in
+outward aspect as can well be.  We took a walk to Sleepy Hollow
+yesterday, and beheld scarcely a green thing, except the everlasting
+verdure of the family of pines, which, indeed, are trees to thank God for
+at this season.  A range of young birches had retained a pretty liberal
+coloring of yellow or tawny leaves, which became very cheerful in the
+sunshine.  There were one or two oak-trees whose foliage still retained a
+deep, dusky red, which looked rich and warm; but most of the oaks had
+reached the last stage of autumnal decay,--the dusky brown hue.  Millions
+of their leaves strew the woods and rustle underneath the foot; but
+enough remain upon the boughs to make a melancholy harping when the wind
+sweeps over them.  We found some fringed gentians in the meadow, most of
+them blighted and withered; but a few were quite perfect.  The other day,
+since our return from Salem, I found a violet; yet it was so cold that
+day, that a large pool of water, under the shadow of some trees, had
+remained frozen from morning till afternoon.  The ice was so thick as not
+to be broken by some sticks and small stones which I threw upon it.  But
+ice and snow too will soon be no extraordinary matters with us.
+
+During the last week we have had three stoves put up, and henceforth no
+light of a cheerful fire will gladden us at eventide.  Stoves are
+detestable in every respect, except that they keep us perfectly
+comfortable.
+
+
+Thursday, November 24th.--This is Thanksgiving Day, a good old festival,
+and we have kept it with our hearts, and, besides, have made good cheer
+upon our turkey and pudding, and pies and custards, although none sat at
+our board but our two selves.  There was a new and livelier sense, I
+think, that we have at last found a home, and that a new family has been
+gathered since the last Thanksgiving Day.  There have been many bright
+cold days latterly,--so cold that it has required a pretty rapid pace to
+keep one's self warm a-walking.  Day before yesterday I saw a party of
+boys skating on a pond of water that has overflowed a neighboring meadow.
+Running water has not yet frozen.  Vegetation has quite come to a stand,
+except in a few sheltered spots.  In a deep ditch we found a tall plant
+of the freshest and healthiest green, which looked as if it must have
+grown within the last few weeks.  We wander among the wood-paths, which
+are very pleasant in the sunshine of the afternoons, the trees looking
+rich and warm,--such of them, I mean, as have retained their russet
+leaves; and where the leaves are strewn along the paths, or heaped
+plentifully in some hollow of the hills, the effect is not without a
+charm.  To-day the morning rose with rain, which has since changed to
+snow and sleet; and now the landscape is as dreary as can well be
+imagined,--white, with the brownness of the soil and withered grass
+everywhere peeping out.  The swollen river, of a leaden hue, drags itself
+sullenly along; and this may be termed the first winter's day.
+
+
+Friday, March 31st, 1843.--The first month of spring is already gone; and
+still the snow lies deep on hill and valley, and the river is still
+frozen from bank to bank, although a late rain has caused pools of water
+to stand on the surface of the ice, and the meadows are overflowed into
+broad lakes.  Such a protracted winter has not been known for twenty
+years, at least.  I have almost forgotten the wood-paths and shady places
+which I used to know so well last summer; and my views are so much
+confined to the interior of our mansion, that sometimes, looking out of
+the window, I am surprised to catch a glimpse of houses, at no great
+distance, which had quite passed out of my recollection.  From present
+appearances, another month may scarcely suffice to wash away all the snow
+from the open country; and in the woods and hollows it may linger yet
+longer.  The winter will not have been a day less than five months long;
+and it would not be unfair to call it seven.  A great space, indeed, to
+miss the smile of Nature, in a single year of human life.  Even out of
+the midst of happiness I have sometimes sighed and groaned; for I love
+the sunshine and the green woods, and the sparkling blue water; and it
+seems as if the picture of our inward bliss should be set in a beautiful
+frame of outward nature. . . . As to the daily course of our life, I
+have written with pretty commendable diligence, averaging from two to
+four hours a day; and the result is seen in various magazines.  I might
+have written more, if it had seemed worth while; but I was content to
+earn only so much gold as might suffice for our immediate wants, having
+prospect of official station and emolument which would do away with the
+necessity of writing for bread.  Those prospects have not yet had their
+fulfilment; and we are well content to wait, because an office would
+inevitably remove us from our present happy home,--at least from an
+outward home; for there is an inner one that will accompany us wherever
+we go.  Meantime, the magazine people do not pay their debts; so that we
+taste some of the inconveniences of poverty.  It is an annoyance, not a
+trouble.
+
+Every day, I trudge through snow and slosh to the village, look into the
+post-office, and spend an hour at the reading-room; and then return home,
+generally without having spoken a word to a human being. . . . In the
+way of exercise I saw and split wood, and, physically, I never was in a
+better condition than now.  This is chiefly owing, doubtless, to a
+satisfied heart, in aid of which comes the exercise above mentioned, and
+about a fair proportion of intellectual labor.
+
+On the 9th of this mouth, we left home again on a visit to Boston and
+Salem.  I alone went to Salem, where I resumed all my bachelor habits for
+nearly a fortnight, leading the same life in which ten years of my youth
+flitted away like a dream.  But how much changed was I!  At last I had
+caught hold of a reality which never could be taken from me.  It was good
+thus to get apart from my happiness, for the sake of contemplating it.
+On the 21st, I returned to Boston, and went out to Cambridge to dine with
+Longfellow, whom I had not seen since his return from Europe.  The next
+day we came back to our old house, which had been deserted all this time;
+for our servant had gone with us to Boston.
+
+
+Friday, April 7th.--My wife has gone to Boston to see her sister M------,
+who is to be married in two or three weeks, and then immediately to visit
+Europe for six months. . . . I betook myself to sawing and splitting
+wood; there being an inward unquietness which demanded active exercise,
+and I sawed, I think, more briskly than ever before.  When I re-entered
+the house, it was with somewhat of a desolate feeling; yet not without an
+intermingled pleasure, as being the more conscious that all separation
+was temporary, and scarcely real, even for the little time that it may
+last.  After my solitary dinner, I lay down, with the Dial in my hand,
+and attempted to sleep; but sleep would not come. . . . So I arose, and
+began this record in the journal, almost at the commencement of which I
+was interrupted by a visit from Mr. Thoreau, who came to return a book,
+and to announce his purpose of going to reside at Staten Island, as
+private tutor in the family of Mr. Emerson's brother.  We had some
+conversation upon this subject, and upon the spiritual advantages of
+change of place, and upon the Dial, and upon Mr. Alcott, and other
+kindred or concatenated subjects.  I am glad, on Mr. Thoreau's own
+account, that he is going away, as he is out of health, and may be
+benefited by his removal; but, on my account, I should like to have him
+remain here, he being one of the few persons, I think, with whom to hold
+intercourse is like hearing the wind among the boughs of a forest-tree;
+and, with all this wild freedom, there is high and classic cultivation in
+him too. . . .
+
+I had a purpose, if circumstances would permit, of passing the whole term
+of my wife's absence without speaking a word to any human being; but now
+my Pythagorean vow has been broken, within three or four hours after her
+departure.
+
+
+Saturday, April 8th.--After journalizing yesterday afternoon, I went out
+and sawed and split wood till teatime, then studied German (translating
+Lenore), with an occasional glance at a beautiful sunset, which I could
+not enjoy sufficiently by myself to induce me to lay aside the book.
+After lamplight, finished Lenore, and drowsed over Voltaire's Candide,
+occasionally refreshing myself with a tune from Mr. Thoreau's
+musical-box, which he had left in my keeping.  The evening was but a dull
+one.
+
+I retired soon after nine, and felt some apprehension that the old
+Doctor's ghost would take this opportunity to visit me; but I rather
+think his former visitations have not been intended for me, and that I am
+not sufficiently spiritual for ghostly communication.  At all events, I
+met with no disturbance of the kind, and slept soundly enough till six
+o'clock or thereabouts.  The forenoon was spent with the pen in my hand,
+and sometimes I had the glimmering of an idea, and endeavored to
+materialize it in words; but on the whole my mind was idly vagrant, and
+refused to work to any systematic purpose.  Between eleven and twelve I
+went to the post-office, but found no letter; then spent above an hour
+reading at the Athenaeum.  On my way home, I encountered Mr. Flint, for
+the first time these many weeks, although he is our next neighbor in one
+direction.  I inquired if he could sell us some potatoes, and he promised
+to send half a bushel for trial.  Also, he encouraged me to hope that he
+might buy a barrel of our apples.  After my encounter with Mr. Flint, I
+returned to our lonely old abbey, opened the door without the usual
+heart-spring, ascended to my study, and began to read a tale of Tieck.
+Slow work, and dull work too!  Anon, Molly, the cook, rang the bell for
+dinner,--a sumptuous banquet of stewed veal and macaroni, to which I sat
+down in solitary state.  My appetite served me sufficiently to eat with,
+but not for enjoyment.  Nothing has a zest in my present widowed state.
+[Thus far I had written, when Mr. Emerson called.]  After dinner, I lay
+down on the couch, with the Dial in my hand as a soporific, and had a
+short nap; then began to journalize.
+
+Mr. Emerson came, with a sunbeam in his face; and we had as good a talk
+as I ever remember to have had with him.  He spoke of Margaret Fuller,
+who, he says, has risen perceptibly into a higher state since their last
+meeting.  [There rings the tea-bell.]  Then we discoursed of Ellery
+Channing, a volume of whose poems is to be immediately published, with
+revisions by Mr. Emerson himself and Mr. Sam G. Ward. . . . He calls
+them "poetry for poets."  Next Mr. Thoreau was discussed, and his
+approaching departure; in respect to which we agreed pretty well. . . .
+We talked of Brook Farm, and the singular moral aspects which it
+presents, and the great desirability that its progress and developments
+should be observed and its history written; also of C. N------, who, it
+appears, is passing through a new moral phasis.  He is silent,
+inexpressive, talks little or none, and listens without response, except
+a sardonic laugh; and some of his friends think that he is passing into
+permanent eclipse.  Various other matters were considered or glanced at,
+and finally, between five and six o'clock, Mr. Emerson took his leave.  I
+then went out to chop wood, my allotted space for which had been very
+much abridged by his visit; but I was not sorry.  I went on with the
+journal for a few minutes before tea, and have finished the present
+record in the setting sunshine and gathering dusk. . . .
+
+
+Salem.--. . . . Here I am, in my old chamber, where I produced those
+stupendous works of fiction which have since impressed the universe with
+wonderment and awe!  To this chamber, doubtless, in all succeeding ages,
+pilgrims will come to pay their tribute of reverence;--they will put off
+their shoes at the threshold for fear of desecrating the tattered old
+carpets!  "There," they will exclaim, "is the very bed in which he
+slumbered, and where he was visited by those ethereal visions which he
+afterwards fixed forever in glowing words!  There is the wash-stand at
+which this exalted personage cleansed himself from the stains of earth,
+and rendered his outward man a fitting exponent of the pure soul within.
+There, in its mahogany frame, is the dressing-glass, which often
+reflected that noble brow, those hyacinthine locks, that mouth bright
+with smiles or tremulous with feeling, that flashing or melting eye,
+that--in short, every item of the magnanimous face of this unexampled
+man.  There is the pine table,--there the old flag-bottomed chair on
+which he sat, and at which he scribbled, during his agonies of
+inspiration!  There is the old chest of drawers in which he kept what
+shirts a poor author may be supposed to have possessed!  There is the
+closet in which was reposited his threadbare suit of black!  There is the
+worn-out shoe-brush with which this polished writer polished his boots.
+There is--" but I believe, this will be pretty much all, so here I close
+the catalogue. . . .
+
+A cloudy veil stretches over the abyss of my nature.  I have, however, no
+love of secrecy and darkness.  I am glad to think that God sees through
+my heart, and, if any angel has power to penetrate into it, he is welcome
+to know everything that is there.  Yes, and so may any mortal who is
+capable of full sympathy, and therefore worthy to come into my depths.
+But he must find his own way there.  I can neither guide nor enlighten
+him.  It is this involuntary reserve, I suppose, that has given the
+objectivity to my writings; and when people think that I am pouring
+myself out in a tale or an essay, I am merely telling what is common to
+human nature, not what is peculiar to myself.  I sympathize with them,
+not they with me. . . .
+
+I have recently been both lectured about and preached about here in my
+native city; the preacher was Rev. Mr. Fox of Newburyport; but how he
+contrived to put me into a sermon I know not.  I trust he took for his
+text, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile."
+
+
+Salem, March 12th.--. . . . That poor home! how desolate it is now!  Last
+night, being awake, . . . . my thoughts travelled back to the lonely old
+Manse; and it seemed as if I were wandering up stairs and down stairs all
+by myself.  My fancy was almost afraid to be there alone.  I could see
+every object in a dim, gray light,--our chamber, the study, all in
+confusion; the parlor, with the fragments of that abortive breakfast on
+the table, and the precious silver forks, and the old bronze image,
+keeping its solitary stand upon the mantelpiece.  Then, methought, the
+wretched Vigwiggie came, and jumped upon the window-sill, and clung there
+with her fore paws, mewing dismally for admittance, which I could not
+grant her, being there myself only in the spirit.  And then came the
+ghost of the old Doctor, stalking through the gallery, and down the
+staircase, and peeping into the parlor; and though I was wide awake, and
+conscious of being so many miles from the spot, still it was quite awful
+to think of the ghost having sole possession of our home; for I could not
+quite separate myself from it, after all.  Somehow the Doctor and I
+seemed to be there tete-a-tete. . . . I believe I did not have any
+fantasies about the ghostly kitchen-maid; but I trust Mary left the
+flat-irons within her reach, so that she may do all her ironing while we
+are away, and never disturb us more at midnight.  I suppose she comes
+thither to iron her shroud, and perhaps, likewise, to smooth the Doctor's
+band.  Probably, during her lifetime, she allowed him to go to some
+ordination or other grand clerical celebration with rumpled linen, and
+ever since, and throughout all earthly futurity (at least, as long as the
+house shall stand), she is doomed to exercise a nightly toil with a
+spiritual flat-iron.  Poor sinner!--and doubtless Satan heats the irons
+for her.  What nonsense is all this! but, really, it does make me shiver
+to think of that poor home of ours.
+
+
+March 16th.--. . . . As for this Mr. ------, I wish he would not be so
+troublesome.  His scheme is well enough, and might possibly become
+popular; but it has no peculiar advantages with reference to myself, nor
+do the subjects of his proposed books particularly suit my fancy as
+themes to write upon.  Somebody else will answer his purpose just as
+well; and I would rather write books of my own imagining than be hired to
+develop the ideas of an engraver; especially as the pecuniary prospect is
+not better, nor so good, as it might be elsewhere.  I intend to adhere to
+my former plan of writing one or two mythological story-books, to be
+published under O'Sullivan's auspices in New York,---which is the only
+place where books can be published with a chance of profit.  As a matter
+of courtesy, I may call on Mr. ------, if I have time; but I do not
+intend to be connected with this affair.
+
+
+Sunday, April 9th.--. . . . After finishing my record in the journal, I
+sat a long time in grandmother's chair, thinking of many things. . . .
+My spirits were at a lower ebb than they ever descend to when I am not
+alone; nevertheless, neither was I absolutely sad.  Many times I wound
+and rewound Mr. Thoreau's little musical-box; but certainly its peculiar
+sweetness had evaporated, and I am pretty sure that I should throw it out
+of the window were I doomed to hear it long and often.  It has not an
+infinite soul.  When it was almost as dark as the moonlight would let it
+be, I lighted the lamp, and went on with Tieck's tale, slowly and
+painfully, often wishing for help in my difficulties.  At last I
+determined to learn a little about pronouns and verbs before proceeding
+further, and so took up the phrase-book, with which I was commendably
+busy, when, at about a quarter to nine, came a knock at my study door,
+and, behold, there was Molly with a letter!  How she came by it I did not
+ask, being content to suppose it was brought by a heavenly messenger.  I
+had not expected a letter; and what a comfort it was to me in my
+loneliness and sombreness!  I called Molly to take her note (enclosed),
+which she received with a face of delight as broad and bright as the
+kitchen fire.  Then I read, and re-read, and re-re-read, and quadruply,
+quintuply, and sextuply re-read my epistle, until I had it all by heart,
+and then continued to re-read it for the sake of the penmanship.  Then I
+took up the phrase-book again; but could not study, and so bathed and
+retired, it being now not far from ten o'clock.  I lay awake a good deal
+in the night, but saw no ghost.
+
+I arose about seven, and found that the upper part of my nose, and the
+region round about, was grievously discolored; and at the angle of the
+left eye there is a great spot of almost black purple, and a broad streak
+of the same hue semicircling beneath either eye, while green, yellow, and
+orange overspread the circumjacent country.  It looks not unlike a
+gorgeous sunset, throwing its splendor over the heaven of my countenance.
+It will behoove me to show myself as little as possible, else people will
+think I have fought a pitched battle. . . . The Devil take the stick of
+wood!  What had I done, that it should bemaul me so?  However, there is
+no pain, though, I think, a very slight affection of the eyes.
+
+This forenoon I began to write, and caught an idea by the skirts, which I
+intend to hold fast, though it struggles to get free.  As it was not
+ready to be put upon paper, however, I took up the Dial, and finished
+reading the article on Mr. Alcott.  It is not very satisfactory, and it
+has not taught me much.  Then I read Margaret's article on Canova, which
+is good.  About this time the dinner-bell rang, and I went down without
+much alacrity, though with a good appetite enough. . . . It was in the
+angle of my right eye, not my left, that the blackest purple was
+collected.  But they both look like the very Devil.
+
+Half past five o'clock.--After writing the above, . . . . I again set to
+work on Tieck's tale, and worried through several pages; and then, at
+half past four, threw open one of the western windows of my study, and
+sallied forth to take the sunshine.  I went down through the orchard to
+the river-side.  The orchard-path is still deeply covered with snow; and
+so is the whole visible universe, except streaks upon the hillsides, and
+spots in the sunny hollows, where the brown earth peeps through.  The
+river, which a few days ago was entirely imprisoned, has now broken its
+fetters; but a tract of ice extended across from near the foot of the
+monument to the abutment of the old bridge, and looked so solid that I
+supposed it would yet remain for a day or two.  Large cakes and masses of
+ice came floating down the current, which, though not very violent,
+hurried along at a much swifter pace than the ordinary one of our
+sluggish river-god.  These ice-masses, when they struck the barrier of
+ice above mentioned, acted upon it like a battering-ram, and were
+themselves forced high out of the water, or sometimes carried beneath the
+main sheet of ice.  At last, down the stream came an immense mass of ice,
+and, striking the barrier about at its centre, it gave way, and the whole
+was swept onward together, leaving the river entirely free, with only
+here and there a cake of ice floating quietly along.  The great
+accumulation, in its downward course, hit against a tree that stood in
+mid-current, and caused it to quiver like a reed; and it swept quite over
+the shrubbery that bordered what, in summer-time, is the river's bank,
+but which is now nearly the centre of the stream.  Our river in its
+present state has quite a noble breadth.  The little hillock which formed
+the abutment of the old bridge is now an island with its tuft of trees.
+Along the hither shore a row of trees stand up to their knees, and the
+smaller ones to their middles, in the water; and afar off, on the surface
+of the stream, we see tufts of bushes emerging, thrusting up their heads,
+as it were, to breathe.  The water comes over the stone-wall, and
+encroaches several yards on the boundaries of our orchard.  [Here the
+supper-bell rang.]  If our boat were in good order, I should now set
+forth on voyages of discovery, and visit nooks on the borders of the
+meadows, which by and by will be a mile or two from the water's edge.
+But she is in very bad condition, full of water, and, doubtless, as leaky
+as a sieve.
+
+On coming from supper, I found that little Puss had established herself
+in the study, probably with intent to pass the night here.  She now lies
+on the footstool between my feet, purring most obstreperously.  The day
+of my wife's departure, she came to me, talking with the greatest
+earnestness; but whether it was to condole with me on my loss, or to
+demand my redoubled care for herself, I could not well make out.  As Puss
+now constitutes a third part of the family, this mention of her will not
+appear amiss.  How Molly employs herself, I know not.  Once in a while, I
+hear a door slam like a thunder-clap; but she never shows her face, nor
+speaks a word, unless to announce a visitor or deliver a letter.  This
+day, on my part, will have been spent without exchanging a syllable with
+any human being, unless something unforeseen should yet call for the
+exercise of speech before bedtime.
+
+
+Monday, April 10th.--I sat till eight o'clock, meditating upon this world
+and the next, . . . . and sometimes dimly shaping out scenes of a tale.
+Then betook myself to the German phrase-book.  Ah! these are but dreary
+evenings.  The lamp would not brighten my spirits, though it was duly
+filled. . . . This forenoon was spent in scribbling, by no means to my
+satisfaction, until past eleven, when I went to the village.  Nothing in
+our box at the post-office.  I read during the customary hour, or more,
+at the Athenaeum, and returned without saying a word to mortal.  I
+gathered, from some conversation that I heard, that a son of Adam is to
+be buried this afternoon from the meeting-house; but the name of the
+deceased escaped me.  It is no great matter, so it be but written in the
+Book of Life.
+
+My variegated face looks somewhat more human to-day; though I was
+unaffectedly ashamed to meet anybody's gaze, and therefore turned my back
+or my shoulder as much as possible upon the world.  At dinner, behold an
+immense joint of roast veal!  I would willingly have had some assistance
+in the discussion of this great piece of calf.  I am ashamed to eat
+alone; it becomes the mere gratification of animal appetite,--the tribute
+which we are compelled to pay to our grosser nature; whereas in the
+company of another it is refined and moralized and spiritualized; and
+over our earthly victuals (or rather vittles, for the former is a very
+foolish mode of spelling),--over our earthly vittles is diffused a sauce
+of lofty and gentle thoughts, and tough meat is mollified with tender
+feelings.  But oh! these solitary meals are the dismallest part of my
+present experience.  When the company rose from table, they all, in my
+single person, ascended to the study, and employed themselves in reading
+the article on Oregon in the Democratic Review.  Then they plodded onward
+in the rugged and bewildering depths of Tieck's tale until five o'clock,
+when, with one accord, they went out to split wood.  This has been a
+gray day, with now and then a sprinkling of snow-flakes through the
+air. . . . To-day no more than yesterday have I spoken a word to
+mortal. . . . It is now sunset, and I must meditate till dark.
+
+
+April 11th.--I meditated accordingly, but without any very wonderful
+result.  Then at eight o'clock bothered myself till after nine with this
+eternal tale of Tieck.  The forenoon was spent in scribbling; but at
+eleven o'clock my thoughts ceased to flow,--indeed, their current has
+been wofully interrupted all along,--so I threw down my pen, and set out
+on the daily journey to the village.  Horrible walking!  I wasted the
+customary hour at the Athenaeum, and returned home, if home it may now be
+called.  Till dinner-time I labored on Tieck's tale, and resumed that
+agreeable employment after the banquet.
+
+Just when I was on the point of choking with a huge German word, Molly
+announced Mr. Thoreau.  He wished to take a row in the boat, for the last
+time, perhaps, before he leaves Concord.  So we emptied the water out of
+her, and set forth on our voyage.  She leaks, but not more than she did
+in the autumn.  We rowed to the foot of the hill which borders the North
+Branch, and there landed, and climbed the moist and snowy hillside for
+the sake of the prospect.  Looking down the river, it might well have
+been mistaken for an arm of the sea, so broad is now its swollen tide;
+and I could have fancied that, beyond one other headland, the mighty
+ocean would outspread itself before the eye.  On our return we boarded a
+large cake of ice, which was floating down the river, and were borne by
+it directly to our own landing-place, with the boat towing behind.
+
+Parting with Mr. Thoreau, I spent half an hour in chopping wood, when
+Molly informed me that Mr. Emerson wished to see me.  He had brought a
+letter of Ellery Channing, written in a style of very pleasant humor.
+This being read and discussed, together with a few other matters, he took
+his leave, since which I have been attending to my journalizing duty; and
+thus this record is brought down to the present moment.
+
+
+April 25th.--Spring is advancing, sometimes with sunny days, and
+sometimes, as is the case now, with chill, moist, sullen ones.  There is
+an influence in the season that makes it almost impossible for me to
+bring my mind down to literary employment; perhaps because several
+months' pretty constant work has exhausted that species of energy,--
+perhaps because in spring it is more natural to labor actively than to
+think.  But my impulse now is to be idle altogether,--to lie in the sun,
+or wander about and look at the revival of Nature from her death-like
+slumber, or to be borne down the current of the river in my boat.  If I
+had wings, I would gladly fly; yet would prefer to be wafted along by a
+breeze, sometimes alighting on a patch of green grass, then gently
+whirled away to a still sunnier spot. . . . O, how blest should I be
+were there nothing to do!  Then I would watch every inch and
+hair's-breadth of the progress of the season; and not a leaf should put
+itself forth, in the vicinity of our old mansion, without my noting it.
+But now, with the burden of a continual task upon me, I have not freedom
+of mind to make such observations.  I merely see what is going on in a
+very general way.  The snow, which, two or three weeks ago, covered hill
+and valley, is now diminished to one or two solitary specks in the
+visible landscape; though doubtless there are still heaps of it in the
+shady places in the woods.  There have been no violent rains to carry it
+off: it has diminished gradually, inch by inch, and day after day; and I
+observed, along the roadside, that the green blades of grass had
+sometimes sprouted on the very edge of the snowdrift the moment that the
+earth was uncovered.
+
+The pastures and grass-fields have not yet a general effect of green; nor
+have they that cheerless brown tint which they wear in later autumn, when
+vegetation has entirely ceased.  There is now a suspicion of verdure,--
+the faint shadow of it,--but not the warm reality.  Sometimes, in a happy
+exposure,--there is one such tract across the river, the carefully
+cultivated mowing-field, in front of an old red homestead,--such patches
+of land wear a beautiful and tender green, which no other season will
+equal; because, let the grass be green as it may hereafter, it will not
+be so set off by surrounding barrenness.  The trees in our orchard, and
+elsewhere, have as yet no leaves; yet to the most careless eye they
+appear full of life and vegetable blood.  It seems as if, by one magic
+touch, they might instantaneously put forth all their foliage, and the
+wind, which now sighs through their naked branches, might all at once
+find itself impeded by innumerable leaves.  This sudden development would
+be scarcely more wonderful than the gleam of verdure which often
+brightens, in a moment, as it were, along the slope of a bank or
+roadside.  It is like a gleam of sunlight.  Just now it was brown, like
+the rest of the scenery: look again, and there is an apparition of green
+grass.  The Spring, no doubt, comes onward with fleeter footsteps,
+because Winter has lingered so long that, at best, she can hardly
+retrieve half the allotted term of her reign.
+
+The river, this season, has encroached farther on the land than it has
+been known to do for twenty years past.  It has formed along its course a
+succession of lakes, with a current through the midst.  My boat has lain
+at the bottom of the orchard, in very convenient proximity to the house.
+It has borne me over stone fences; and, a few days ago, Ellery Channing
+and I passed through two rails into the great northern road, along which
+we paddled for some distance.  The trees have a singular appearance in
+the midst of waters.  The curtailment of their trunks quite destroys the
+proportions of the whole tree; and we become conscious of a regularity
+and propriety in the forms of Nature, by the effect of this abbreviation.
+The waters are now subsiding, but gradually.  Islands become annexed to
+the mainland, and other islands emerge from the flood, and will soon,
+likewise, be connected with the continent.  We have seen on a small scale
+the process of the deluge, and can now witness that of the reappearance
+of the earth.
+
+Crows visited us long before the snow was off.  They seem mostly to have
+departed now, or else to have betaken themselves to remote depths of the
+woods, which they haunt all summer long.  Ducks came in great numbers,
+and many sportsmen went in pursuit of them, along the river; but they
+also have disappeared.  Gulls come up from seaward, and soar high
+overhead, flapping their broad wings in the upper sunshine.  They are
+among the most picturesque birds that I am acquainted with; indeed, quite
+the most so, because the manner of their flight makes them almost
+stationary parts of the landscape.  The imagination has time to rest upon
+them; they have not flitted away in a moment.  You go up among the
+clouds, and lay hold of these soaring gulls, and repose with them upon
+the sustaining atmosphere.  The smaller birds,--the birds that build
+their nests in our trees, and sing for us at morning-red,--I will not
+describe. . . . But I must mention the great companies of blackbirds--
+more than the famous "four-and-twenty" who were baked in a pie--that
+congregate on the tops of contiguous trees, and vociferate with all the
+clamor of a turbulent political meeting.  Politics must certainly be the
+subject of such a tumultuous debate; but still there is a melody in each
+individual utterance, and a harmony in the general effect.  Mr. Thoreau
+tells me that these noisy assemblages consist of three different species
+of blackbirds; but I forget the other two.  Robins have been long among
+us, and swallows have more recently arrived.
+
+
+April 26th.--Here is another misty day, muffling the sun.  The
+lilac-shrubs under my study window are almost in leaf.  In two or three
+days more, I may put forth my hand and pluck a green bough.  These lilacs
+appear to be very aged, and have lost the luxuriant foliage of their
+prime.  Old age has a singular aspect in lilacs, rose-bushes, and other
+ornamental shrubs.  It seems as if such things, as they grow only for
+beauty, ought to flourish in immortal youth, or at least to die before
+their decrepitude.  They are trees of Paradise, and therefore not
+naturally subject to decay; but have lost their birthright by being
+transplanted hither.  There is a kind of ludicrous unfitness in the idea
+of a venerable rose-bush; and there is something analogous to this in
+human life.  Persons who can only be graceful and ornamental--who can
+give the world nothing but flowers--should die young, and never be seen
+with gray hairs and wrinkles, any more than the flower-shrubs with mossy
+bark and scanty foliage, like the lilacs under my window.  Not that
+beauty is not worthy of immortality.  Nothing else, indeed, is worthy of
+it; and thence, perhaps, the sense of impropriety when we see it
+triumphed over by time.  Apple-trees, on the other hand, grow old without
+reproach.  Let them live as long as they may, and contort themselves in
+whatever fashion they please, they are still respectable, even if they
+afford us only an apple or two in a season, or none at all.  Human
+flower-shrubs, if they will grow old on earth, should, beside their
+lovely blossoms, bear some kind of fruit that will satisfy earthly
+appetites; else men will not be satisfied that the moss should gather on
+them.
+
+Winter and Spring are now struggling for the mastery in my study; and I
+yield somewhat to each, and wholly to neither.  The window is open, and
+there is a fire in the stove.  The day when the window is first thrown
+open should be an epoch in the year; but I have forgotten to record it.
+Seventy or eighty springs have visited this old house; and sixty of them
+found old Dr. Ripley here,--not always old, it is true, but gradually
+getting wrinkles and gray hairs, and looking more and more the picture of
+winter.  But he was no flower-shrub, but one of those fruit-trees or
+timber-trees that acquire a grace with their old age.  Last Spring found
+this house solitary for the first time since it was built; and now again
+she peeps into our open windows and finds new faces here. . . .
+
+It is remarkable how much uncleanness winter brings with it, or leaves
+behind it. . . . The yard, garden, and avenue, which should be my
+department, require a great amount of labor.  The avenue is strewed with
+withered leaves,--the whole crop, apparently, of last year,--some of
+which are now raked into heaps; and we intend to make a bonfire of
+them. . . . There are quantities of decayed branches, which one tempest
+after another has flung down, black and rotten.  In the garden are the
+old cabbages which we did not think worth gathering last autumn, and the
+dry bean-vines, and the withered stalks of the asparagus-bed; in short,
+all the wrecks of the departed year,--its mouldering relics, its dry
+bones.  It is a pity that the world cannot be made over anew every
+spring.  Then, in the yard, there are the piles of firewood, which I
+ought to have sawed and thrown into the shed long since, but which will
+cumber the earth, I fear, till June, at least.  Quantities of chips are
+strewn about, and on removing them we find the yellow stalks of grass
+sprouting underneath.  Nature does her best to beautify this disarray.
+The grass springs up most industriously, especially in sheltered and
+sunny angles of the buildings, or round the doorsteps,--a locality which
+seems particularly favorable to its growth; for it is already high enough
+to bend over and wave in the wind.  I was surprised to observe that some
+weeds (especially a plant that stains the fingers with its yellow juice)
+had lived, and retained their freshness and sap as perfectly as in
+summer, through all the frosts and snows of last winter.  I saw them, the
+last green thing, in the autumn; and here they are again, the first in
+the spring.
+
+
+Thursday, April 27th.--I took a walk into the fields, and round our
+opposite hill, yesterday noon, but made no very remarkable observation.
+The frogs have begun their concerts, though not as yet with a full choir.
+I found no violets nor anemones, nor anything in the likeness of a
+flower, though I looked carefully along the shelter of the stone-walls,
+and in all spots apparently propitious.  I ascended the hill, and had a
+wide prospect of a swollen river, extending around me in a semicircle of
+three or four miles, and rendering the view much finer than in summer,
+had there only been foliage.  It seemed like the formation of a new
+world; for islands were everywhere emerging, and capes extending forth
+into the flood; and these tracts, which were thus won from the watery
+empire, were among the greenest in the landscape.  The moment the deluge
+leaves them, Nature asserts them to be her property by covering them with
+verdure; or perhaps the grass had been growing under the water.  On the
+hill-top where I stood, the grass had scarcely begun to sprout; and I
+observed that even those places which looked greenest in the distance
+were but scantily grass-covered when I actually reached them.  It was
+hope that painted them so bright.
+
+Last evening we saw a bright light on the river, betokening that a boat's
+party were engaged in spearing fish.  It looked like a descended star,--
+like red Mars,--and, as the water was perfectly smooth, its gleam was
+reflected downward into the depths.  It is a very picturesque sight.  In
+the deep quiet of the night I suddenly heard the light and lively note of
+a bird from a neighboring tree,--a real song, such as those which greet
+the purple dawn, or mingle with the yellow sunshine.  What could the
+little bird mean by pouring it forth at midnight?  Probably the note
+gushed out from the midst of a dream, in which he fancied himself in
+Paradise with his mate; and, suddenly awaking, he found he was on a cold,
+leafless bough, with a New England mist penetrating through his feathers.
+That was a sad exchange of imagination for reality; but if he found his
+mate beside him, all was well.
+
+This is another misty morning, ungenial in aspect, but kinder than it
+looks; for it paints the hills and valleys with a richer brush than the
+sunshine could.  There is more verdure now than when I looked out of the
+window an hour ago.  The willow-tree opposite my study window is ready to
+put forth its leaves.  There are some objections to willows.  It is not a
+dry and cleanly tree; it impresses me with an association of sliminess;
+and no trees, I think, are perfectly satisfactory, which have not a firm
+and hard texture of trunk and branches.  But the willow is almost the
+earliest to put forth its leaves, and the last to scatter them on the
+ground; and during the whole winter its yellow twigs give it a sunny
+aspect, which is not without a cheering influence in a proper point of
+view.  Our old house would lose much were this willow to be cut down,
+with its golden crown over the roof in winter, and its heap of summer
+verdure.  The present Mr. Ripley planted it, fifty years ago, or
+thereabouts.
+
+
+Friday, June 2d.--Last night there came a frost, which has done great
+damage to my garden.  The beans have suffered very much, although,
+luckily, not more than half that I planted have come up.  The squashes,
+both summer and winter, appear to be almost killed.  As to the other
+vegetables, there is little mischief done,--the potatoes not being yet
+above ground, except two or three; and the peas and corn are of a hardier
+nature.  It is sad that Nature will so sport with us poor mortals,
+inviting us with sunny smiles to confide in her; and then, when we are
+entirely in her power, striking us to the heart.  Our summer commences at
+the latter end of June, and terminates somewhere about the first of
+August.  There are certainly not more than six weeks of the whole year
+when a frost may be deemed anything remarkable.
+
+
+Friday, June 23d.--Summer has come at last,--the longest days, with
+blazing sunshine, and fervid heat.  Yesterday glowed like molten brass.
+Last night was the most uncomfortably and unsleepably sultry that we have
+experienced since our residence in Concord; and to-day it scorches again.
+I have a sort of enjoyment in these seven-times-heated furnaces of
+midsummer, even though they make me droop like a thirsty plant.  The
+sunshine can scarcely be too burning for my taste; but I am no enemy to
+summer showers.  Could I only have the freedom to be perfectly idle now,
+--no duty to fulfil, no mental or physical labor to perform,--I should be
+as happy as a squash, and much in the same mode; but the necessity of
+keeping my brain at work eats into my comfort, as the squash-bugs do into
+the heart of the vines.  I keep myself uneasy and produce little, and
+almost nothing that is worth producing.
+
+The garden looks well now: the potatoes flourish; the early corn waves in
+the wind; the squashes, both for summer and winter use, are more forward,
+I suspect, than those of any of my neighbors.  I am forced, however, to
+carry on a continual warfare with the squash-bugs, who, were I to let
+them alone for a day, would perhaps quite destroy the prospects of the
+whole summer.  It is impossible not to feel angry with these
+unconscionable insects, who scruple not to do such excessive mischief to
+me, with only the profit of a meal or two to themselves.  For their own
+sakes they ought at least to wait till the squashes are better grown.
+Why is it, I wonder, that Nature has provided such a host of enemies for
+every useful esculent, while the weeds are suffered to grow unmolested,
+and are provided with such tenacity of life, and such methods of
+propagation, that the gardener must maintain a continual struggle or they
+will hopelessly overwhelm him?  What hidden virtue is in these things,
+that it is granted them to sow themselves with the wind, and to grapple
+the earth with this immitigable stubbornness, and to flourish in spite of
+obstacles, and never to suffer blight beneath any sun or shade, but
+always to mock their enemies with the same wicked luxuriance?  It is
+truly a mystery, and also a symbol.  There is a sort of sacredness about
+them.  Perhaps, if we could penetrate Nature's secrets, we should find
+that what we call weeds are more essential to the well-being of the world
+than the most precious fruit or grain.  This may be doubted, however, for
+there is an unmistakable analogy between these wicked weeds and the bad
+habits and sinful propensities which have overrun the moral world; and we
+may as well imagine that there is good in one as in the other.
+
+Our peas are in such forwardness that I should not wonder if we had some
+of them on the table within a week.  The beans have come up ill, and I
+planted a fresh supply only the day before yesterday.  We have
+watermelons in good advancement, and muskmelons also within three or four
+days.  I set out some tomatoes last night, also some capers.  It is my
+purpose to plant some more corn at the end of the month, or sooner.
+There ought to be a record of the flower-garden, and of the procession of
+the wild-flowers, as minute, at least, as of the kitchen vegetables and
+pot-herbs.  Above all, the noting of the appearance of the first roses
+should not be omitted; nor of the Arethusa, one of the delicatest,
+gracefullest, and in every manner sweetest of the whole race of flowers.
+For a fortnight past I have found it in the swampy meadows, growing up to
+its chin in heaps of wet moss.  Its hue is a delicate pink, of various
+depths of shade, and somewhat in the form of a Grecian helmet.  To
+describe it is a feat beyond my power.  Also the visit of two friends,
+who may fitly enough be mentioned among flowers, ought to have been
+described.  Mrs. F. S------ and Miss A. S------.  Also I have neglected
+to mention the birth of a little white dove.
+
+I never observed, until the present season, how long and late the
+twilight lingers in these longest days.  The orange line of the western
+horizon remains till ten o'clock, at least, and how much later I am
+unable to say.  The night before last, I could distinguish letters by
+this lingering gleam between nine and ten o'clock.  The dawn, I suppose,
+shows itself as early as two o'clock, so that the absolute dominion of
+night has dwindled to almost nothing.  There seems to be also a
+diminished necessity, or, at all events, a much less possibility, of
+sleep than at other periods of the year.  I get scarcely any sound repose
+just now.  It is summer, and not winter, that steals away mortal life.
+Well, we get the value of what is taken from us.
+
+
+Saturday, July 1st.--We had our first dish of green peas (a very small
+one) yesterday.  Every day for the last week has been tremendously hot;
+and our garden flourishes like Eden itself, only Adam could hardly have
+been doomed to contend with such a ferocious banditti of weeds.
+
+
+Sunday, July 9th.--I know not what to say, and yet cannot be satisfied
+without marking with a word or two this anniversary. . . . But life now
+swells and heaves beneath me like a brim-full ocean; and the endeavor to
+comprise any portion of it in words is like trying to dip up the ocean in
+a goblet. . . . God bless and keep us! for there is something more
+awful in happiness than in sorrow,--the latter being earthly and finite,
+the former composed of the substance and texture of eternity, so that
+spirits still embodied may well tremble at it.
+
+
+July 18th.--This morning I gathered our first summer-squashes.  We should
+have had them some days earlier, but for the loss of two of the vines,
+either by a disease of the roots or by those infernal bugs.  We have had
+turnips and carrots several times.  Currants are now ripe, and we are in
+the full enjoyment of cherries, which turn out much more delectable than
+I anticipated.  George Hillard and Mrs. Hillard paid us a visit on
+Saturday last.  On Monday afternoon he left us, and Mrs. Hillard still
+remains here.
+
+
+Friday, July 28th.--We had green corn for dinner yesterday, and shall
+have some more to-day, not quite full grown, but sufficiently so to be
+palatable.  There has been no rain, except one moderate shower, for many
+weeks; and the earth appears to be wasting away in a slow fever.  This
+weather, I think, affects the spirits very unfavorably.  There is an
+irksomeness, a restlessness, a pervading dissatisfaction, together with
+an absolute incapacity to bend the mind to any serious effort.  With me,
+as regards literary production, the summer has been unprofitable; and I
+only hope that my forces are recruiting themselves for the autumn and
+winter.  For the future, I shall endeavor to be so diligent nine months
+of the year that I may allow myself a full and free vacation of the other
+three.
+
+
+Monday, July 31st.--We had our first cucumber yesterday.  There were
+symptoms of rain on Saturday, and the weather has since been as moist as
+the thirstiest soul could desire.
+
+
+Wednesday, September 13th.--There was a frost the night before last,
+according to George Prescott; but no effects of it were visible in our
+garden.  Last night, however, there was another, which has nipped the
+leaves of the winter-squashes and cucumbers, but seems to have done no
+other damage.  This is a beautiful morning, and promises to be one of
+those heavenly days that render autumn, after all, the most delightful
+season of the year.  We mean to make a voyage on the river this
+afternoon.
+
+
+Sunday, September 23d.--I have gathered the two last of our
+summer-squashes to-day.  They have lasted ever since the 18th of July,
+and have numbered fifty-eight edible ones, of excellent quality.  Last
+Wednesday, I think, I harvested our winter-squashes, sixty-three in
+number, and mostly of fine size.  Our last series of green corn, planted
+about the 1st of July, was good for eating two or three days ago.  We
+still have beans; and our tomatoes, though backward, supply us with a
+dish every day or two.  My potato-crop promises well; and, on the whole,
+my first independent experiment of agriculture is quite a successful one.
+
+This is a glorious day,--bright, very warm, yet with an unspeakable
+gentleness both in its warmth and brightness.  On such days it is
+impossible not to love Nature, for she evidently loves us.  At other
+seasons she does not give me this impression, or only at very rare
+intervals; but in these happy, autumnal days, when she has perfected the
+harvests, and accomplished every necessary thing that she had to do, she
+overflows with a blessed superfluity of love.  It is good to be alive
+now.  Thank God for breath,--yes, for mere breath! when it is made up of
+such a heavenly breeze as this.  It comes to the cheek with a real kiss;
+it would linger fondly around us, if it might; but, since it must be
+gone, it caresses us with its whole kindly heart, and passes onward, to
+caress likewise the next thing that it meets.  There is a pervading
+blessing diffused over all the world.  I look out of the window and
+think, "O perfect day!  O beautiful world!  O good God!"  And such a day
+is the promise of a blissful eternity.  Our Creator would never have made
+such weather; and given us the deep heart to enjoy it, above and beyond
+all thought, if he had not meant us to be immortal.  It opens the gates
+of heaven, and gives us glimpses far inward.
+
+Bless me! this flight has carried me a great way; so now let me come back
+to our old abbey.  Our orchard is fast ripening; and the apples and great
+thumping pears strew the grass in such abundance that it becomes almost a
+trouble--though a pleasant one--to gather them.  This happy breeze, too,
+shakes them down, as if it flung fruit to us out of the sky; and often,
+when the air is perfectly still, I hear the quiet fall of a great apple.
+Well, we are rich in blessings, though poor in money. . . .
+
+
+Friday, October 6th.--Yesterday afternoon I took a solitary walk to
+Walden Pond.  It was a cool, windy day, with heavy clouds rolling and
+tumbling about the sky, but still a prevalence of genial autumn sunshine.
+The fields are still green, and the great masses of the woods have not
+yet assumed their many-colored garments; but here and there are solitary
+oaks of deep, substantial red, or maples of a more brilliant hue, or
+chestnuts either yellow or of a tenderer green than in summer.  Some
+trees seem to return to their hue of May or early June before they put on
+the brighter autumnal tints.  In some places, along the borders of low
+and moist land, a whole range of trees were clothed in the perfect
+gorgeousness of autumn, of all shades of brilliant color, looking like
+the palette on which Nature was arranging the tints wherewith to paint a
+picture.  These hues appeared to be thrown together without design; and
+yet there was perfect harmony among them, and a softness and a delicacy
+made up of a thousand different brightnesses.  There is not, I think, so
+much contrast among these colors as might at first appear.  The more you
+consider them, the more they seem to have one element among them all,
+which is the reason that the most brilliant display of them soothes the
+observer, instead of exciting him.  And I know not whether it be more a
+moral effect or a physical one, operating merely on the eye; but it is a
+pensive gayety, which causes a sigh often, and never a smile.  We never
+fancy, for instance, that these gayly clad trees might be changed into
+young damsels in holiday attire, and betake themselves to dancing on the
+plain.  If they were to undergo such a transformation, they would surely
+arrange themselves in funeral procession, and go sadly along, with their
+purple and scarlet and golden garments trailing over the withering grass.
+When the sunshine falls upon them, they seem to smile; but it is as if
+they were heart-broken.  But it is in vain for me to attempt to describe
+these autumnal brilliancies, or to convey the impression which they make
+on me.  I have tried a thousand times, and always without the slightest
+self-satisfaction.  Fortunately there is no need of such a record, for
+Nature renews the picture year after year; and even when we shall have
+passed away from the world, we can spiritually create these scenes, so
+that we may dispense with all efforts to put them into words.
+
+Walden Pond was clear and beautiful as usual.  It tempted me to bathe;
+and, though the water was thrillingly cold, it was like the thrill of a
+happy death.  Never was there such transparent water as this.  I threw
+sticks into it, and saw them float suspended on an almost invisible
+medium.  It seemed as if the pure air were beneath them, as well as
+above.  It is fit for baptisms; but one would not wish it to be polluted
+by having sins washed into it.  None but angels should bathe in it; but
+blessed babies might be dipped into its bosom.
+
+In a small and secluded dell that opens upon the most beautiful cove of
+the whole lake, there is a little hamlet of huts or shanties, inhabited
+by the Irish people who are at work upon the railroad.  There are three
+or four of these habitations, the very rudest, I should imagine, that
+civilized men ever made for themselves,--constructed of rough boards,
+with the protruding ends.  Against some of them the earth is heaped up to
+the roof, or nearly so; and when the grass has had time to sprout upon
+them, they will look like small natural hillocks, or a species of
+ant-hills,--something in which Nature has a larger share than man.  These
+huts are placed beneath the trees, oaks, walnuts, and white-pines,
+wherever the trunks give them space to stand; and by thus adapting
+themselves to natural interstices, instead of making new ones, they do
+not break or disturb the solitude and seclusion of the place.  Voices are
+heard, and the shouts and laughter of children, who play about like the
+sunbeams that come down through the branches.  Women are washing in open
+spaces, and long lines of whitened clothes are extended from tree to
+tree, fluttering and gambolling in the breeze.  A pig, in a sty even more
+extemporary than the shanties, is grunting and poking his snout through
+the clefts of his habitation.  The household pots and kettles are seen at
+the doors; and a glance within shows the rough benches that serve for
+chairs, and the bed upon the floor.  The visitor's nose takes note of the
+fragrance of a pipe.  And yet, with all these homely items, the repose
+and sanctity of the old wood do not seem to be destroyed or profaned.  It
+overshadows these poor people, and assimilates them somehow or other to
+the character of its natural inhabitants.  Their presence did not shock
+me any more than if I had merely discovered a squirrel's nest in a tree.
+To be sure, it is a torment to see the great, high, ugly embankment of
+the railroad, which is here thrusting itself into the lake, or along its
+margin, in close vicinity to this picturesque little hamlet.  I have
+seldom seen anything more beautiful than the cove on the border of which
+the huts are situated; and the more I looked, the lovelier it grew.  The
+trees overshadowed it deeply; but on one side there was some brilliant
+shrubbery which seemed to light up the whole picture with the effect of a
+sweet and melancholy smile.  I felt as if spirits were there,--or as if
+these shrubs had a spiritual life.  In short, the impression was
+indefinable; and, after gazing and musing a good while, I retraced my
+steps through the Irish hamlet, and plodded on along a wood-path.
+
+According to my invariable custom, I mistook my way, and, emerging upon
+the road, I turned my back instead of my face towards Concord, and walked
+on very diligently till a guide-board informed me of my mistake.  I then
+turned about, and was shortly overtaken by an old yeoman in a chaise, who
+kindly offered me a drive, and soon set me down in the village.
+
+
+
+[EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS.]
+
+
+Salem, April 14th, 1844.--. . . . I went to George Hillard's office, and
+he spoke with immitigable resolution of the necessity of my going to dine
+with Longfellow before returning to Concord; but I have an almost
+miraculous power of escaping from necessities of this kind.  Destiny
+itself has often been worsted in the attempt to get me out to dinner.
+Possibly, however, I may go.  Afterwards I called on Colonel Hall, who
+held me long in talk about politics and other sweetmeats.  Then I
+stepped into a book auction, not to buy, but merely to observe, and,
+after a few moments, who should come in, with a smile as sweet as sugar
+(though savoring rather of molasses), but, to my horror and petrifaction,
+---- ------!  I anticipated a great deal of bore and botheration; but,
+through Heaven's mercy, he merely spoke a few words, and left me.  This
+is so unlike his deportment in times past, that I suspect "The Celestial
+Railroad" must have given him a pique; and, if so, I shall feel as if
+Providence had sufficiently rewarded me for that pious labor.
+
+In the course of the forenoon I encountered Mr. Howes in the street.  He
+looked most exceedingly depressed, and, pressing my hand with peculiar
+emphasis, said that he was in great affliction, having just heard of his
+son George's death in Cuba.  He seemed encompassed and overwhelmed by
+this misfortune, and walks the street as in a heavy cloud of his own
+grief, forth from which he extended his hand to meet my grasp.  I
+expressed my sympathy, which I told him I was now the more capable of
+feeling in a father's suffering, as being myself the father of a little
+girl,--and, indeed, the being a parent does give one the freedom of a
+wider range of sorrow as well as of happiness.  He again pressed my hand,
+and left me. . . .
+
+When I got to Salem, there was great joy, as you may suppose. . . .
+Mother hinted an apprehension that poor baby would be spoilt, whereupon I
+irreverently observed that, having spoiled her own three children, it was
+natural for her to suppose that all other parents would do the same; when
+she averred that it was impossible to spoil such children as E---- and I,
+because she had never been able to do anything with us. . . . I could
+hardly convince them that Una had begun to smile so soon.  It surprised
+my mother, though her own children appear to have been bright specimens
+of babyhood.
+
+E---- could walk and talk at nine months old.  I do not understand that I
+was quite such a miracle of precocity, but should think it not
+impossible, inasmuch as precocious boys are said to make stupid men.
+
+
+May 27th, 1844.--. . . . My cook fills his office admirably.  He prepared
+what I must acknowledge to be the best dish of fried fish and potatoes
+for dinner to-day that I ever tasted in this house.  I scarcely
+recognized the fish of our own river.  I make him get all the dinners,
+while I confine myself to the much lighter task of breakfast and tea.  He
+also takes his turn in washing the dishes.
+
+We had a very pleasant dinner at Longfellow's, and I liked Mrs.
+Longfellow very much.  The dinner was late and we sat long; so that
+C---- and I did not get to Concord till half past nine o'clock, and truly
+the old Manse seemed somewhat dark and desolate.  The next morning George
+Prescott came with Una's Lion, who greeted me very affectionately, but
+whined and moaned as if he missed somebody who should have been here.  I
+am not quite so strict as I should be in keeping him out of the house;
+but I commiserate him and myself, for are we not both of us bereaved?
+C----, whom I can no more keep from smoking than I could the kitchen
+chimney, has just come into the study with a cigar, which might perfume
+this letter and make you think it came from my own enormity, so I may as
+well stop here.
+
+
+May 29th.--C---- is leaving me, to my unspeakable relief; for he has had
+a bad cold, which caused him to be much more troublesome and less amusing
+than might otherwise have been the case.
+
+
+May 31st.--. . . . I get along admirably, and am at this moment
+superintending the corned beef, which has been on the fire, as it appears
+to me, ever since the beginning of time, and shows no symptom of being
+done before the crack of doom.  Mrs. Hale says it must boil till it
+becomes tender; and so it shall, if I can find wood to keep the fire
+a-going.
+
+Meantime, I keep my station in the dining-room, and read or write as
+composedly as in my own study.  Just now, there came a very important rap
+at the front door, and I threw down a smoked herring which I had begun to
+eat, as there is no hope of the corned beef to-day, and went to admit the
+visitor.  Who should it be but Ben B------, with a very peculiar and
+mysterious grin upon his face!  He put into my hand a missive directed to
+"Mr. and Mrs. Hawthorne."  It contained a little bit of card, signifying
+that Dr. L. F------ and Miss C. B------ receive their friends Thursday
+eve, June 6.  I am afraid I shall be too busy washing my dishes to pay
+many visits.  The washing of dishes does seem to me the most absurd and
+unsatisfactory business that I ever undertook.  If, when once washed,
+they would remain clean for ever and ever (which they ought in all reason
+to do, considering how much trouble it is), there would be less occasion
+to grumble; but no sooner is it done, than it requires to be done again.
+On the whole, I have come to the resolution not to use more than one dish
+at each meal.  However, I moralize deeply on this and other matters, and
+have discovered that all the trouble and affliction in the world come
+from the necessity of cleansing away our earthly stains.
+
+I ate the last morsel of bread yesterday, and congratulate myself on
+being now reduced to the fag-end of necessity.  Nothing worse can happen,
+according to ordinary modes of thinking, than to want bread; but, like
+most afflictions, it is more in prospect than reality.  I found one
+cracker in the tureen, and exulted over it as if it had been so much
+gold.  However, I have sent a petition to Mrs. P------ stating my
+destitute condition, and imploring her succor; and, till it arrive, I
+shall keep myself alive on herrings and apples, together with part of a
+pint of milk, which I share with Leo.  He is my great trouble now, though
+an excellent companion too.  But it is not easy to find food for him,
+unless I give him what is fit for Christians,--though, for that matter,
+he appears to be as good a Christian as most laymen, or even as some of
+the clergy.  I fried some pouts and eels, yesterday, on purpose for him,
+for he does not like raw fish.  They were very good, but I should hardly
+have taken the trouble on my own account.
+
+George P------ has just come to say that Mrs. P------ has no bread at
+present, and is gone away this afternoon, but that she will send me some
+to-morrow.  I mean to have a regular supply from the same source. . . .
+You cannot imagine how much the presence of Leo relieves the feeling of
+perfect loneliness.  He insists upon being in the room with me all the
+time, except at night, when he sleeps in the shed, and I do not find
+myself severe enough to drive him out.  He accompanies me likewise in all
+my walks to the village and elsewhere; and, in short, keeps at my heels
+all the time, except when I go down cellar.  Then he stands at the head
+of the stairs and howls, as if he never expected to see me again.  He is
+evidently impressed with the present solitude of our old abbey, both on
+his own account and mine, and feels that he may assume a greater degree
+of intimacy than would be otherwise allowable.  He will be easily brought
+within the old regulations after your return.
+
+P. S.  3 o'clock.--The beef is done!!!
+
+
+Concord.  The old Manse.  June 2d.--. . . . Everything goes on well with
+me.  At the time of writing my last letter, I was without bread.  Well,
+just at supper-time came Mrs. B------ with a large covered dish, which
+proved to contain a quantity of specially good flapjacks, piping hot,
+prepared, I suppose, by the fair hands of Miss Martha or Miss Abby, for
+Mrs. P------ was not at home.  They served me both for supper and
+breakfast; and I thanked Providence and the young ladies, and compared
+myself to the prophet fed by ravens,--though the simile does rather more
+than justice to myself, and not enough to the generous donors of the
+flapjacks.  The next morning, Mrs. P------ herself brought two big loaves
+of bread, which will last me a week, unless I have some guests to provide
+for.  I have likewise found a hoard of crackers in one of the covered
+dishes; so that the old castle is sufficiently provisioned to stand a
+long siege.  The corned beef is exquisitely done, and as tender as a
+young lady's heart, all owing to my skilful cookery; for I consulted Mrs.
+Hale at every step, and precisely followed her directions.  To say the
+truth, I look upon it as such a masterpiece in its way, that it seems
+irreverential to eat it.  Things on which so much thought and labor are
+bestowed should surely be immortal. . . . Leo and I attended divine
+services this morning in a temple not made with hands.  We went to the
+farthest extremity of Peter's path, and there lay together under an oak,
+on the verge of the broad meadow.
+
+
+Concord, June 6th.--. . . . Mr. F------ arrived yesterday, and appeared
+to be in most excellent health, and as happy as the sunshine.  About the
+first thing he did was to wash the dishes; and he is really indefatigable
+in the kitchen, so that I am quite a gentleman of leisure.  Previous to
+his arrival, I had kindled no fire for four entire days, and had lived
+all that time on the corned beef, except one day, when Ellery and I went
+down the river on a fishing excursion.  Yesterday, we boiled some lamb,
+which we shall have cold for dinner to-day.  This morning, Mr. F------
+fried a sumptuous dish of eels for breakfast.  Mrs. P------ continues to
+be the instrument of Providence, and yesterday sent us a very nice plum.
+pudding,
+
+I have told Mr. F------ that I shall be engaged in the forenoons, and he
+is to manage his own occupations and amusements during that time. . . .
+
+Leo, I regret to say, has fallen under suspicion of a very great crime,--
+nothing less than murder,--a fowl crime it may well be called, for it is
+the slaughter of one of Mr. Hayward's hens.  He has been seen to chase
+the hens, several times, and the other day one of them was found dead.
+Possibly he may be innocent, and, as there is nothing but circumstantial
+evidence, it must be left with his own conscience.
+
+Meantime, Mr. Hayward, or somebody else, seems to have given him such a
+whipping that he is absolutely stiff, and walks about like a rheumatic
+old gentleman.  I am afraid, too, that he is an incorrigible thief.
+Ellery says he has seen him coming up the avenue with a calf's whole head
+in his mouth.  How he came by it is best known to Leo himself.  If he
+were a dog of fair character, it would be no more than charity to
+conclude that he had either bought it, or had it given to him; but with
+the other charges against him, it inclines me to great distrust of his
+moral principles.  Be that as it may, he managed his stock of provisions
+very thriftily,--burying it in the earth, and eating a portion of it
+whenever he felt an appetite.  If he insists upon living by highway
+robbery, it would be well to make him share his booty with us. . . .
+
+
+June 10th.--. . . . Mr. F------ is in perfect health, and absolutely in
+the seventh heaven, and he talks and talks and talks and talks; and I
+listen and listen and listen with a patience for which, in spite of all
+my sins, I firmly expect to be admitted to the mansions of the blessed.
+And there is really a contentment in being able to make this poor,
+world-worn, hopeless, half-crazy man so entirely comfortable as he seems
+to be here.  He is an admirable cook.  We had some roast veal and a baked
+rice-pudding on Sunday, really a fine dinner, and cooked in better style
+than Mary can equal; and George Curtis came to dine with us.  Like all
+male cooks, he is rather expensive, and has a tendency to the consumption
+of eggs in his various concoctions. . . . I have had my dreams of
+splendor; but never expected to arrive at the dignity of keeping a
+man-cook.  At first we had three meals a day, but now only two. . . .
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+We dined at Mr. Emerson's the other day, in company with Mr. Hedge.  Mr.
+Bradford has been to see us two or three times. . . . He looks thinner
+than ever.
+
+
+
+[PASSAGES FROM NOTE-BOOKS.]
+
+
+May 5th, 1850.--I left Portsmouth last Wednesday, at the quarter past
+twelve, by the Concord Railroad, which at New Market unites with the
+Boston and Maine Railroad about ten miles from Portsmouth.  The station
+at New Market is a small wooden building, with one railroad passing on
+one side, and another on another, and the two crossing each other at
+right angles.  At a little distance stands a black, large, old, wooden
+church, with a square tower, and broken windows, and a great rift through
+the middle of the roof, all in a stage of dismal ruin and decay.  A
+farm-house of the old style, with a long sloping roof, and as black as
+the church, stands on the opposite side of the road, with its barns; and
+these are all the buildings in sight of the railroad station.  On the
+Concord rail, in the train of cars, with the locomotive puffing, and
+blowing off its steam, and making a great bluster in that lonely place,
+while along the other railroad stretches the desolate track, with the
+withered weeds growing up betwixt the two lines of iron, all so desolate.
+And anon you hear a low thunder running along these iron rails; it grows
+louder; an object is seen afar off; it approaches rapidly, and comes down
+upon you like fate, swift and inevitable.  In a moment, it dashes along
+in front of the station-house, and comes to a pause, the locomotive
+hissing and fuming in its eagerness to go on.  How much life has come at
+once into this lonely place!  Four or five long cars, each, perhaps, with
+fifty people in it, reading newspapers, reading pamphlet novels,
+chattering, sleeping; all this vision of passing life!  A moment passes,
+while the luggage-men are putting on the trunks and packages; then the
+bell strikes a few times, and away goes the train again, quickly out of
+sight of those who remain behind, while a solitude of hours again broods
+over the station-house, which, for an instant, has thus been put in
+communication with far-off cities, and then remains by itself, with the
+old, black, ruinous church, and the black old farm-house, both built
+years and years ago, before railroads were ever dreamed of.  Meantime,
+the passenger, stepping from the solitary station into the train, finds
+himself in the midst of a new world all in a moment.  He rushes out of
+the solitude into a village; thence, through woods and hills, into a
+large inland town; beside the Merrimack, which has overflowed its banks,
+and eddies along, turbid as a vast mud-puddle, sometimes almost laving
+the doorstep of a house, and with trees standing in the flood half-way up
+their trunks.  Boys, with newspapers to sell, or apples and lozenges;
+many passengers departing and entering, at each new station; the more
+permanent passenger, with his check or ticket stuck in his hat-band,
+where the conductor may see it.  A party of girls, playing at ball with a
+young man.  Altogether it is a scene of stirring life, with which a
+person who had been waiting long for the train to come might find it
+difficult at once to amalgamate himself.
+
+It is a sombre, brooding day, and begins to rain as the cars pass onward.
+In a little more than two hours we find ourselves in Boston surrounded by
+eager hackmen.
+
+Yesterday I went to the Athenaeum, and, being received with great
+courtesy by Mr. Folsom, was shown all over the edifice from the very
+bottom to the very top, whence I looked out over Boston.  It is an
+admirable point of view; but, it being an overcast and misty day, I did
+not get the full advantage of it.  The library is in a noble hall, and
+looks splendidly with its vista of alcoves.  The most remarkable sight,
+however, was Mr. Hildreth, writing his history of the United States.  He
+sits at a table, at the entrance of one of the alcoves, with his books
+and papers before him, as quiet and absorbed as he would be in the
+loneliest study; now consulting an authority; now penning a sentence or a
+paragraph, without seeming conscious of anything but his subject.  It is
+very curious thus to have a glimpse of a book in process of creation
+under one's eye.  I know not how many hours he sits there; but while I
+saw him he was a pattern of diligence and unwandering thought.  He had
+taken himself out of the age, and put himself, I suppose, into that about
+which he was writing.  Being deaf, he finds it much the easier to
+abstract himself.  Nevertheless, it is a miracle.  He is a thin,
+middle-aged man, in black, with an intelligent face, rather sensible than
+scholarlike.
+
+Mr. Folsom accompanied me to call upon Mr. Ticknor, the historian of
+Spanish literature.  He has a fine house, at the corner of Park and
+Beacon Streets, perhaps the very best position in Boston.  A marble hall,
+a wide and easy staircase, a respectable old man-servant evidently long
+at home in the mansion, to admit us.  We entered the library, Mr. Folsom
+considerably in advance, as being familiar with the house; and I heard
+Mr. Ticknor greet him in friendly tones, their scholar-like and
+bibliographical pursuits, I suppose, bringing them into frequent
+conjunction.  Then I was introduced, and received with great distinction,
+but yet without any ostentatious flourish of courtesy.  Mr. Ticknor has a
+great head, and his hair is gray or grayish.  You recognize in him at
+once the man who knows the world, the scholar, too, which probably is his
+more distinctive character, though a little more under the surface.  He
+was in his slippers; a volume of his book was open on a table, and
+apparently he had been engaged in revising or annotating it.  His library
+is a stately and beautiful room for a private dwelling, and itself looks
+large and rich.  The fireplace has a white marble frame about it,
+sculptured with figures and reliefs.  Over it hung a portrait of Sir
+Walter Scott, a copy, I think, of the one that represents him in Melrose
+Abbey.
+
+Mr. Ticknor was most kind in his alacrity to solve the point on which Mr.
+Folsom, in my behalf, had consulted him (as to whether there had been any
+English translation of the Tales of Cervantes); and most liberal in his
+offers of books from his library.  Certainly, he is a fine example of a
+generous-principled scholar, anxious to assist the human intellect in its
+efforts and researches.  Methinks he must have spent a happy life (as
+happiness goes among mortals), writing his great three-volumed book for
+twenty years; writing it, not for bread, nor with any uneasy desire of
+fame, but only with a purpose to achieve something true and enduring.  He
+is, I apprehend, a man of great cultivation and refinement, and with
+quite substance enough to be polished and refined, without being worn too
+thin in the process,--a man of society.  He related a singular story of
+an attempt of his to become acquainted with me years ago, when he mistook
+my kinsman Eben for me.
+
+At half past four, I went to Mr. Thompson's, the artist who has requested
+to paint my picture.  This was the second sitting.  The portrait looked
+dimly out from the canvas, as from a cloud, with something that I could
+recognize as my outline, but no strong resemblance as yet.  I have had
+three portraits taken before this,--an oil picture, a miniature, and a
+crayon sketch,--neither of them satisfactory to those most familiar with
+my physiognomy.  In fact, there is no such thing as a true portrait; they
+are all delusions, and I never saw any two alike, nor hardly any two that
+I would recognize, merely by the portraits themselves, as being of the
+same man.  A bust has more reality.  This artist is a man of thought, and
+with no mean idea of his art; a Swedenborgian, or, as he prefers to call
+it, a member of the New Church; and I have generally found something
+marked in men who adopt that faith.  He had painted a good picture of
+Bryant.  He seems to me to possess truth in himself, and to aim at it in
+his artistic endeavors.
+
+
+May 6th.--This morning it is an easterly rain (south-easterly, I should
+say just now at twelve o'clock), and I went at nine, by appointment, to
+sit for my picture.  The artist painted awhile; but soon found that he
+had not so much light as was desirable, and complained that his tints
+were as muddy as the weather.  Further sitting was therefore postponed
+till to-morrow at eleven.  It will be a good picture; but I see no
+assurance, as yet, of the likeness.  An artist's apartment is always very
+interesting to me, with its pictures, finished and unfinished; its little
+fancies in the pictorial way,--as here two sketches of children among
+flowers and foliage, representing Spring and Summer, Winter and Autumn
+being yet to come out of the artist's mild; the portraits of his wife and
+children; here a clergyman, there a poet; here a woman with the stamp of
+reality upon her, there a feminine conception which we feel not to have
+existed.  There was an infant Christ, or rather a child Christ, not
+unbeautiful, but scarcely divine.  I love the odor of paint in an
+artist's room; his palette and all his other tools have a mysterious
+charm for me.  The pursuit has always interested my imagination more than
+any other, and I remember before having my first portrait taken, there
+was a great bewitchery in the idea, as if it were a magic process.  Even
+now, it is not without interest to me.
+
+I left Mr. Thompson before ten, and took my way through the sloppy
+streets to the Athenaeum, where I looked over the newspapers and
+periodicals, and found two of my old stories (Peter Goldthwaite and the
+Shaker Bridal) published as original in the last London Metropolitan!
+The English are much more unscrupulous and dishonest pirates than
+ourselves.  However, if they are poor enough to perk themselves in such
+false feathers as these, Heaven help them!  I glanced over the stories,
+and they seemed painfully cold and dull.  It is the more singular that
+these should be so published, inasmuch as the whole book was republished
+in London, only a few months ago.  Mr. Fields tells me that two
+publishers in London had advertised the Scarlet Letter as in press, each
+book at a shilling.
+
+          *     *     *     *     *     *
+
+Certainly life is made much more tolerable, and man respects himself far
+more, when he takes his meals with a certain degree of order and state.
+There should be a sacred law in these matters; and, as consecrating the
+whole business, the preliminary prayer is a good and real ordinance.  The
+advance of man from a savage and animal state may be as well measured by
+his mode and morality of dining, as by any other circumstance.  At Mr.
+Fields's, soon after entering the house, I heard the brisk and cheerful
+notes of a canary-bird, singing with great vivacity, and making its voice
+echo through the large rooms.  It was very pleasant, at the close of the
+rainy, east-windy day, and seemed to fling sunshine through the dwelling.
+
+
+May 7th.--I did not go out yesterday afternoon, but after tea I went to
+Parker's.  The drinking and smoking shop is no bad place to see one kind
+of life.  The front apartment is for drinking.  The door opens into Court
+Square, and is denoted, usually, by some choice specimens of dainties
+exhibited in the windows, or hanging beside the door-post; as, for
+instance, a pair of canvas-back ducks, distinguishable by their
+delicately mottled feathers; an admirable cut of raw beefsteak; a ham,
+ready boiled, and with curious figures traced in spices on its outward
+fat; a half, or perchance the whole, of a large salmon, when in season; a
+bunch of partridges, etc., etc.  A screen stands directly before the
+door, so as to conceal the interior from an outside barbarian.  At the
+counter stand, at almost all hours,--certainly at all hours when I have
+chanced to observe,--tipplers, either taking a solitary glass, or
+treating all round, veteran topers, flashy young men, visitors from the
+country, the various petty officers connected with the law, whom the
+vicinity of the Court-House brings hither.  Chiefly, they drink plain
+liquors, gin, brandy, or whiskey, sometimes a Tom and Jerry, a gin
+cocktail (which the bar-tender makes artistically, tossing it in a large
+parabola from one tumbler to another, until fit for drinking), a
+brandy-smash, and numerous other concoctions.  All this toping goes
+forward with little or no apparent exhilaration of spirits; nor does this
+seem to be the object sought,--it being rather, I imagine, to create a
+titillation of the coats of the stomach and a general sense of
+invigoration, without affecting the brain.  Very seldom does a man grow
+wild and unruly.
+
+The inner room is hung round with pictures and engravings of various
+kinds,--a painting of a premium ox, a lithograph of a Turk and of a
+Turkish lady, . . . . and various showily engraved tailors'
+advertisements, and other shop-bills; among them all, a small painting of
+a drunken toper, sleeping on a bench beside the grog-shop,--a ragged,
+half-hatless, bloated, red-nosed, jolly, miserable-looking devil, very
+well done, and strangely suitable to the room in which it hangs.  Round
+the walls are placed some half a dozen marble-topped tables, and a
+centre-table in the midst; most of them strewn with theatrical and other
+show-bills; and the large theatre-bills, with their type of gigantic
+solidity and blackness, hung against the walls.
+
+Last evening, when I entered, there was one guest somewhat overcome with
+liquor, and slumbering with his chair tipped against one of the marble
+tables.  In the course of a quarter of an hour, he roused himself (a
+plain, middle-aged man), and went out with rather an unsteady step, and a
+hot, red face.  One or two others were smoking, and looking over the
+papers, or glancing at a play-bill.  From the centre of the ceiling
+descended a branch with two gas-burners, which sufficiently illuminated
+every corner of the room.  Nothing is so remarkable in these bar-rooms
+and drinking-places, as the perfect order that prevails: if a man gets
+drunk, it is no otherwise perceptible than by his going to sleep, or his
+inability to walk.
+
+Pacing the sidewalk in front of this grog-shop of Parker's (or sometimes,
+on cold and rainy days, taking his station inside), there is generally to
+be observed an elderly ragamuffin, in a dingy and battered hat, an old
+surtout, and a more than shabby general aspect; a thin face and red nose,
+a patch over one eye, and the other half drowned in moisture.  He leans
+in a slightly stooping posture on a stick, forlorn and silent, addressing
+nobody, but fixing his one moist eye on you with a certain intentness.
+he is a man who has been in decent circumstances at some former period of
+his life, but, falling into decay (perhaps by dint of too frequent visits
+at Parker's bar), he now haunts about the place, as a ghost haunts the
+spot where he was murdered, "to collect his rents," as Parker says,--that
+is, to catch an occasional ninepence from some charitable acquaintances,
+or a glass of liquor at the bar.  The word "ragamuffin," which I have
+used above, does not accurately express the man, because there is a sort
+of shadow or delusion of respectability about him, and a sobriety too,
+and a kind of decency in his groggy and red-nosed destitution.
+
+Underground, beneath the drinking and smoking rooms, is Parker's
+eating-hall, extending all the way to Court Street.  All sorts of good
+eating may be had there, and a gourmand may feast at what expense he
+will.
+
+I take an interest in all the nooks and crannies and every development of
+cities; so here I try to make a description of the view from the back
+windows of a house in the centre of Boston, at which I now glance in the
+intervals of writing.  The view is bounded, at perhaps thirty yards'
+distance, by a row of opposite brick dwellings, standing, I think, on
+Temple Place; houses of the better order, with tokens of genteel families
+visible in all the rooms betwixt the basements and the attic windows in
+the roof; plate-glass in the rear drawing-rooms, flower-pots in some of
+the windows of the upper stories.  Occasionally, a lady's figure, either
+seated or appearing with a flitting grace, or dimly manifest farther
+within the obscurity of the room.  A balcony, with a wrought-iron fence
+running along under the row of drawing-room windows, above the basement.
+In the space betwixt the opposite row of dwellings and that in which I am
+situated are the low out-houses of the above-described houses, with flat
+roofs; or solid brick walls, with walks on them, and high railings, for
+the convenience of the washerwomen in hanging out their clothes.  In the
+intervals are grass-plots, already green, because so sheltered; and
+fruit-trees, now beginning to put forth their leaves, and one of them, a
+cherry-tree, almost in full blossom.  Birds flutter and sing among these
+trees.  I should judge it a good site for the growth of delicate fruit;
+for, quite enclosed on all sides by houses, the blighting winds cannot
+molest the trees.  They have sunshine on them a good part of the day,
+though the shadow must come early, and I suppose there is a rich soil
+about the roots.  I see grapevines clambering against one wall, and also
+peeping over another, where the main body of the vine is invisible to me.
+In another place, a frame is erected for a grapevine, and probably it
+will produce as rich clusters as the vines of Madeira, here in the heart
+of the city, in this little spot of fructifying earth, while the thunder
+of wheels rolls about it on every side.  The trees are not all
+fruit-trees.  One pretty well-grown buttonwood-tree aspires upward above
+the roofs of the houses.  In the full verdure of summer, there will be
+quite a mass or curtain of foliage between the hither and the thither row
+of houses.
+
+
+Afternoon.--At eleven, I went to give Mr. Thompson a sitting for my
+picture.  I like the painter.  He seems to reverence his art and to aim
+at truth in it, as I said before; a man of gentle disposition too, and
+simplicity of life and character.  I seated myself in the pictorial
+chair, with the only light in the room descending upon me from a high
+opening, almost at the ceiling, the rest of the sole window being
+shuttered.  He began to work, and we talked in an idle and desultory
+way,--neither of us feeling very conversable,--which he attributed to the
+atmosphere, it being a bright, west-windy, bracing day.  We talked about
+the pictures of Christ, and how inadequate and untrue they are.  He said
+he thought artists should attempt only to paint child-Christs, human
+powers being inadequate to the task of painting such purity and holiness
+in a manly development.  Then he said that an idea of a picture had
+occurred to him that morning, while reading a chapter in the New
+Testament,--how "they parted his garments among them, and for his vesture
+did cast lots."  His picture was to represent the soldier to whom the
+garment without a seam had fallen, after taking it home and examining it,
+and becoming impressed with a sense of the former wearer's holiness.  I
+do not quite see how he would make such a picture tell its own story;--
+but I find the idea suggestive to my own mind, and I think I could make
+something of it.  We talked of physiognomy and impressions of character,
+--first impressions,--and how apt they are to come aright in the face of
+the closest subsequent observation.
+
+There were several visitors in the course of the sitting, one a
+gentleman, a connection from the country, with whom the artist talked
+about family matters and personal affairs,--observing on the poorness of
+his own business, and that he had thoughts of returning to New York.  I
+wish he would meet with better success.  Two or three ladies also looked
+in.  Meanwhile Mr. Thompson had been painting with more and more
+eagerness, casting quick, keen glances at me, and then making hasty
+touches on the picture, as if to secure with his brush what he had caught
+with his eye.  He observed that he was just getting interested in the
+work, and I could recognize the feeling that was in him as akin to what I
+have experienced myself in the glow of composition.  Nevertheless, he
+seemed able to talk about foreign matters, through it all.  He continued
+to paint in this rapid way, up to the moment of closing the sitting; when
+he took the canvas from the easel, without giving me time to mark what
+progress he had made, as he did the last time.
+
+The artist is middle-sized, thin, a little stooping, with a quick,
+nervous movement.  He has black hair, not thick, a beard under his chin,
+a small head, but well-developed forehead, black eyebrows, eyes keen, but
+kindly, and a dark face, not indicating robust health, but agreeable in
+its expression.  His voice is gentle and sweet, and such as comes out
+from amidst refined feelings.  He dresses very simply and unpictorially
+in a gray frock or sack, and does not seem to think of making a picture
+of himself in his own person.
+
+At dinner to-day there was a young Frenchman, whom ------ befriended a
+year or so ago, when he had not another friend in America, and obtained
+employment for him in a large dry-goods establishment.  He is a young man
+of eighteen or thereabouts, with smooth black hair, neatly dressed; his
+face showing a good disposition, but with nothing of intellect or
+character.  It is funny to think of this poor little Frenchman, a
+Parisian too, eating our most un-French victuals,--our beefsteaks, and
+roasts, and various homely puddings and hams, and all things most
+incongruent to his hereditary stomach; but nevertheless he eats most
+cheerfully and uncomplainingly.  He has not a large measure of French
+vivacity, never rattles, never dances, nor breaks into ebullitions of
+mirth and song; on the contrary, I have never known a youth of his age
+more orderly and decorous.  He is kind-hearted and grateful, and evinces
+his gratitude to the mother of the family and to his benefactress by
+occasional presents, not trifling when measured by his small emolument of
+five dollars per week.  Just at this time he is confined to his room by
+indisposition, caused, it is suspected, by a spree on Sunday last.  Our
+gross Saxon orgies would soon be the ruin of his French constitution.
+
+A thought to-day.  Great men need to be lifted upon the shoulders of the
+whole world, in order to conceive their great ideas or perform their
+great deeds.  That is, there must be an atmosphere of greatness round
+about them.  A hero cannot be a hero unless in an heroic world.
+
+
+May 8th.--I went last evening to the National Theatre to see a pantomime.
+It was Jack the Giant-Killer, and somewhat heavy and tedious.  The
+audience was more noteworthy than the play.  The theatre itself is for
+the middling and lower classes, and I had not taken my seat in the most
+aristocratic part of the house; so that I found myself surrounded chiefly
+by young sailors, Hanover Street shopmen, mechanics, and other people of
+that class.  It is wonderful! the difference that exists in the personal
+aspect and dress, and no less in the manners, of people in this quarter
+of the city, as compared with other parts of it.
+
+One would think that Oak Hall should give a common garb and air to the
+great mass of the Boston population; but it seems not to be so; and
+perhaps what is most singular is, that the natural make of the men has a
+conformity and suitableness to the dress.  Glazed caps and Palo Alto hats
+were much worn.  It is a pity that this picturesque and comparatively
+graceful hat should not have been generally adopted, instead of falling
+to the exclusive use of a rowdy class.
+
+In the next box to me were two young women, with an infant, but to which
+of them appertaining I could not at first discover.  One was a large,
+plump girl, with a heavy face, a snub nose, coarse-looking, but
+good-natured, and with no traits of evil,--save, indeed, that she had on
+the vilest gown of dirty white cotton, so pervadingly dingy that it was
+white no longer, as it seemed to me.  The sleeves were short, and ragged
+at the borders, and her shawl, which she took off on account of the heat,
+was old and faded,--the shabbiest and dirtiest dress that I ever saw a
+woman wear.  Yet she was plump, and looked comfortable in body and mind.
+I imagine that she must have had a better dress at home, but had come to
+the theatre extemporaneously, and, not going to the dress circle,
+considered her ordinary gown good enough for the occasion.  The other
+girl seemed as young or younger than herself.  She was small, with a
+particularly intelligent and pleasant face, not handsome, perhaps, but as
+good or better than if it were.  It was mobile with whatever sentiment
+chanced to be in her mind, as quick and vivacious a face in its movements
+as I have ever seen; cheerful, too, and indicative of a sunny, though I
+should think it might be a hasty, temper.  She was dressed in a dark gown
+(chintz, I suppose the women call it), a good, homely dress, proper
+enough for the fireside, but a strange one to appear in at a theatre.
+Both these girls appeared to enjoy themselves very much,--the large and
+heavy one in her own duller mode; the smaller manifesting her interest by
+gestures, pointing at the stage, and with so vivid a talk of countenance
+that it was precisely as if she had spoken.  She was not a brunette, and
+this made the vivacity of her expression the more agreeable.  Her
+companion, on the other hand, was so dark, that I rather suspected her to
+have a tinge of African blood.
+
+There were two men who seemed to have some connection with these girls,--
+one an elderly, gray-headed personage, well-stricken in liquor, talking
+loudly and foolishly, but good-humoredly; the other a young man, sober,
+and doing his best to keep his elder friend quiet.  The girls seemed to
+give themselves no uneasiness about the matter.--Both the men wore Palo
+Alto hats.  I could not make out whether either of the men were the
+father of the child, though I was inclined to set it down as a family
+party.
+
+As the play went on, the house became crowded and oppressively warm, and
+the poor little baby grew dark red, or purple almost, with the
+uncomfortable heat in its small body.  It must have been accustomed to
+discomfort, and have concluded it to be the condition of mortal life,
+else it never would have remained so quiet.  Perhaps it had been quieted
+with a sleeping-potion.  The two young women were not negligent of it;
+but passed it to and fro between them, each willingly putting herself to
+inconvenience for the sake of tending it.  But I really feared it might
+die in some kind of a fit, so hot was the theatre, so purple with heat,
+yet strangely quiet, was the child.  I was glad to hear it cry at last;
+but it did not cry with any great rage and vigor, as it should, but in a
+stupid kind of way.  Hereupon the smaller of the two girls, after a
+little inefficacious dandling, at once settled the question of maternity
+by nursing her baby.  Children must be hard to kill, however injudicious
+the treatment.  The two girls and their cavaliers remained till nearly
+the close of the play.  I should like well to know who they are,--of what
+condition in life, and whether reputable as members of the class to which
+they belong.  My own judgment is that they are so.  Throughout the
+evening, drunken young sailors kept stumbling into and out of the boxes,
+calling to one another from different parts of the house, shouting to the
+performers, and singing the burden of songs.  It was a scene of life in
+the rough.
+
+
+May 14th.--A stable opposite the house,--an old wooden construction, low,
+in three distinct parts; the centre being the stable proper, where the
+horses are kept, and with a chamber over it for the hay.  On one side is
+the department for chaises and carriages; on the other, the little office
+where the books are kept.  In the interior region of the stable
+everything is dim and undefined,--half-traceable outlines of stalls,
+sometimes the shadowy aspect of a horse.  Generally a groom is dressing a
+horse at the stable door, with a care and accuracy that leave no part of
+the animal unvisited by the currycomb and brush; the horse, meanwhile,
+evidently enjoying it, but sometimes, when the more sensitive parts are
+touched, giving a half-playful kick with his hind legs, and a little
+neigh.  If the men bestowed half as much care on their own personal
+cleanliness, they would be all the better and healthier men therefor.
+They appear to be busy men, these stablers, yet have a lounging way with
+them, as if indolence were somehow diffused through their natures.  The
+apparent head of the establishment is a sensible, thoughtful-looking,
+large-featured, and homely man, past the middle age, clad rather shabbily
+in gray, stooping somewhat, and without any smartness about him.  There
+is a groom, who seems to be a very comfortable kind of personage,--a man
+of forty-five or thereabouts (R. W. Emerson says he was one of his
+schoolmates), but not looking so old; corpulent, not to say fat, with a
+white frock, which his goodly bulk almost fills, enveloping him from neck
+nearly to ankles.  On his head he wears a cloth cap of a jockey shape;
+his pantaloons are turned up an inch or two at bottom, and he wears
+brogans on his feet.  His hair, as may be seen when he takes off his cap
+to wipe his brow, is black and in perfect preservation, with not exactly
+a curl, yet a vivacious and elastic kind of twist in it.  His face is
+fresh-colored, comfortable, sufficiently vivid in expression, not at all
+dimmed by his fleshly exuberance, because the man possesses vigor enough
+to carry it off.  His bodily health seems perfect; so, indeed, does his
+moral and intellectual.  He is very active and assiduous in his duties,
+currycombing and rubbing down the horses with alacrity and skill; and,
+when not otherwise occupied, you may see him talking jovially with chance
+acquaintances, or observing what is going forward in the street.  If a
+female acquaintance happens to pass, he touches his jockey cap, and bows,
+accomplishing this courtesy with a certain smartness that proves him a
+man of the world.  Whether it be his greater readiness to talk, or the
+wisdom of what he says, he seems usually to be the centre talker of the
+group.  It is very pleasant to see such an image of earthly comfort as
+this.  A fat man who feels his flesh as a disease and encumbrance, and on
+whom it presses so as to make him melancholy with dread of apoplexy, and
+who moves heavily under the burden of himself,--such a man is a doleful
+and disagreeable object.  But if he have vivacity enough to pervade all
+his earthiness, and bodily force enough to move lightly under it, and if
+it be not too unmeasured to have a trimness and briskness in it, then it
+is good and wholesome to look at him.
+
+In the background of the house, a cat, occasionally stealing along on the
+roofs of the low out-houses; descending a flight of wooden steps into the
+brick area; investigating the shed, and entering all dark and secret
+places; cautious, circumspect, as if in search of something; noiseless,
+attentive to every noise.  Moss grows on spots of the roof; there are
+little boxes of earth here and there, with plants in them.  The
+grass-plots appertaining to each of the houses whose rears are opposite
+ours (standing in Temple Place) are perhaps ten or twelve feet broad, and
+three times as long.  Here and there is a large, painted garden-pot, half
+buried in earth.  Besides the large trees in blossom, there are little
+ones, probably of last year's setting out.  Early in the day chambermaids
+are seen hanging the bedclothes out of the upper windows; at the window
+of the basement of the same house, I see a woman ironing.  Were I a
+solitary prisoner, I should not doubt to find occupation of deep interest
+for my whole day in watching only one of the houses.  One house seems to
+be quite shut up; all the blinds in the three windows of each of the four
+stories being closed, although in the roof-windows of the attic story the
+curtains are hung carelessly upward, instead of being drawn.  I thick the
+house is empty, perhaps for the summer.  The visible side of the whole
+row of houses is now in the shade,--they looking towards, I should say,
+the southwest.  Later in the day, they are wholly covered with sunshine,
+and continue so through the afternoon; and at evening the sunshine slowly
+withdraws upward, gleams aslant upon the windows, perches on the
+chimneys, and so disappears.  The upper part of the spire and the
+weathercock of the Park Street Church appear over one of the houses,
+looking as if it were close behind.  It shows the wind to be cast now.
+At one of the windows of the third story sits a woman in a colored dress,
+diligently sewing on something white.  She sews, not like a lady, but
+with an occupational air.  Her dress, I observe, on closer observation,
+is a kind of loose morning sack, with, I think, a silky gloss on it; and
+she seems to have a silver comb in her hair,--no, this latter item is a
+mistake.  Sheltered as the space is between the two rows of houses, a
+puff of the east-wind finds its way in, and shakes off some of the
+withering blossoms from the cherry-trees.
+
+Quiet as the prospect is, there is a continual and near thunder of wheels
+proceeding from Washington Street.  In a building not far off, there is a
+hall for exhibitions; and sometimes, in the evenings, loud music is heard
+from it; or, if a diorama be shown (that of Bunker Hill, for instance, or
+the burning of Moscow), an immense racket of imitative cannon and
+musketry.
+
+
+May, 16th.--It has been an easterly rain yesterday and to-day, with
+occasional lightings up, and then a heavy downfall of the gloom again.
+
+Scenes out of the rear windows,--the glistening roof of the opposite
+houses; the chimneys, now and then choked with their own smoke, which a
+blast drives down their throats.  The church-spire has a mist about it.
+Once this morning a solitary dove came and alighted on the peak of an
+attic window, and looked down into the areas, remaining in this position
+a considerable time.  Now it has taken a flight, and alighted on the roof
+of this house, directly over the window at which I sit, so that I can
+look up and see its head and beak, and the tips of its claws.  The roofs
+of the low out-houses are black with moisture; the gutters are full of
+water, and there is a little puddle where there is a place for it in the
+hollow of a board.  On the grass-plot are strewn the fallen blossoms of
+the cherry-tree, and over the scene broods a parallelogram of sombre sky.
+Thus it will be all day as it was yesterday; and, in the evening, one
+window after another will be lighted up in the drawing-rooms.  Through
+the white curtains may be seen the gleam of an astral-lamp, like a fixed
+star.  In the basement rooms, the work of the kitchen going forward; in
+the upper chambers, here and there a light.
+
+In a bar-room, a large, oval basin let into the counter, with a brass
+tube rising from the centre, out of which gushes continually a miniature
+fountain, and descends in a soft, gentle, never-ceasing rain into the
+basin, where swim a company of gold-fishes.  Some of them gleam brightly
+in their golden armor; others have a dull white aspect, going through
+some process of transformation.  One would think that the atmosphere,
+continually filled with tobacco-smoke, might impregnate the water
+unpleasantly for the scaly people; but then it is continually flowing
+away and being renewed.  And what if some toper should be seized with the
+freak of emptying his glass of gin or brandy into the basin,--would the
+fishes die or merely get jolly?
+
+I saw, for a wonder, a man pretty drunk at Parker's the other evening,--a
+well-dressed man, of not ungentlemanly aspect.  He talked loudly and
+foolishly, but in good phrases, with a great flow of language, and he was
+no otherwise impertinent than in addressing his talk to strangers.
+Finally, after sitting a long time staring steadfastly across the room in
+silence, he arose, and staggered away as best he might, only showing his
+very drunken state when he attempted to walk.
+
+Old acquaintances,--a gentleman whom I knew ten years ago, brisk, active,
+vigorous, with a kind of fire of physical well-being and cheerful spirits
+glowing through him.  Now, after a course, I presume, of rather free
+living, pale, thin, oldish, with a grave and care or pain worn brow,--yet
+still lively and cheerful in his accost, though with something invincibly
+saddened in his tones.  Another, formerly commander of a revenue vessel,
+--a man of splendid epaulets and very aristocratic equipment and
+demeanor; now out of service and without position, and changed into a
+brandy-burnt and rowdyish sort of personage.  He seemed as if he might
+still be a gentleman if he would; but his manners show a desperate state
+of mind by their familiarity, recklessness, the lack of any hedge of
+reserve about himself, while still he is evidently a man of the world,
+accustomed to good society.  He has latterly, I think, been in the
+Russian service, and would very probably turn pirate on fair occasion.
+
+
+Lenox, July 14th.--The tops of the chestnut-trees have a whitish
+appearance, they being, I suppose, in bloom.  Red raspberries are just
+through the season.
+
+Language,--human language,--after all, is but little better than the
+croak and cackle of fowls and other utterances of brute nature,--
+sometimes not so adequate.
+
+
+July 16th.--The tops of the chestnut-trees are peculiarly rich, as if a
+more luscious sunshine were falling on them than anywhere else.
+"Whitish," as above, don't express it.
+
+The queer gestures and sounds of a hen looking about for a place to
+deposit her egg; her self-important gait; the sideway turn of her head
+and cock of her eye, as she pries into one and another nook, croaking all
+the while,--evidently with the idea that the egg in question is the most
+important thing that has been brought to pass since the world began.  A
+speckled black and white and tufted hen of ours does it to most ludicrous
+perfection; and there is something laughably womanish in it too.
+
+
+July 25th.--As I sit in my study, with the windows open, the occasional
+incident of the visit of some winged creature,--wasp, hornet, or bee,--
+entering out of the warm sunny atmosphere, soaring round the room in
+large sweeps, then buzzing against the glass, as not satisfied with the
+place, and desirous of getting out.  Finally, the joyous, uprising curve
+with which, coming to the open part of the window, it emerges into the
+cheerful glow of the outside.
+
+
+August 4th.--Dined at hotel with J. T. Fields and wife.  Afternoon, drove
+with them to Pittsfield and called on Dr. Holmes.
+
+
+August 5th.--Drove with Fields and his wife to Stockbridge, being thereto
+invited by Mr. Field of Stockbridge, in order to ascend Monument
+Mountain.  Found at Mr. Field's Dr. Holmes and Mr. Duyckinck of New York;
+also Mr. Cornelius Matthews and Herman Melville.  Ascended the mountain;
+that is to say, Mrs. Fields and Miss Jenny Field, Mr. Field and Mr.
+Fields, Dr. Holmes, Messrs. Duyckinck, Matthews, Melville, Mr. Henry
+Sedgewick, and I, and were caught in a shower.  Dined at Mr. Field's.
+Afternoon, under guidance of J. T. Headley, the party scrambled through
+the ice-glen.
+
+
+August 7th.--Messrs. Duyckink, Matthews, Melville, and Melville, junior,
+called in the forenoon.  Gave them a couple of bottles of Mr. Mansfield's
+champagne, and walked down to the lake with them.  At twilight Mr. Edwin
+P. Whipple and wife called.
+
+
+August 8th.--Mr. and Mrs. Whipple took tea with us.
+
+
+August 12th.--Seven chickens hatched.  J. T. Readley and brother called.
+Eight chickens.
+
+
+August 19th.--Monument Mountain, in the early sunshine; its base
+enveloped in mist, parts of which are floating in the sky, so that the
+great hill looks really as if it were founded on a cloud.  Just emerging
+from the mist is seen a yellow field of rye, and, above that, forest.
+
+
+August 21st.--Eight more chickens hatched.  Ascended a mountain with my
+wife; a beautiful, mellow, autumnal sunshine.
+
+
+August 24th.--In the afternoons, nowadays, this valley in which I dwell
+seems like a vast basin filled with golden sunshine as with wine.
+
+
+August 31st.--J. R. Lowell called in the evening.
+
+
+September 1st.--Mr. and Mrs. Lowell called in the forenoon, on their way
+to Stockbridge or Lebanon to meet Miss Bremer.
+
+
+September 2d.--"When I grow up," quoth J-----, in illustration of the
+might to which he means to attain,--"when I grow up, I shall be two men."
+
+
+September 3d.--Foliage of maples begins to change.  Julian, after picking
+up a handful of autumnal maple-leaves the other day,--"Look, papa, here's
+a bunch of fire!"
+
+
+September 7th.--In a wood, a heap or pile of logs and sticks, that had
+been cut for firewood, and piled up square, in order to be carted away to
+the house when convenience served,--or, rather, to be sledded in
+sleighing time.  But the moss had accumulated on them, and leaves falling
+over them from year to year and decaying, a kind of soil had quite
+covered them, although the softened outline of the woodpile was
+perceptible in the green mound.  It was perhaps fifty years--perhaps
+more--since the woodman had cut and piled those logs and sticks,
+intending them for his winter fires.  But he probably needs no fire now.
+There was something strangely interesting in this simple circumstance.
+Imagine the long-dead woodman, and his long-dead wife and family, and the
+old man who was a little child when the wood was cut, coming back from
+their graves, and trying to make a fire with this mossy fuel.
+
+
+September 19th.--Lying by the lake yesterday afternoon, with my eyes
+shut, while the waves and sunshine were playing together on the water,
+the quick glimmer of the wavelets was perceptible through my closed
+eyelids.
+
+
+October 13th.--A windy day, with wind northwest, cool, with a prevalence
+of dull gray clouds over the sky, but with brief, quick glimpses of
+sunshine.
+
+The foliage having its autumn hues, Monument Mountain looks like a
+headless sphinx, wrapped in a rich Persian shawl.  Yesterday, through a
+diffused mist, with the sun shining on it, it had the aspect of burnished
+copper.  The sun-gleams on the hills are peculiarly magnificent just in
+these days.
+
+One of the children, drawing a cow on the blackboard, says, "I'll kick
+this leg out a little more,"--a very happy energy of expression,
+completely identifying herself with the cow; or perhaps, as the cow's
+creator, conscious of full power over its movements.
+
+
+October 14th.--The brilliancy of the foliage has passed its acme; and
+indeed it has not been so magnificent this season as in some others,
+owing to the gradual approaches of cooler weather, and there having been
+slight frosts instead of severe ones.  There is still a shaggy richness
+on the hillsides.
+
+
+October 16th.--A morning mist, filling up the whole length and breadth of
+the valley betwixt my house and Monument Mountain, the summit of the
+mountain emerging.  The mist reaches almost to my window, so dense as to
+conceal everything, except that near its hither boundary a few ruddy or
+yellow tree-tops appear, glorified by the early sunshine, as is likewise
+the whole mist-cloud.
+
+There is a glen between this house and the lake, through which winds a
+little brook with pools and tiny waterfalls over the great roots of
+trees.  The glen is deep and narrow, and filled with trees; so that, in
+the summer, it is all a dense shadow of obscurity.  Now, the foliage of
+the trees being almost entirely a golden yellow, instead of being full of
+shadow, the glen is absolutely full of sunshine, and its depths are more
+brilliant than the open plain or the mountain-tops.  The trees are
+sunshine, and, many of the golden leaves being freshly fallen, the glen
+is strewn with sunshine, amid which winds and gurgles the bright, dark
+little brook.
+
+
+December 1st.--I saw a dandelion in bloom near the lake.
+
+
+December 19th.--If the world were crumbled to the finest dust, and
+scattered through the universe, there would not be an atom of the dust
+for each star.
+
+"Generosity is the flower of justice."
+
+The print in blood of a naked foot to be traced through the street of a
+town.
+
+Sketch of a personage with the malignity of a witch, and doing the
+mischief attributed to one,--but by natural means; breaking off
+love-affairs, teaching children vices, ruining men of wealth, etc.
+
+Ladislaus, King of Naples, besieging the city of Florence, agreed to show
+mercy, provided the inhabitants would deliver to him a certain virgin of
+famous beauty, the daughter of a physician of the city.  When she was
+sent to the king, every one contributing something to adorn her in the
+richest manner, her father gave her a perfumed handkerchief, at that time
+a universal decoration, richly wrought.  This handkerchief was poisoned
+with his utmost art, . . . . and they presently died in one another's
+arms.
+
+Of a bitter satirist,--of Swift, for instance,--it might be said, that
+the person or thing on which his satire fell shrivelled up as if the
+Devil had spit on it.
+
+The Fount of Tears,--a traveller to discover it,--and other similar
+localites.
+
+Benvenuto Cellini saw a Salamander in the household fire.  It was shown
+him by his father, in childhood.
+
+For the virtuoso's collection,--the pen with which Faust signed away his
+salvation, with a drop of blood dried in it.
+
+An article on newspaper advertisements,--a country newspaper, methinks,
+rather than a city one.
+
+An eating-house, where all the dishes served out, even to the bread and
+salt, shall be poisoned with the adulterations that are said to be
+practised.  Perhaps Death himself might be the cook.
+
+Personify the century,--talk of its present middle age,--of its youth,--
+and its adventures and prospects.
+
+An uneducated countryman, supposing he had a live frog in his stomach,
+applied himself to the study of medicine in order to find a cure for this
+disease; and he became a profound physician.  Thus misfortune, physical
+or moral, may be the means of educating and elevating us.
+
+"Mather's Manuductio ad Ministerium,"--or "Directions for a candidate"
+for the ministry,--with the autographs of four successive clergymen in
+it, all of them, at one time or another, residents of the old Manse,--
+Daniel Bliss, 1734; William Emerson, 1770; Ezra Ripley, 1781; and Samuel
+Ripley, son of the preceding.  The book, according to a Latin memorandum,
+was sold to Daniel Bliss by Daniel Bremner, who, I suppose, was another
+student of divinity.  Printed at Boston "for Thomas Hancock, and sold at
+his shop in Ann St. near the Draw Bridge, 1726."  William Emerson was
+son-in-law of Daniel Bliss.  Ezra Ripley married the widow of said
+William Emerson, and Samuel Ripley was their son.
+
+Mrs. Prescott has an ox whose visage bears a strong resemblance to Daniel
+Webster,--a majestic brute.
+
+The spells of witches have the power of producing meats and viands that
+have the appearance of a sumptuous feast, which the Devil furnishes.  But
+a Divine Providence seldom permits the meat to be good, but it has
+generally some bad taste or smell,--mostly wants salt,--and the feast is
+often without bread.
+
+An article on cemeteries, with fantastic ideas of monuments; for
+instance, a sun-dial;--a large, wide carved stone chair, with some such
+motto as "Rest and Think," and others, facetious or serious.
+
+"Mamma, I see a part of your smile,"--a child to her mother, whose mouth
+was partly covered by her hand.
+
+"The syrup of my bosom,"--an improvisation of a little girl, addressed to
+an imaginary child.
+
+"The wind-turn," "the lightning-catch," a child's phrases for weathercock
+and lightning-rod.
+
+"Where's the man-mountain of these Liliputs?" cried a little boy, as he
+looked at a small engraving of the Greeks getting into the wooden horse.
+
+When the sun shines brightly on the new snow, we discover ranges of
+hills, miles away towards the south, which we have never seen before.
+
+To have the North Pole for a fishing-pole, and the Equinoctial Line for a
+fishing-line.
+
+If we consider the lives of the lower animals, we shall see in them a
+close parallelism to those of mortals;--toil, struggle, danger,
+privation, mingled with glimpses of peace and ease; enmity, affection, a
+continual hope of bettering themselves, although their objects lie at
+less distance before them than ours can do.  Thus, no argument for the
+imperfect character of our existence and its delusory promises, and its
+apparent injustice, can be drawn in reference to our immortality,
+without, in a degree, being applicable to our brute brethren.
+
+
+Lenox, February 12th, 1851.--A walk across the lake with Una.  A heavy
+rain, some days ago, has melted a good deal of the snow on the
+intervening descent between our house and the lake; but many drifts,
+depths, and levels yet remain; and there is a frozen crust, sufficient to
+bear a man's weight, and very slippery.  Adown the slopes there are tiny
+rivulets, which exist only for the winter.  Bare, brown spaces of grass
+here and there, but still so infrequent as only to diversify the scene a
+little.  In the woods, rocks emerging, and, where there is a slope
+immediately towards the lake, the snow is pretty much gone, and
+we see partridge-berries frozen, and outer shells of walnuts, and
+chestnut-burrs, heaped or scattered among the roots of the trees.  The
+walnut-husks mark the place where the boys, after nutting, sat down to
+clear the walnuts of their outer shell.  The various species of pine look
+exceedingly brown just now,--less beautiful than those trees which shed
+their leaves.  An oak-tree, with almost all its brown foliage still
+rustling on it.  We clamber down the bank, and step upon the frozen lake,
+It was snow-covered for a considerable time; but the rain overspread it
+with a surface of water, or imperfectly melted snow, which is now hard
+frozen again; and the thermometer having been frequently below zero, I
+suppose the ice may be four or five feet thick.  Frequently there are
+great cracks across it, caused, I suppose, by the air beneath, and giving
+an idea of greater firmness than if there were no cracks; round holes,
+which have been hewn in the marble pavement by fishermen, and are now
+frozen over again, looking darker than the rest of the surface; spaces
+where the snow was more imperfectly dissolved than elsewhere little
+crackling spots, where a thin surface of ice, over the real mass,
+crumples beneath one's foot; the track of a line of footsteps, most of
+them vaguely formed, but some quite perfectly, where a person passed
+across the lake while its surface was in a state of slush, but which are
+now as hard as adamant, and remind one of the traces discovered by
+geologists in rocks that hardened thousands of ages ago.  It seems as if
+the person passed when the lake was in an intermediate state between ice
+and water.  In one spot some pine boughs, which somebody had cut and
+heaped there for an unknown purpose.  In the centre of the lake, we see
+the surrounding hills in a new attitude, this being a basin in the midst
+of them.  Where they are covered with wood, the aspect is gray or black;
+then there are bare slopes of unbroken snow, the outlines and
+indentations being much more hardly and firmly defined than in summer.
+We went southward across the lake, directly towards Monument Mountain,
+which reposes, as I said, like a headless sphinx.  Its prominences,
+projections, and roughnesses are very evident; and it does not present a
+smooth and placid front, as when the grass is green and the trees in
+leaf.  At one end, too, we are sensible of precipitous descents, black
+and shaggy with the forest that is likely always to grow there; and, in
+one streak, a headlong sweep downward of snow.  We just set our feet
+on the farther shore, and then immediately returned, facing the
+northwest-wind, which blew very sharply against us.
+
+After landing, we came homeward, tracing up the little brook so far as it
+lay in our course.  It was considerably swollen, and rushed fleetly on
+its course between overhanging banks of snow and ice, from which depended
+adamantine icicles.  The little waterfalls with which we had impeded it
+in the summer and autumn could do no more than form a large ripple, so
+much greater was the volume of water.  In some places the crust of frozen
+snow made a bridge quite over the brook; so that you only knew it was
+there by its brawling sound beneath.
+
+The sunsets of winter are incomparably splendid, and when the ground is
+covered with snow, no brilliancy of tint expressible by words can come
+within an infinite distance of the effect.  Our southern view at that
+time, with the clouds and atmospherical hues, is quite indescribable and
+unimaginable; and the various distances of the hills which lie between us
+and the remote dome of Taconic are brought out with an accuracy
+unattainable in summer.  The transparency of the air at this season has
+the effect of a telescope in bringing objects apparently near, while it
+leaves the scene all its breadth.  The sunset sky, amidst its splendor,
+has a softness and delicacy that impart themselves to a white marble
+world.
+
+February 18th.--A walk, yesterday afternoon, with the children; a bright,
+and rather cold day, breezy from the north and westward.  There has been
+a good deal of soaking rain lately, and it has, in great measure, cleared
+hills and plains of snow, only it may be seen lying in spots, and on each
+side of stone-walls, in a pretty broad streak.  The grass is brown and
+withered, and yet, scattered all amongst it, on close inspection, one
+finds a greenness,--little shrubs that have kept green under all the
+severity of winter, and seem to need no change to fit them for midsummer.
+In the woods we see stones covered with moss that retains likewise a most
+lively green.  Where the trees are dense, the snow still lies under them.
+On the sides of the mountains, some miles off, the black pines and the
+white snow among them together produce a gray effect.  The little streams
+are the most interesting objects at this time; some that have an
+existence only at this season,--Mississippis of the moment;--yet glide
+and tumble along as if they were perennial.  The familiar ones seem
+strange by their breadth and volume; their little waterfalls set off by
+glaciers on a small scale.  The sun has by this time force enough to make
+sheltered nooks in the angles of woods, or on banks, warm and
+comfortable.  The lake is still of adamantine substance, but all round
+the borders there is a watery margin, altogether strewed or covered with
+thin and broken ice, so that I could not venture on it with the children.
+A chickadee was calling in the woods yesterday,--the only small bird I
+have taken note of yet; but, crows have been cawing in the woods for a
+week past, though not in very great numbers.
+
+
+February 22d.--For the last two or three days there has been a warm,
+soaking, southeasterly rain, with a spongy moisture diffused through the
+atmosphere.  The snow has disappeared, except in spots which are the
+ruins of high drifts, and patches far up on the hillsides.  The mists
+rest all day long on the brows of the hills that shut in our valley.  The
+road over which I walk every day to and from the village is in the worst
+state of mud and mire, soft, slippery, nasty to tread upon; while the
+grass beside it is scarcely better, being so oozy and so overflowed with
+little streams, and sometimes an absolute bog.  The rivulets race along
+the road, adown the hills; and wherever there is a permanent brooklet,
+however generally insignificant, it is now swollen into importance, and
+the rumble and tumble of its waterfalls may be heard a long way off.  The
+general effect of the day and scenery is black, black, black.  The
+streams are all as turbid as mud-puddles.
+
+Imitators of original authors might be compared to plaster casts of
+marble statues, or the imitative book to a cast of the original marble.
+
+
+March 11th.--After the ground had been completely freed of snow, there
+has been a snow-storm for the two days preceding yesterday, which made
+the earth all white again.  This morning, at sunrise, the thermometer
+stood at about 18 degrees above zero.  Monument Mountain stands out in
+great prominence, with its dark forest-covered sides, and here and there
+a large, white patch, indicating tillage or pasture land; but making a
+generally dark contrast with the white expanse of the frozen and
+snow-covered lake at its base, and the more undulating white of the
+surrounding country.  Yesterday, under the sunshine of midday, and with
+many voluminous clouds hanging over it, and a mist of wintry warmth in
+the air, it had a kind of visionary aspect, although still it was brought
+out in striking relief.  But though one could see all its bulgings, round
+swells, and precipitous abruptnesses, it looked as much akin to the
+clouds as to solid earth and rock substance.  In the early sunshine of
+the morning, the atmosphere being very clear, I saw the dome of Taconic
+with more distinctness than ever before, the snow-patches and brown,
+uncovered soil on its round head being fully visible.  Generally it is
+but a dark blue unvaried mountain-top.  All the ruggedness of the
+intervening hill-country was likewise effectively brought out.  There
+seems to be a sort of illuminating quality in new snow, which it loses
+after being exposed for a day or two to the suit and atmosphere.
+
+For a child's story,--the voyage of a little boat, made of a chip, with a
+birch-bark sail, down a river.
+
+
+March 31st.--A walk with the children yesterday forenoon.  We went
+through the wood, where we found partridge-berries, half hidden among the
+dry, fallen leaves; thence down to the brook.  This little brook has not
+cleansed itself from the disarray of the past autumn and winter, and is
+much embarrassed and choked up with brown leaves, twigs, and bits of
+branches.  It rushes along merrily and rapidly, gurgling cheerfully, and
+tumbling over the impediments of stones with which the children and I
+made little waterfalls last year.  At many spots, there are small basins
+or pools of calmer and smoother depth,--three feet, perhaps, in diameter,
+and a foot or two deep,--in which little fish are already sporting about;
+all elsewhere is tumble and gurgle and mimic turbulence.  I sat on the
+withered leaves at the foot of a tree, while the children played, a
+little brook being the most fascinating plaything that a child can have.
+Una jumped to and fro across it; Julian stood beside a pool, fishing with
+a stick, without hook or line, and wondering that he caught nothing.
+Then he made new waterfalls with mighty labor, pulling big stones out of
+the earth, and flinging them into the current.  Then they sent branches
+of trees, or the outer shells of walnuts, sailing down the stream, and
+watched their passages through the intricacies of the way,--how they were
+hurried over in a cascade, hurried dizzily round in a whirlpool, or
+brought quite to a stand-still amongst the collected rubbish.  At last
+Julian tumbled into the brook, and was wetted through and through so that
+we were obliged to come home; he squelching along all the way, with his
+india-rubber shoes full of water.
+
+There are still patches of snow on the hills; also in the woods,
+especially on the northern margins.  The lake is not yet what we may call
+thawed out, although there is a large space of blue water, and the ice is
+separated from the shore everywhere, and is soft, water-soaked, and
+crumbly.  On favorable slopes and exposures, the earth begins to look
+green; and almost anywhere, if one looks closely, one sees the greenness
+of the grass, or of little herbage, amidst the brown.  Under the
+nut-trees are scattered some of the nuts of last year; the walnuts have
+lost their virtue, the chestnuts do not seem to have much taste, but the
+butternuts are in no manner deteriorated.  The warmth of these days has a
+mistiness, and in many respects resembles the Indian summer, and is not
+at all provocative of physical exertion.  Nevertheless, the general
+impression is of life, not death.  One feels that a new season has begun.
+
+
+Wednesday, April 9th.--There was a great rain yesterday,--wind from the
+southeast, and the last visible vestige of snow disappeared.  It was a
+small patch near the summit of Bald Mountain, just on the upper verge of
+a grove of trees.  I saw a slight remnant of it yesterday afternoon, but
+to-day it is quite gone.  The grass comes up along the roadside and on
+favorable exposures, with a sort of green blush.  Frogs have been
+melodious for a fortnight, and the birds sing pleasantly.
+
+
+April 20th.--The children found Houstonias more than a week ago.  There
+have been easterly wind, continual cloudiness, and occasional rain for a
+week.  This morning opened with a great snow-storm from the northeast,
+one of the most earnest snow-storms of the year, though rather more moist
+than in midwinter.  The earth is entirely covered.  Now, as the day
+advances towards noon, it shows some symptoms of turning to rain.
+
+
+April 28th.--For a week we have found the trailing arbutus pretty
+abundant in the woods.  A day or two since, Una found a few purple
+violets, and yesterday a dandelion in bloom.  The fragrance of the
+arbutus is spicy and exquisite.
+
+
+May 16th.--In our walks now, the children and I find blue, white, and
+golden violets, the former, especially, of great size and richness.
+Houstonias are very abundant, blue-whitening some of the pastures.  They
+are a very sociable little flower, and dwell close together in
+communities,--sometimes covering a space no larger than the palm of the
+hand, but keeping one another in cheerful heart and life,--sometimes they
+occupy a much larger space.  Lobelia, a pink flower, growing in the
+woods.  Columbines, of a pale red, because they have lacked sun, growing
+in rough and rocky places on banks in the copses, precipitating towards
+the lake.  The leaves of the trees are not yet out, but are so apparent
+that the woods are getting a very decided shadow.  Water-weeds on the
+edge of the lake, of a deep green, with roots that seem to have nothing
+to do with earth, but with water only.
+
+
+May 23d.--I think the face of nature can never look more beautiful than
+now, with this so fresh and youthful green,--the trees not being fully in
+leaf, yet enough so to give airy shade to the woods.  The sunshine fills
+them with green light.  Monument Mountain and its brethren are green, and
+the lightness of the tint takes away something from their massiveness and
+ponderosity, and they respond with livelier effect to the shine and shade
+of the sky.  Each tree now within sight stands out in its own
+individuality of line.  This is a very windy day, and the light shifts
+with magical alternation.  In a walk to the lake just now with the
+children, we found abundance of flowers,--wild geranium, violets of all
+families, red columbines, and many others known and unknown, besides
+innumerable blossoms of the wild strawberry, which has been in bloom for
+the past fortnight.  The Houstonias seem quite to overspread some
+pastures, when viewed from a distance.  Not merely the flowers, but the
+various shrubs which one sees,--seated, for instance, on the decayed
+trunk of a tree,--are well worth looking at, such a variety and such
+enjoyment they have of their new growth.  Amid these fresh creations, we
+see others that have already run their course, and have done with warmth
+and sunshine,--the hoary periwigs, I mean, of dandelions gone to seed.
+
+
+August 7th.--Fourier states that, in the progress of the world, the ocean
+is to lose its saltness, and acquire the taste of a peculiarly flavored
+lemonade.
+
+
+October 13th.--How pleasant it is to see a human countenance which cannot
+be insincere,--in reference to baby's smile.
+
+The best of us being unfit to die, what an inexpressible absurdity to put
+the worst to death!
+
+"Is that a burden of sunshine on Apollo's back?" asked one of the
+children,--of the chlamys on our Apollo Belvedere.
+
+
+October 21st.--Going to the village yesterday afternoon, I saw the face
+of a beautiful woman, gazing at me from a cloud.  It was the full face,
+not the bust.  It had a sort of mantle on the head, and a pleasant
+expression of countenance.  The vision lasted while I took a few
+steps, and then vanished.  I never before saw nearly so distinct a
+cloud-picture, or rather sculpture; for it came out in alto-rilievo on
+the body of the cloud.
+
+
+October 27th.--The ground this morning is white with a thin covering of
+snow.  The foliage has still some variety of hue.  The dome of Taconic
+looks dark, and seems to have no snow on it, though I don't understand
+how that can be.  I saw, a moment ago, on the lake, a very singular
+spectacle.  There is a high northwest-wind ruffling the lake's surface,
+and making it blue, lead-colored, or bright, in stripes or at intervals;
+but what I saw was a boiling up of foam, which began at the right bank of
+the lake, and passed quite across it; and the mist flew before it, like
+the cloud out of a steam-engine.  A fierce and narrow blast of wind must
+have ploughed the water in a straight line, from side to side of the
+lake.  As fast as it went on, the foam subsided behind it, so that it
+looked somewhat like a sea-serpent, or other monster, swimming very
+rapidly.
+
+
+October 29th.--On a walk to Scott's pond, with Ellery Channing, we found
+a wild strawberry in the woods, not quite ripe, but beginning to redden.
+For a week or two, the cider-mills have been grinding apples.  Immense
+heaps of apples lie piled near them, and the creaking of the press is
+heard as the horse treads on.  Farmers are repairing cider-barrels; and
+the wayside brook is made to pour itself into the bunghole of a barrel,
+in order to cleanse it for the new cider.
+
+
+November 3d.--The face of the country is dreary now in a cloudy day like
+the present.  The woods on the hillsides look almost black, and the
+cleared spaces a kind of gray brown.
+
+Taconic, this morning (4th), was a black purple, as dense and distinct as
+Monument Mountain itself.  I hear the creaking of the cider-press; the
+patient horse going round and round, perhaps thirsty, to make the liquor
+which he never can enjoy.
+
+We left Lenox Friday morning, November 21, 1851, in a storm of snow and
+sleet, and took the cars at Pittsfield, and arrived at West Newton that
+evening.
+
+Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally.  Make it the
+object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never
+attained.  Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that
+we have caught happiness, without dreaming of it; but likely enough it is
+gone the moment we say to ourselves, "Here it is!" like the chest of gold
+that treasure-seekers find.
+
+
+West Newton, April 13th, 1852.--One of the severest snow-storms of the
+winter.
+
+
+April 30th.--Wrote the last page (199th MS.) of the Blithedale Romance.
+
+
+May 1st.--Wrote Preface.  Afterwards modified the conclusion, and
+lengthened it to 201 pages.  First proof-sheets, May 14.
+
+
+Concord, Mass., August 20th.--A piece of land contiguous to and connected
+with a handsome estate, to the adornment and good appearance of which it
+was essential.--But the owner of the strip of land was at variance with
+the owner of the estate, so he always refused to sell it at any price,
+but let it lie there, wild and ragged, in front of and near the
+mansion-house.  When he dies, the owner of the estate, who has rejoiced
+at the approach of the event all through his enemy's illness, hopes at
+last to buy it; but, to his infinite discomfiture, the enemy enjoined in
+his will that his body should be buried in the centre of this strip of
+land.  All sorts of ugly weeds grow most luxuriantly out of the grave in
+poisonous rankness.
+
+
+The Isles of Shoals, Monday, August 30th.--Left Concord at a quarter of
+nine A. M.  Friday, September 3, set sail at about half past ten to the
+Isles of Shoals.  The passengers were an old master of a vessel; a young,
+rather genteel man from Greenland, N. H.; two Yankees from Hamilton and
+Danvers; and a country trader (I should judge) from some inland town of
+New Hampshire.  The old sea-captain, preparatory to sailing, bought a
+bunch of cigars (they cost ten cents), and occasionally puffed one.  The
+two Yankees had brought guns on board, and asked questions about the
+fishing of the Shoals.  They were young men, brothers, the youngest a
+shopkeeper in Danvers, the other a farmer, I imagine, at Hamilton, and
+both specimens of the least polished kind of Yankee, and therefore proper
+to those localities.  They were at first full of questions, and greatly
+interested in whatever was going forward; but anon the shopkeeper began
+to grow, first a little, then very sick, till he lay along the boat,
+longing, as he afterwards said, for a little fresh water to be drowned
+in.  His brother attended him in a very kindly way, but became sick
+himself before he reached the end of the voyage.
+
+The young Greenlander talked politics, or rather discussed the personal
+character of Pierce.  The New Hampshire trader said not a word, or hardly
+one, all the way.  A Portsmouth youth (whom I forgot to mention) sat in
+the stern of the boat, looking very white.  The skipper of the boat is a
+Norwegian, a good-natured fellow, not particularly intelligent, and
+speaking in a dialect somewhat like Irish.  He had a man with him, a
+silent and rather sulky fellow, who, at the captain's bidding, grimly
+made himself useful.
+
+The wind not being favorable, we had to make several tacks before
+reaching the islands, where we arrived at about two o'clock.  We landed
+at Appledore, on which is Laighton's Hotel,--a large building with a
+piazza or promenade before it, about an hundred and twenty feet in
+length, or more,--yes, it must be more.  It is an edifice with a centre
+and two wings, the central part upwards of seventy feet.  At one end of
+the promenade is a covered veranda, thirty or forty feet square, so
+situated that the breeze draws across it from the sea on one side of the
+island to the sea on the other, and it is the breeziest and comfortablest
+place in the world on a hot day.  There are two swings beneath it, and
+here one may sit or walk, and enjoy life, while all other mortals are
+suffering.
+
+As I entered the door of the hotel, there met me a short, corpulent,
+round, and full-faced man, rather elderly, if not old.  He was a little
+lame.  He addressed me in a hearty, hospitable tone, and, judging that it
+must be my landlord, I delivered a letter of introduction from Pierce.
+Of course it was fully efficient in obtaining the best accommodations
+that were to be had.  I found that we were expected, a man having brought
+the news of our intention the day before.  Here ensued great inquiries
+after the General, and wherefore he had not come.  I was looked at with
+considerable curiosity on my own account, especially by the ladies, of
+whom there were several, agreeable and pretty enough.  There were four or
+five gentlemen, most of whom had not much that was noteworthy.
+
+After dinner, which was good and abundant, though somewhat rude in its
+style, I was introduced by Mr. Laighton to Mr. Thaxter, his son-in-law,
+and Mr. Weiss, a clergyman of New Bedford, who is staying here for his
+health.  They showed me some of the remarkable features of the island,
+such as a deep chasm in the cliffs of the shore, towards the southwest;
+also a monument of rude stones, on the highest point of the island, said
+to have been erected by Captain John Smith before the settlement at
+Plymouth.  The tradition is just as good as truth.  Also, some ancient
+cellars, with thistles and other weeds growing in them, and old
+fragmentary bricks scattered about.  The date of these habitations is not
+known; but they may well be the remains of the settlement that Cotton
+Mather speaks about; or perhaps one of them was the house where Sir
+William Pepperell was born, and where he went when he and somebody else
+set up a stick, and travelled to seek their fortunes in the direction in
+which it fell.
+
+In the evening, the company at the hotel made up two whist parties, at
+one of which I sat down,--my partner being an agreeable young lady from
+Portsmouth.  We played till I, at least, was quite weary.  It had been
+the beautifullest of weather all day, very hot on the mainland, but a
+delicious climate under our veranda.
+
+
+Saturday, September 4th.--Another beautiful day, rather cooler than the
+preceding, but not too cool.  I can bear this coolness better than that
+of the interior.  In the forenoon, I took passage for Star Island, in a
+boat that crosses daily whenever there are passengers.  My companions
+were the two Yankees, who had quite recovered from yesterday's sickness,
+and were in the best of spirits and the utmost activity of mind of which
+they were capable.  Never was there such a string of questions as they
+directed to the boatman,--questions that seemed to have no gist, so far
+as related to any use that could be made of the answers.  They appear to
+be very good young men, however, well-meaning, and with manners not
+disagreeable, because their hearts are not amiss.  Star Island is less
+than a mile from Appledore.  It is the most populous island of the
+group,--has been, for three or four years, an incorporated township, and
+sends a representative to the New Hampshire legislature.  The number of
+voters is variously represented as from eighteen to twenty-eight.  The
+inhabitants are all, I presume, fishermen.  Their houses stand in pretty
+close neighborhood to one another, scattered about without the slightest
+regularity or pretence of a street, there being no wheel-carriages on the
+island.  Some of the houses are very comfortable two-story dwellings.  I
+saw two or three, I think, with flowers.  There are also one or two trees
+on the island.  There is a strong odor of fishiness, and the little cove
+is full of mackerel-boats, and other small craft for fishing, in some of
+which little boys of no growth at all were paddling about.  Nearly in the
+centre of this insular metropolis is a two-story house, with a flag-staff
+in the yard.  This is the hotel.
+
+On the highest point of Star Island stands the church,--a small, wooden
+structure; and, sitting in its shadow, I found a red-baize-skirted
+fisherman, who seemed quite willing to converse.  He said that there was
+a minister here, who was also the schoolmaster; but that he did not keep
+school just now, because his wife was very much out of health.  The
+school-house stood but a little way from the meeting-house, and near it
+was the minister's dwelling; and by and by I had a glimpse of the good
+man himself, in his suit of black, which looked in very decent condition
+at the distance from which I viewed it.  His clerical air was quite
+distinguishable, and it was rather curious to see it, when everybody else
+wore red-baize shirts and fishing-boots, and looked of the scaly genus.
+He did not approach me, and I saw him no nearer.  I soon grew weary of
+Gosport, and was glad to re-embark, although I intend to revisit the
+island with Mr. Thaxter, and see more of its peculiarities and
+inhabitants.  I saw one old witch-looking woman creeping about with a
+cane, and stooping down, seemingly to gather herbs.  On mentioning her to
+Mr. Thaxter, after my return, he said that it was probably "the bearded
+woman."  I did not observe her beard; but very likely she may have had
+one.
+
+The larger part of the company at the hotel returned to the mainland
+to-day.  There remained behind, however, a Mr. T------ from Newburyport,
+--a man of natural refinement, and a taste for reading that seems to
+point towards the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and men of that class.  I
+have had a good deal of talk with him, and at first doubted whether he
+might not be a clergyman; but Mr. Thaxter tells me that he has made his
+own way in the world,--was once a sailor before the mast, and is now
+engaged in mercantile pursuits.  He looks like nothing of this kind,
+being tall and slender, with very quiet manners, not beautiful, though
+pleasing from the refinement that they indicate.  He has rather a precise
+and careful pronunciation, but yet a natural way of talking.
+
+In the afternoon I walked round a portion of the island that I had not
+previously visited, and in the evening went with Mr. Titcomb to Mr.
+Thaxter's to drink apple-toddy.  We found Mrs. Thaxter sitting in a neat
+little parlor, very simply furnished, but in good taste.  She is not now,
+I believe, more than eighteen years old, very pretty, and with the
+manners of a lady,--not prim and precise, but with enough of freedom and
+ease.  The books on the table were "Pre-Raphaelitism," a tract on
+spiritual mediums, etc.  There were several shelves of books on one side
+of the room, and engravings on the walls.  Mr. Weiss was there, and I do
+not know but he is an inmate of Mr. Thaxter's.  By and by came in Mr.
+Thaxter's brother, with a young lady whose position I do not know,--
+either a sister or the brother's wife.  Anon, too, came in the
+apple-toddy, a very rich and spicy compound; after which we had some
+glees and negro melodies, in which Mr. Thaxter sang a noble bass, and
+Mrs. Thaxter sang like a bird, and Mr. Weiss sang, I suppose, tenor, and
+the brother took some other part, and all were very mirthful and jolly.
+At about ten o'clock Mr. Titcomb and myself took leave, and emerging into
+the open air, out of that room of song, and pretty youthfulness of woman,
+and gay young men, there was the sky, and the three-quarters waning moon,
+and the old sea moaning all round about the island.
+
+
+Sunday, September 5th.--To-day I have done little or nothing except to
+roam along the shore of the island, and to sit under the piazza, talking
+with Mr. Laighton or some of his half-dozen guests; and about an hour
+before dinner I came up to my room, and took a brief nap.  Since dinner I
+have been writing the foregoing journal.  I observe that the Fanny
+Ellsler, our passenger and mail boat, has arrived from Portsmouth, and
+now lies in a little cove, moored to the rocky shore, with a flag flying
+at her main-mast.  We have been watching her for some hours, but she
+stopped to fish, and then went to some other island, before putting in
+here.  I must go and see what news she has brought.
+
+"What did you fire at?" asked one of the Yankees just now of a boy who
+had been firing a gun.  "Nothing," said the boy.  "Did you hit it?"
+rejoined the Yankee.
+
+The farmer is of a much ruder and rougher mould than his brother,--
+heavier in frame and mind, and far less cultivated.  It was on this
+account, probably, that he labored as a farmer, instead of setting up a
+shop.  When it is warm, as yesterday, he takes off his coat, and, not
+minding whether or no his shirt-sleeves be soiled, goes in this guise to
+meals or wherever else,---not resuming his coat as long as he is more
+comfortable without it.  His shoulders have a stoop, and altogether his
+air is that of a farmer in repose.  His brother is handsome, and might
+have quite the aspect of a smart, comely young man, if well dressed.
+
+This island is said to be haunted by a spectre called "Old Bab."  He was
+one of Captain Kidd's men, and was slain for the protection of the
+treasure.  Mr. Laighton said that, before he built his house, nothing
+would have induced the inhabitant of another island to come to this after
+nightfall.  The ghost especially haunts the space between the hotel and
+the cove in front.  There has, in times past, been great search for the
+treasure.
+
+Mr. Thaxter tells me that the women on the island are very timid as to
+venturing on the sea,--more so than the women of the mainland,--and that
+they are easily frightened about their husbands.  Very few accidents
+happen to the boats or men,--none, I think, since Mr. Thaxter has been
+here.  They are not an enterprising set of people, never liking to make
+long voyages.  Sometimes one of them will ship on a voyage to the West
+Indies, but generally only on coastwise trips, or fishing or mackerel
+voyages.  They have a very strong local attachment, and return to die.
+They are now generally temperate, formerly very much the contrary.
+
+
+September 5th.--A large part of the guests took their departure after an
+early breakfast this morning, including Mr. Titcomb, Mr. Weiss, the two
+Yankees, and Mr. Thaxter,--who, however, went as skipper or supercargo,
+and will return with the boat.  I have been fishing for cunners off the
+rocks, but with intolerably poor success.  There is nothing so
+dispiriting as poor fishing, and I spend most of the time with my head on
+my hands, looking at the sea breaking against the rocks, shagged around
+the bases with sea-weed.  It is a sunny forenoon, with a cool breeze from
+the southwest.  The mackerel craft are in the offing.  Mr. Laighton says
+that the Spy (the boat which went to the mainland this morning) is now on
+her return with all her colors set; and he thinks that Pierce is on
+board, he having sent Mr. Thaxter to invite him to come in this boat.
+
+Pierce arrived before dinner in the Spy, accompanied by Judge Upham and
+his brother and their wives, his own wife, Mr. Furness, and three young
+ladies.  After dinner some of the gentlemen crossed over to Gosport,
+where we visited the old graveyard, in which were monuments to Rev. Mr.
+Tucke (died 1773, after forty years' settlement) and to another and later
+minister of the island.  They were of red freestone, lying horizontally
+on piles of the granite fragments, such as are scattered all about.
+There were other graves, marked by the rudest shapes of stones at head
+and foot.  And so many stones protruded from the ground, that it was
+wonderful how space and depth enough was found between them to cover the
+dead.  We went to the house of the town clerk of Gosport (a drunken
+fisherman, Joe Caswell by name) and there found the town records,
+commencing in 1732 in a beautiful style of penmanship.  They are
+imperfect, the township having been broken up, probably at the time of
+the Revolution.  Caswell, being very drunk, immediately put in a petition
+to Pierce to build a sea-mole for the protection of the navigation of the
+island when he should be President.  He was dressed in the ordinary
+fisherman's style,--red-baize shirt, trousers tucked into large boots,
+which, as he had just come ashore, were wet with salt water.
+
+He led us down to the shore of the island, towards the east, and showed
+us Betty Moody's Hole.  This Betty Moody was a woman of the island in old
+times.  The Indians came off on a depredating excursion, and she fled
+from them with a child, and hid herself in this hole, which is formed by
+several great rocks being lodged so as to cover one of the fissures which
+are common along these shores.  I crept into the hole, which is somewhat
+difficult of access, long, low, and narrow, and might well enough be a
+hiding-place.  The child, or children, began to cry; and Betty, fearful
+of discovery, murdered them to save herself.  Joe Caswell did not tell
+the latter part of the story, but Mr. Thaxter did.
+
+Not far from the spot there is a point of rocks extending out farther
+into the ocean than the rest of the island.  Some four or five years ago
+there was a young woman residing at Gosport in the capacity of
+schoolteacher.  She was of a romantic turn, and used to go and sit on
+this point of rock to view the waves.  One day, when the wind was high,
+and the surf raging against the rocks, a great wave struck her, as she
+sat on the edge, and seemed to deprive her of sense; another wave, or the
+reflex of the same one, carried her off into the sea, and she was seen no
+more.  This happened, I think, in 1846.
+
+Passing a rock near the centre of the island, which rose from the soil
+about breast-high, and appeared to have been split asunder, with an
+incalculably aged and moss-grown fissure, the surfaces of which, however,
+precisely suited each other; Mr. Hatch mentioned that there was an idea
+among the people, with regard to rocks thus split, that they were rent
+asunder at the time of the Crucifixion.  Judge Upham observed that this
+superstition was common in all parts of the country.
+
+Mr. Hatch said that he was professionally consulted, the other day, by a
+man who had been digging for buried treasure at Dover Point; up the
+Piscataqua River; and, while he and his companions were thus engaged, the
+owner of the land came upon them, and compelled Hatch's client to give
+him a note for a sum of money.  The object was to inquire whether this
+note was obligatory.  Hatch says that there are a hundred people now
+resident in Portsmouth, who, at one time or another, have dug for
+treasure.  The process is, in the first place, to find out the site of
+the treasure by the divining-rod.  A circle is then described with the
+steel rod about the spot, and a man walks around within its verge,
+reading the Bible to keep off the evil spirit while his companions dig.
+If a word is spoken, the whole business is a failure.  Once the person
+who told him the story reached the lid of the chest, so that the spades
+plainly scraped upon it, when one of the men spoke, and the chest
+immediately moved sideways into the earth.  Another time, when he was
+reading the Bible within the circle, a creature like a white horse, but
+immoderately large, came from a distance towards the circle, looked at
+him, and then began to graze about the spot.  He saw the motion of the
+jaws, but heard no sound of champing.  His companions saw the gigantic
+horse precisely as he did, only to them it appeared bay instead of white.
+
+The islanders stared with great curiosity at Pierce.  One pretty young
+woman appeared inclined to engross him entirely to herself.
+
+There is a bowling-alley on the island, at which some of the young
+fishermen were rolling.
+
+
+September 7th.--. . . . I have made no exploration to-day, except a walk
+with the guests in the morning, but have lounged about the piazza and
+veranda.  It has been a calm, warm, sunny day, the sea slumbering against
+the shores, and now and then breaking into white foam.
+
+The surface of the island is plentifully overgrown with whortleberry and
+bayberry bushes.  The sheep cut down the former, so that few berries are
+produced; the latter gives a pleasant fragrance when pressed in the hand.
+The island is one great ledge of rock, four hundred acres in extent, with
+a little soil thrown scantily over it; but the bare rock everywhere
+emerging, not only in points, but still more in flat surfaces.  The only
+trees, I think, are two that Mr. Laighton has been trying to raise in
+front of the hotel, the taller of which looks scarcely so much as ten
+feet high.  It is now about sunset, and the Fanny, with the mail, is just
+arrived at the moorings.  So still is it, that the sounds on board (as of
+throwing oars into a small boat) are distinctly heard, though a quarter
+of a mile off.  She has the Stars and Stripes flying at the main-mast.
+There appear to be no passengers.
+
+The only reptile on the island is a very vivid and beautiful green snake,
+which is exceedingly abundant.  Yesterday, while catching grasshoppers
+for fish-bait, I nearly griped one in my hand; indeed, I rather think I
+did gripe it.  The snake was as much startled as myself, and, in its
+fright, stood an instant on its tail, before it recovered presence of
+mind to glide away.  These snakes are quite harmless.
+
+
+September 8th.--Last evening we could hear the roaring of the beaches at
+Hampton and Rye, nine miles off.  The surf likewise swelled against the
+rocky shores of the island, though there was little or no wind, and,
+except for the swell, the surface was smooth.  The sheep bleated loudly;
+and all these tokens, according to Mr. Laighton, foreboded a storm to
+windward.  This morning, nevertheless, there were no further signs of it;
+it is sunny and calm, or only the slightest breeze from the westward; a
+haze sleeping along the shore, betokening a warm day; the surface of the
+sea streaked with smoothness, and gentle ruffles of wind.  It has been
+the hottest day that I have known here, and probably one of the hottest
+of the season ashore; and the land is now imperceptible in the haze.
+
+Smith's monument is about seven feet high, and probably ten or twelve in
+diameter at its base.  It is a cairn or mere heap of stones, thrown
+together as they came to hand, though with some selection of large and
+flat ones, towards the base, and with smaller ones thrown in.  At the
+foundation, there are large rocks, naturally imbedded in the earth.  I
+see no reason to disbelieve that a part of this monument may have been
+erected by Captain Smith, although subsequent visitors may have added to
+it.  Laighton says it is known to have stood upwards of a hundred years.
+It is a work of considerable labor, and would more likely have been
+erected by one who supposed himself the first discoverer of the island
+than by anybody afterwards for mere amusement.  I observed in some
+places, towards the base, that the lichens had grown from one stone to
+another; and there is nothing in the appearance of the monument that
+controverts the supposition of its antiquity.  It is an irregular circle,
+somewhat decreasing towards the top.  Few of the stones, except at the
+base, are bigger than a man could easily lift,--many of them are not more
+than a foot across.  It stands towards the southern part of the island;
+and all the other islands are visible from it,--Smutty Nose, Star Island,
+and White Island,--on which is the lighthouse,--much of Laighton's island
+(the proper name of which is Hog, though latterly called Appledore), and
+Duck Island, which looks like a mere reef of rocks, and about a mile
+farther into the ocean, easterly of Hog Island.
+
+Laighton's Hotel, together with the house in which his son-in-law
+resides, which was likewise built by Laighton, and stands about fifty
+yards from the hotel, occupies the middle of a shallow valley, which
+passes through the island from east to west.  Looking from the veranda,
+you have the ocean opening towards the east, and the bay towards Rye
+Beach and Portsmouth on the west.  In the same storm that overthrew
+Minot's Light, a year or two ago, a great wave passed entirely through
+this valley; and Laighton describes it, when it came in from the sea, as
+toppling over to the height of the cupola of his hotel.  It roared and
+whitened through, from sea to sea, twenty feet abreast, rolling along
+huge rocks in its passage.  It passed beneath his veranda, which stands
+on posts, and probably filled the valley completely.  Would I had been
+here to see!
+
+The day has been exceedingly hot.  Since dinner, the Spy has arrived from
+Portsmouth, with a party of half a dozen or more men and women and
+children, apparently from the interior of New Hampshire.  I am rather
+sorry to receive these strangers into the quiet life that we are leading
+here; for we had grown quite to feel ourselves at home, and the two young
+ladies, Mr. Thaxter, his wife and sister, and myself, met at meal-times
+like one family.  The young ladies gathered shells, arranged them,
+laughed gently, sang, and did other pretty things in a young-ladylike
+way.  These new-comers are people of uncouth voices and loud laughter,
+and behave themselves as if they were trying to turn their expedition to
+as much account as possible in the way of enjoyment.
+
+John's boat, the regular passenger-boat, is now coming in, and probably
+brings the mail.
+
+In the afternoon, while some of the new-comers were fishing off the
+rocks, west of the hotel, a shark came close in shore.  Hearing their
+outcries, I looked out of my chamber window, and saw the dorsal fin and
+the fluke of his tail stuck up out of the water, as he moved to and fro.
+He must have been eight or ten feet long.  He had probably followed the
+small fish into the bay, and got bewildered, and, at one time, he was
+almost aground.
+
+Oscar, Mr. Laighton's son, ran down with a gun, and fired at the shark,
+which was then not more than ten yards from the shore.  He aimed,
+according to his father's directions, just below the junction of the
+dorsal fin with the body; but the gun was loaded only with shot, and
+seemed to produce no effect.  Oscar had another shot at him afterwards;
+the shark floundered a little in the water, but finally got off and
+disappeared, probably without very serious damage.  He came so near the
+shore that he might have been touched with a boat-hook.
+
+
+September 9th.--Mr. Thaxter rowed me this morning, in his dory, to White
+Island, on which is the lighthouse.  There was scarcely a breath of air,
+and a perfectly calm sea; an intensely hot sunshine, with a little haze,
+so that the horizon was indistinct.  Here and there sail-boats sleeping
+on the water, or moving almost imperceptibly over it.  The lighthouse
+island would be difficult of access in a rough sea, the shore being so
+rocky.  On landing, we found the keeper peeling his harvest of onions,
+which he had gathered prematurely, because the insects were eating them.
+His little patch of garden seemed to be a strange kind of soil, as like
+marine mud as anything; but he had a fair crop of marrow squashes, though
+injured, as he said, by the last storm; and there were cabbages and a few
+turnips.  I recollect no other garden vegetables.  The grass grows pretty
+luxuriantly, and looked very green where there was any soil; but he kept
+no cow, nor even a pig nor a hen.  His house stands close by the garden,
+--a small stone building, with peaked roof, and whitewashed.  The
+lighthouse stands on a ledge of rock, with a galley between, and there is
+a long covered way, triangular in shape, connecting his residence with
+it.  We ascended into the lantern, which is eighty-seven feet high.  It
+is a revolving light, with several great illuminators of copper silvered,
+and colored lamp-glasses.  Looking downward, we had the island displayed
+as on a chart, with its little bays, its isthmus of shingly beach
+connecting two parts of the island, and overflowed at high tide; its
+sunken rocks about it, indicated by the swell, or slightly breaking surf.
+The keeper of the lighthouse was formerly a writing-master.  He has a
+sneaking kind of look, and does not bear a very high character among his
+neighbors.  Since he kept the light, he has lost two wives,--the first a
+young creature whom he used to leave alone upon this desolate rock, and
+the gloom and terror of the situation were probably the cause of her
+death.  The second wife, experiencing the same kind of treatment, ran
+away from him, and returned to her friends.  He pretends to be religious,
+but drinks.  About a year ago he attempted to row out alone from
+Portsmouth.  There was a head wind and head tide, and he would have
+inevitably drifted out to sea, if Mr. Thaxter had not saved him.
+
+While we were standing in his garden-patch, I heard a woman's voice
+inside the dwelling, but know not whose it was.  A lighthouse nine miles
+from shore would be a delightful place for a new-married couple to spend
+their honeymoon, or their whole first year.
+
+On our way back we landed at another island called Londoner's Rock, or
+some such name.  It has but little soil.  As we approached it, a large
+bird flew away.  Mr. Thaxter took it to be a gannet; and, while walking
+over the island, an owl started up from among the rocks near us, and flew
+away, apparently uncertain of its course.  It was a brown owl, but Mr.
+Thaxter says that there are beautiful white owls, which spend the winter
+here, and feed upon rats.  These are very abundant, and live amidst the
+rocks,--probably having been brought hither by vessels.
+
+The water to-day was not so transparent as sometimes, but had a slight
+haze diffused through it, somewhat like that of the atmosphere.
+
+The passengers brought by the Spy, yesterday, still remain with us.  They
+consist of country traders, a country doctor, and such sorts of people,
+rude, shrewd, and simple, and well-behaved enough; wondering at sharks,
+and equally at lobsters; sitting down to table with their coats off;
+helping themselves out of the dish with their own forks; taking pudding
+on the plates off which they have eaten meat.  People at just this stage
+of manners are more disagreeable than at any other stage.  They are aware
+of some decencies, but not so deeply aware as to make them a matter of
+conscience.  They may be heard talking of the financial affairs of the
+expedition, reckoning what money each has paid.  One offers to pay
+another three or four cents, which the latter has overpaid.  "It's of no
+consequence, sir," says his friend, with a tone of conscious liberality,
+"that's near enough."  This is a most tremendously hot day.
+
+There is a young lady staying at the hotel, afflicted with what her
+friends call erysipelas, but which is probably scrofula.  She seems
+unable to walk, or sit up; but every pleasant day, about the middle of
+the forenoon, she is dragged out beneath the veranda, on a sofa.  To-day
+she has been there until late in the decline of the afternoon.  It is a
+delightful place, where the breezes stir, if any are in motion.  The
+young girls, her sisters or cousins, and Mr. Thaxter's sister, sat round
+her, babbling cheerfully, and singing; and they were so merry that it did
+not seem as if there could be an incurably sick one in the midst of them.
+
+The Spy came to-day, with more passengers of no particular character.
+She still remains off the landing, moored, with her sails in the wind.
+
+The mail arrived to-day, but nothing for me.
+
+Close by the veranda, at the end of the hotel, is drawn up a large boat,
+of ten or twelve tons, which got injured in some gale, and probably will
+remain there for years to decay, and be a picturesque and characteristic
+object.
+
+The Spy has been lying in the broad track of golden light, thrown by the
+sun, far down towards the horizon, over the rippling water, her sails
+throwing distinct, dark shadows over the brightness.  She has now got
+under way, and set sail on a northwest course for Portsmouth; carrying
+off, I believe, all the passengers she brought to-day.
+
+
+September 10th.--Here is another beautiful morning, with the sun dimpling
+in the early sunshine.  Four sailboats are in sight, motionless on the
+sea, with the whiteness of their sails reflected in it.  The heat-haze
+sleeps along the shore, though not so as quite to hide it, and there is
+the promise of another very warm day.  As yet, however, the air is cool
+and refreshing.  Around the island, there is the little ruffle of a
+breeze; but where the sail-boats are, a mile or more off, the sea is
+perfectly calm.  The crickets sing, and I hear the chirping of birds
+besides.
+
+At the base of the lighthouse yesterday, we saw the wings and feathers of
+a decayed little bird, and Mr. Thaxter said they often flew against the
+lantern with such force as to kill themselves, and that large quantities
+of them might be picked up.  How came these little birds out of their
+nests at night?  Why should they meet destruction from the radiance that
+proves the salvation of other beings?
+
+Mr. Thaxter had once a man living with him who had seen "Old Bab," the
+ghost.  He met him between the hotel and the sea, and describes him as
+dressed in a sort of frock, and with a very dreadful countenance.
+
+Two or three years ago, the crew of a wrecked vessel, a brigantine,
+wrecked near Boon Island, landed on Hog Island of a winter night, and
+found shelter in the hotel.  It was from the eastward.  There were six or
+seven men, with the mate and captain.  It was midnight when they got
+ashore.  The common sailors, as soon as they were physically comfortable,
+seemed to be perfectly at ease.  The captain walked the floor, bemoaning
+himself for a silver watch which he had lost; the mate, being the only
+married man, talked about his Eunice.  They all told their dreams of the
+preceding night, and saw in them prognostics of the misfortune.
+
+There is now a breeze, the blue ruffle of which seems to reach almost
+across to the mainland, yet with streaks of calm; and, in one place, the
+glassy surface of a lake of calmness, amidst the surrounding commotion.
+
+The wind, in the early morning, was from the west, and the aspect of the
+sky seemed to promise a warm and sunny day.  But all at once, soon after
+breakfast, the wind shifted round to the eastward; and great volumes of
+fog, almost as dense as cannon-smoke, came sweeping from the eastern
+ocean, through the valley, and past the house.  It soon covered the whole
+sea, and the whole island, beyond a verge of a few hundred yards.  The
+chilliness was not so great as accompanies a change of wind on the
+mainland.  We had been watching a large ship that was slowly making her
+way between us and the land towards Portsmouth.  This was now hidden.
+The breeze is still very moderate; but the boat, moored near the shore,
+rides with a considerable motion, as if the sea were getting up.
+
+Mr. Laighton says that the artist who adorned Trinity Church in New York
+with sculpture wanted some real wings from which to imitate the wings of
+cherubim.  Mr. Thaxter carried him the wings of the white owl that
+winters here at the Shoals, together with those of some other bird; and
+the artist gave his cherubim the wings of an owl.
+
+This morning there have been two boat-loads of visitors from Rye.  They
+merely made a flying call, and took to their boats again,--a disagreeable
+and impertinent kind of people.
+
+The Spy arrived before dinner, with several passengers.  After dinner
+came the Fanny, bringing, among other freight, a large basket of
+delicious pears to me, together with a note from Mr. B. B. Titcomb.  He
+is certainly a man of excellent, taste and admirable behavior.  I sent a
+plateful of pears to the room of each guest now in the hotel, kept a
+dozen for myself, and gave the balance to Mr. Laighton.
+
+The two Portsmouth young ladies returned in the Spy.  I had grown
+accustomed to their presence, and rather liked them; one of them being
+gay and rather noisy, and the other quiet and gentle.  As to new-comers,
+I feel rather a distaste to them; and so, I find, does Mr. Laighton,--a
+rather singular sentiment for a hotel-keeper to entertain towards his
+guests.  However, he treats them very hospitably, when once within his
+doors.
+
+The sky is overcast, and, about the time of the Spy and the Fanny sailed,
+there were a few drops of rain.  The wind, at that time, was strong
+enough to raise white-caps to the eastward of the island, and there was
+good hope of a storm.  Now, however, the wind has subsided, and the
+weather-seers know not what to forebode.
+
+
+September 11th.--The wind shifted and veered about, towards the close of
+yesterday, and later it was almost calm, after blowing gently from the
+northwest,--notwithstanding which it rained.  There being a mistiness in
+the air, we could see the gleam of the lighthouse itself by the highest
+point of this island, or by our being in a valley.  As we sat in the
+piazza in the evening, we saw the light from on board some vessel move
+slowly through the distant obscurity,--so slowly that we were only
+sensible of its progress by forgetting it and looking again.  The plash
+and murmur of the waves around the island were soothingly audible.  It
+was not unpleasantly cold, and Mr. Laighton, Mr. Thaxter and myself sat
+under the piazza till long after dark; the former at a little distance,
+occasionally smoking his pipe, and Mr. Thaxter and I talking about poets
+and the stage.  The latter is an odd subject to be discussed in this
+stern and wild scene, which has precisely the same characteristics now as
+two hundred years ago.  The mosquitoes were very abundant last night, and
+they are certainly a hardier race than their inland brethren.
+
+This morning there is a sullen sky, with scarcely any breeze.  The clouds
+throw shadows of varied darkness upon the sea.  I know not which way the
+wind is; but the aspect of things seems to portend a calm drizzle as much
+as anything else.
+
+About eleven o'clock, Mr. Thaxter took me over to Smutty Nose in his
+dory.  A sloop from the eastward, laden with laths, bark, and other
+lumber, and a few barrels of mackerel, filled yesterday, and was left by
+her skipper and crew.  All the morning we have seen boats picking up her
+deck-load, which was scattered over the sea, and along the shores of the
+islands.  The skipper and his three men got into Smutty Nose in the boat;
+and the sloop was afterwards boarded by the Smutty Noses and brought into
+that island.  We saw her lying at the pier,--a black, ugly, rotten old
+thing, with the water half-way over her decks.  The wonder was, how she
+swam so long.  The skipper, a man of about thirty-five or forty, in a
+blue pilot-cloth overcoat, and a rusty, high-crowned hat jammed down over
+his brow, looked very forlorn; while the islanders were grouped about,
+indolently enjoying the matter.
+
+I walked with Mr. Thaxter over the island, and saw first the graves of
+the Spaniards.  They were wrecked on this island a hundred years ago, and
+lie buried in a range about thirty feet in length, to the number of
+sixteen, with rough, moss-grown pieces of granite on each side of this
+common grave.  Near this spot, yet somewhat removed, so as not to be
+confounded with it, are other individual graves, chiefly of the Haley
+family, who were once possessors of the island.  These have slate
+gravestones.  There is also, within a small enclosure of rough pine
+boards, a white marble gravestone, in memory of a young man named Bekker,
+son of the person who now keeps the hotel on Smutty Nose.  He was buried,
+Mr. Thaxter says, notwithstanding his marble monument, in a rude pine
+box, which he himself helped to make.
+
+We walked to the farthest point of the island, and I have never seen a
+more dismal place than it was on this sunless and east-windy day, being
+the farthest point out into the melancholy sea, which was in no very
+agreeable mood, and roared sullenly against the wilderness of rocks.  One
+mass of rock, more than twelve feet square, was thrown up out of the sea
+in a storm, not many years since, and now lies athwartwise, never to be
+moved unless another omnipotent wave shall give it another toss.  On
+shore, such a rock would be a landmark for centuries.  It is
+inconceivable how a sufficient mass of water could be brought to bear on
+this ponderous mass; but, not improbably, all the fragments piled upon
+one another round these islands have thus been flung to and fro at one
+time or another.
+
+There is considerable land that would serve tolerably for pasture on
+Smutty Nose, and here and there a little enclosure of richer grass, built
+round with a strong stonewall.  The same kind of enclosure is prevalent
+on Star Island,--each small proprietor fencing off his little bit of
+tillage or grass.  Wild-flowers are abundant and various on these
+islands; the bayberry-bush is plentiful on Smutty Nose, and makes the
+hand that crushes it fragrant.
+
+The hotel is kept by a Prussian, an old soldier, who fought at the Battle
+of Waterloo.  We saw him in the barn,--a gray, heavy, round-skulled old
+fellow, troubled with deafness.  The skipper of the wrecked sloop had,
+apparently, just been taking a drop of comfort, but still seemed
+downcast.  He took passage in a fishing-vessel, the Wave, of Kittery, for
+Portsmouth; and I know not why, but there was something that made me
+smile in his grim and gloomy look, his rusty, jammed hat, his rough and
+grisly beard, and in his mode of chewing tobacco, with much action of the
+jaws, getting out the juice as largely as possible, as men always do when
+disturbed in mind.  I looked at him earnestly, and was conscious of
+something that marked him out from among the careless islanders around
+him.  Being as much discomposed as it was possible for him to be, his
+feelings individualized the man and magnetized the observer.  When he got
+aboard the fishing-vessel, he seemed not entirely at his ease, being
+accustomed to command and work amongst his own little crew, and now
+having nothing to do.  Nevertheless, unconsciously perhaps, he lent a
+hand to whatever was going on, and yet had a kind of strangeness about
+him.  As the Wave set sail, we were just starting in our dory, and a
+young fellow, an acquaintance of Mr. Thaxter, proposed to take us in tow;
+so we were dragged along at her stern very rapidly, and with a whitening
+wake, until we came off Hog Island.  Then the dory was cast loose, and
+Mr. Thaxter rowed ashore against a head sea.
+
+The day is still overcast, and the wind is from the eastward; but it does
+not increase, and the sun appears occasionally on the point of shining
+out.  A boat--the Fanny, I suppose, from Portsmouth--has just come to her
+moorings in front of the hotel.  A sail-boat has put off from her, with a
+passenger in the stern.  Pray God she bring me a letter with good news
+from home; for I begin to feel as if I had been long enough away.
+
+There is a bowling-alley on Smutty Nose, at which some of the
+Star-Islanders were playing, when we were there.  I saw only two
+dwelling-houses besides the hotel.  Connected with Smutty Nose by a
+stone-wall there is another little bit of island, called Malaga.  Both
+are the property of Mr. Laighton.
+
+Mr. Laighton says that the Spanish wreck occurred forty-seven years ago,
+instead of a hundred.  Some of the dead bodies were found on Malaga,
+others on various parts of the next island.  One or two had crept to a
+stone-wall that traverses Smutty Nose, but were unable to get over it.
+One was found among the bushes the next summer.  Mr. Haley had them
+buried at his own expense.
+
+The skipper of the wrecked sloop, yesterday, was unwilling to go to
+Portsmouth until he was shaved,--his beard being of several days' growth.
+It seems to be the impulse of people under misfortune to put on their
+best clothes, and attend to the decencies of life.
+
+The Fanny brought a passenger,--a thin, stiff, black-haired young man,
+who enters his name as Mr. Tufts, from Charlestown.  He, and a country
+trader, his wife, sister, and two children (all of whom have been here
+several days) are now the only guests besides myself.
+
+
+September 12th.--The night set in sullen and gloomy, and morning has
+dawned in pretty much the same way.  The wind, however, seems rising
+somewhat, and grumbles past the angle of the house.  Perhaps we shall see
+a storm yet from the eastward; and, having the whole sweep of the broad
+Atlantic between here and Ireland, I do not see why it should not be
+fully equal to a storm at sea.
+
+It has been raining more or less all the forenoon, and now, at twelve
+o'clock, blows, as Mr. Laighton says, "half a gale" from the southeast.
+Through the opening of our shallow valley, towards the east, there is the
+prospect of a tumbling sea, with hundreds of white-caps chasing one
+another over it.  In front of the hotel, being to leeward, the water near
+the shore is but slightly ruffled; but farther the sea is agitated, and
+the surf breaks over Square Rock.  All round the horizon, landward as
+well as seaward, the view is shut in by a mist.  Sometimes I have a dim
+sense of the continent beyond, but no more distinct than the thought of
+the other world to the unenlightened soul.  The sheep bleat in their
+desolate pasture.  The wind shakes the house.  A loon, seeking, I
+suppose, some quieter resting-place than on the troubled waves, was seen
+swimming just now in the cove not more than a hundred yards from the
+hotel.  Judging by the pother which this "half a gale" makes with the
+sea, it must have been a terrific time, indeed, when that great wave
+rushed and roared across the islands.
+
+Since dinner, I have been to the eastern shore to look at the sea.  It is
+a wild spectacle, but still, I suppose, lacks an infinite deal of being a
+storm.  Outside of this island there is a long and low one (or two in a
+line), looking more like a reef of rocks than an island, and at the
+distance of a mile or more.  There the surf and spray break gallantly,--
+white-sheeted forms rising up all at once, and hovering a moment in the
+air.  Spots which, in calm times, are not discernible from the rest of
+the ocean, now are converted into white, foamy breakers.  The swell of
+the waves against our shore makes a snowy depth, tinged with green, for
+many feet back from the shore.  The longer waves swell, overtop, and rush
+upon the rocks; and, when they return, the waters pour back in a cascade.
+Against the outer points of Smutty Nose and Star Island, there is a
+higher surf than here; because, the wind being from the southeast, these
+islands receive it first, and form a partial barrier in respect to this.
+While I looked, there was moisture in the air, and occasional spats of
+rain.  The uneven places in the rocks were full of the fallen rain.
+
+It is quite impossible to give an idea of these rocky shores,--how
+confusedly they are tossed together, lying in all directions; what solid
+ledges, what great fragments thrown out from the rest.  Often the rocks
+are broken, square and angular, so as to form a kind of staircase;
+though, for the most part, such as would require a giant stride to ascend
+them.
+
+Sometimes a black trap-rock runs through the bed of granite; sometimes
+the sea has eaten this away, leaving a long, irregular fissure.  In some
+places, owing to the same cause perhaps, there is a great hollow place
+excavated into the ledge, and forming a harbor, into which the sea flows;
+and, while there is foam and fury at the entrance, it is comparatively
+calm within.  Some parts of the crag are as much as fifty feet of
+perpendicular height, down which you look over a bare and smooth descent,
+at the base of which is a shaggy margin of sea-weed.  But it is vain to
+try to express this confusion.  As much as anything else, it seems as if
+some of the massive materials of the world remained superfluous, after
+the Creator had finished, and were carelessly thrown down here, where the
+millionth part of them emerge from the sea, and in the course of
+thousands of years have become partially bestrewn with a little soil.
+
+The wind has changed to southwest, and blows pretty freshly.  The sun
+shone before it set; and the mist, which all day has overhung the land,
+now takes the aspect of a cloud,--drawing a thin veil between us and the
+shore, and rising above it.  In our own atmosphere there is no fog nor
+mist.
+
+
+September 13th.--I spent last evening, as well as part of the evening
+before, at Mr. Thaxter's.  It is certainly a romantic incident to find
+such a young man on this lonely island; his marriage with the pretty
+Miranda is true romance.  In our talk we have glanced over many matters,
+and, among the rest, that of the stage, to prepare himself for which was
+his first motive in coming hither.  He appears quite to have given up any
+dreams of that kind now.  What he will do on returning to the world, as
+his purpose is, I cannot imagine; but, no doubt, through all their
+remaining life, both he and she will look back to this rocky ledge, with
+its handful of soil, as to a Paradise.
+
+Last evening we (Mr., Mrs., and Miss Thaxter) sat and talked of ghosts
+and kindred subjects; and they told me of the appearance of a little old
+woman in a striped gown, that had come into that house a few months ago.
+She was seen by nobody but an Irish nurse, who spoke to her, but received
+no answer.  The little woman drew her chair up towards the fire, and
+stretched out her feet to warm them.  By and by the nurse, who suspected
+nothing of her ghostly character, went to get a pail of water; and, when
+she came back, the little woman was not there.  It being known precisely
+how many and what people were on the island, and that no such little
+woman was among them, the fact of her being a ghost is incontestable.  I
+taught them how to discover the hidden sentiments of letters by
+suspending a gold ring over them.  Ordinarily, since I have been here, we
+have spent the evening under the piazza, where Mr. Laighton sits to take
+the air.  He seems to avoid the within-doors whenever he can.  So there
+he sits in the sea-breezes, when inland people are probably drawing their
+chairs to the fireside; and there I sit with him,--not keeping up a
+continual flow of talk, but each speaking as any wisdom happens to come
+into his mind.
+
+The wind, this morning, is from the northwestward, rather brisk, but not
+very strong.  There is a scattering of clouds about the sky; but the
+atmosphere is singularly clear, and we can see several hills of the
+interior, the cloud-like White Mountains, and, along the shore, the long
+white beaches and the dotted dwellings, with great distinctness.  Many
+small vessels spread their wings, and go seaward.
+
+I have been rambling over the southern part of the island, and looking at
+the traces of habitations there.  There are several enclosures,--the
+largest perhaps thirty yards square,--surrounded with a rough stonewall
+of very mossy antiquity, built originally broad and strong, two or three
+large stones in width, and piled up breast-high or more, and taking
+advantage of the extending ledge to make it higher.  Within this
+enclosure there is almost a clear space of soil, which was formerly, no
+doubt, cultivated as a garden, but is now close cropt by the sheep and
+cattle, except where it produces thistles, or the poisonous weed called
+mercury, which seems to love these old walls, and to root itself in or
+near them.  These walls are truly venerable, gray, and mossy; and you see
+at once that the hands that piled the stones must have been long ago
+turned to dust.  Close by the enclosure is the hollow of an old cellar,
+with rocks tumbled into it, but the layers of stone at the side still to
+be traced, and bricks, broken or with rounded edges, scattered about, and
+perhaps pieces of lime; and weeds and grass growing about the whole.
+Several such sites of former human homes may be seen there, none of which
+can possibly be later than the Revolution, and probably they are as old
+as the settlement of the island.  The site has Smutty Nose and Star
+opposite, with a road (that is, a water-road) between, varying from half
+a mile to a mile.  Duck Island is also seen on the left; and, on the
+right, the shore of the mainland.  Behind, the rising ground intercepts
+the view.  Smith's monument is visible.  I do not see where the
+inhabitants could have kept their boats, unless in the chasms worn by the
+sea into the rocks.
+
+One of these chasms has a spring of fresh water in the gravelly base,
+down to which the sea has worn out.  The chasm has perpendicular, though
+irregular, sides, which the waves have chiselled out very square.  Its
+width varies from ten to twenty feet, widest towards the sea; and on the
+shelves, up and down the sides, some soil has been here and there
+accumulated, on which grow grass and wild-flowers,--such as golden-rod,
+now in bloom, and raspberry-bushes, the fruit of which I found ripe,--the
+whole making large parts of the sides of the chasm green, its verdure
+overhanging the strip of sea that dashes and foams into the hollow.
+Sea-weed, besides what grows upon and shags the submerged rocks, is
+tossed into the harbor, together with stray pieces of wood, chips,
+barrel-staves, or (as to-day) an entire barrel, or whatever else the sea
+happens to have on hand.  The water rakes to and fro over the pebbles at
+the bottom of the chasm, drawing back, and leaving much of it bare, then
+rushing up, with more or less of foam and fury, according to the force
+and direction of the wind; though, owing to the protection of the
+adjacent islands, it can never have a gale blowing right into its mouth.
+The spring is situated so far down the chasm, that, at half or two-thirds
+tide, it is covered by the sea.  Twenty minutes after the retiring of the
+tide suffices to restore to it its wonted freshness.
+
+In another chasm, very much like the one here described, I saw a niche in
+the rock, about tall enough for a person of moderate stature to stand
+upright.  It had a triangular floor and a top, and was just the place to
+hold the rudest statue that ever a savage made.
+
+Many of the ledges on the island have yellow moss or lichens spread on
+them in large patches.  The moss of those stone walls does really look
+very old.
+
+"Old Bab," the ghost, has a ring round his neck, and is supposed either
+to have been hung or to have had his throat cut, but he steadfastly
+declines telling the mode of his death.  There is a luminous appearance
+about him as he walks, and his face is pale and very dreadful.
+
+The Fanny arrived this forenoon, and sailed again before dinner.  She
+brought, as passenger, a Mr. Balch, brother to the country trader who has
+been spending a few days here.  On her return, she has swept the islands
+of all the non-residents except myself.  The wind being ahead, and pretty
+strong, she will have to beat up, and the voyage will be anything but
+agreeable.  The spray flew before her bows, and doubtless gave the
+passengers all a thorough wetting within the first half-hour.
+
+The view of Star Island or Gosport from the north is picturesque,--the
+village, or group of houses, being gathered pretty closely together in
+the centre of the island, with some green about them; and above all the
+other edifices, wholly displayed, stands the little stone church, with
+its tower and belfry.  On the right is White Island, with the lighthouse;
+to the right of that, and a little to the northward, Londoner's Rock,
+where, perhaps, of old, some London ship was wrecked.  To the left of
+Star Island, and nearer Hog, or Appledore, is Smutty Nose.  Pour the blue
+sea about these islets, and let the surf whiten and steal up from their
+points, and from the reefs about them (which latter whiten for an
+instant, and then are lost in the whelming and eddying depths), the
+northwest-wind the while raising thousands of white-caps, and the evening
+sun shining solemnly over the expanse,--and it is a stern and lovely
+scene.
+
+The valleys that intersect, or partially intersect, the island are a
+remarkable feature.  They appear to be of the same formation as the
+fissures in the rocks, but, as they extend farther from the sea, they
+accumulate a little soil along the irregular sides, and so become green
+and shagged with bushes, though with the rock everywhere thrusting itself
+through.  The old people of the isles say that their fathers could
+remember when the sea, at high tide, flowed quite through the valley in
+which the hotel stands, and that boats used to pass.  Afterwards it was a
+standing pond; then a morass, with cat-tail flags growing in it.  It has
+filled up, so far as it is filled, by the soil being washed down from the
+higher ground on each side.  The storms, meanwhile, have tossed up the
+shingle and paving-stones at each end of the valley, so as to form a
+barrier against the passage of any but such mighty waves as that which
+thundered through a year or two ago.
+
+The old inhabitants lived in the centre or towards the south of the
+island, and avoided the north and east because the latter were so much
+bleaker in winter.  They could moor their boats in the road, between
+Smutty Nose and Hog, but could not draw them up.  Mr. Laighton found
+traces of old dwellings in the vicinity of the hotel, and it is supposed
+that the principal part of the population was on this island.  I spent
+the evening at Mr. Thaxter's, and we drank a glass of his 1820 Scheidam.
+The northwest-wind was high at ten o'clock, when I came home, the tide
+full, and the murmur of the waves broad and deep.
+
+
+September 14th.--Another of the brightest of sunny mornings.  The wind is
+not nearly so high as last night, but it is apparently still from the
+northwest, and serves to make the sea look very blue and cold.  The
+atmosphere is so transparent that objects seem perfectly distinct along
+the mainland.  To-day I must be in Portsmouth; to-morrow, at home.  A
+brisk west, or northwest wind, making the sea so blue, gives a very
+distinct outline in its junction with the sky.
+
+
+September 16th.--On Tuesday, the 14th, there was no opportunity to get to
+the mainland.  Yesterday morning opened with a southeast rain, which
+continued all day.  The Fanny arrived in the forenoon, with some coal for
+Mr. Laighton, and sailed again before dinner, taking two of the maids of
+the house; but as it rained pouring, and as I could not, at any rate,
+have got home to-night, there would have been no sense in my going.  It
+began to clear up in the decline of the day; the sun shot forth some
+golden arrows a little before his setting; and the sky was perfectly
+clear when I went to bed, after spending the evening at Mr. Thaxter's.
+This morning is clear and bright; but the wind is northwest, making the
+sea look blue and cold, with little breaks of white foam.  It is
+unfavorable for a trip to the mainland; but doubtless I shall find an
+opportunity of getting ashore before night.
+
+The highest part of Appledore is about eighty feet above the sea.  Mr.
+Laighton has seen whales off the island,--both on the eastern side and
+between it and the mainland; once a great crowd of them, as many as
+fifty.  They were drawn in by pursuing their food,--a small fish called
+herring-bait, which came ashore in such abundance that Mr. Laighton
+dipped up basketfuls of them.  No attempt was made to take the whales.
+
+There are vague traditions of trees on these islands.  One of them, Cedar
+Island, is said to have been named from the trees that grew on it.  The
+matter appears improbable, though, Mr. Thaxter says, large quantities of
+soil are annually washed into the sea; so that the islands may have been
+better clad with earth and its productions than now.
+
+Mrs. Thaxter tells me that there are several burial-places on this
+island; but nobody has been buried here since the Revolution.  Her own
+marriage was the first one since that epoch, and her little Karl, now
+three months old, the first-born child in all those eighty years.
+
+[Then follow extracts from the Church Records of Gosport.]
+
+This book of the church records of Gosport is a small folio, well bound
+in dark calf, and about an inch thick; the paper very stout, with a
+water-mark of an armed man in a sitting posture, holding a spear . . . .
+over a lion, who brandishes a sword; on alternate pages the Crown, and
+beneath it the letters G. R.  The motto of the former device Pro Patria.
+The book is written in a very legible hand, probably by the Rev. Mr.
+Tucke.  The ink is not much faded.
+
+
+Concord, March 9th, 1853.--Finished, this day, the last story of
+Tanglewood Tales.  They were written in the following order.
+
+The Pomegranate Seeds.
+The Minotaur.
+The Golden Fleece.
+The Dragons' Teeth.
+Circe's Palace.
+The Pygmies.
+
+The introduction is yet to be written.  Wrote it 13th March.  I went to
+Washington (my first visit) on 14th April.
+
+Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life
+of the affections, as leaves are to the life of a tree.  If they are
+wholly restrained, love will die at the roots.
+
+
+June 9th.--Cleaning the attic to-day, here at the Wayside, the woman
+found an immense snake, flat and outrageously fierce, thrusting out its
+tongue.  Ellen, the cook, killed it.  She called it an adder, but it
+appears to have been a striped snake.  It seems a fiend, haunting the
+house.  On further inquiry, the snake is described as plaided with brown
+and black.
+
+Cupid in these latter times has probably laid aside his bow and arrows,
+and uses fire-arms,--a pistol,--perhaps a revolver.
+
+I burned great heaps of old letters and other papers, a little while ago,
+preparatory to going to England.  Among them were hundreds of ------'s
+letters.  The world has no more such, and now they are all dust and
+ashes.  What a trustful guardian of secret matters is fire!  What should
+we do without fire and death?
+
+
+END OF VOL. II
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Passages From The American Notebooks,
+Volume 2., by Nathaniel Hawthorne
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS, V2 ***
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