I t I love society as muc, and am ready enough
to fasten myself like a bloodsucker for time to any full-blooded
man t comes in my urally no , but might
possibly sit out turdiest frequenter of the bar-room, if my
business called me ther.
I ude, two for
friendsy. ors came in larger and
unexpected numbers t t
tanding up. It is surprising
men and women a small ain. I have had
ty-five or ty souls, once under my
roof, and yet en parted being a we had come
very near to one anoth public and
private, innumerable apartments, their huge halls
and torage of ions of
peace, appear to be extravagantly large for tants. they
are so vast and magnificent t tter seem to be only vermin
he herald blows his summons
before some tremont or Astor or Middlesex o see come
creeping out over tants a ridiculous mouse,
wo some .
One inconvenience I sometimes experienced in so small a house,
ty of getting to a sufficient distance from my guest
ter ts in big room
for your ts to get into sailing trim and run a course or two
before t. t of your t must have
overcome its lateral and ricoc motion and fallen into its last
and steady course before it reac
may plo again the side of his head. Also, our
sentences ed room to unfold and form the
interval. Individuals, like nations, must able broad and
natural boundaries, even a considerable neutral ground, between
t a singular luxury to talk across to
a companion on te side. In my
begin to speak low enougo be
ones into calm er so near t
tions. If we are merely loquacious
and loud talkers, to stand very near together,
c if we speak
reservedly and tfully, to be fart, t all
animal and moisture may o evaporate. If we
intimate society in each of us which
is , or above, being spoken to, not only be silent,
but commonly so far apart bodily t possibly hear each
oto tandard, speech is for
t there are many
fine t say if he
conversation began to assume a loftier and grander tone, we
gradually s till touche wall
in opposite corners, and t room enough.
My quot;bestquot; room, hdrawing room, always ready for
company, on he pine wood
beinguiss
came, I took tic s the floor and
dusted ture and kept things in order.
If one guest came imes partook of my frugal meal, and it
erruption to conversation to be stirring a y-pudding,
or curing of a loaf of bread in the ashes,
in t if ty came and sat in my here was
not dinner, t be bread enough for
ting urally
practised abstinence; and t to be an offence
against ality, but t proper and considerate course.
te and decay of pen needs repair,
seemed miraculously retarded in sucal vigor
stood its ground. I could entertain thousand as well as
ty; and if any ever aed or hungry from my
t I
sympat least. So easy is it, though many
it, to establister customs in the
place of t rest your reputation on the dinners
you give. For my o, I ually deterred from
frequenting a mans ever, as by
t dining me, o be a very
polite and roundabout never to trouble hink I
s to he
motto of my cabin tors
inscribed on a yello leaf for a card:--
quot;Arrived ttle hey fill,
Ne looke for entertainment where none was;
Rest is t, and all t their will:
t mind t contentment ;
er
of ceremony to Massasoit on foot through
tired and hey were well
received by t not eating t day.
arrived, to quote t;he laid us on
t t the
ot being only planks laid a foot from thin
mat upon two more of of room, pressed
by and upon us; so t han of
our journey.quot; At one oclock t day Massasoit quot;brougwo
fis ,quot; about t;these
being boiled, t least forty looked for a shem;
t eat of ts and a
day; and one of us bougridge, we aken our
journey fasting.quot; Fearing t t-
of food and also sleep, oo quot;the savages barbarous singing,
(for to sing t; and t t get
rengto travel, ted. As for
lodging, it is true t poorly entertained, t
t intended for an
as far as eating see he Indians could
ter. to eat they were
o t apologies could supply to
ts; so ts tighing
about it. Anotime being a season
of plenty .
As for men, they will hardly fail one anywhere. I had more
visitors her period in my
life; I mean t I several there under more
favorable circumstances t fewer came
to see me on trivial business. In t, my company was
ance from town. I hdrawn so far
ocean of solitude, into wy
empty, t for t part, so far as my needs were concerned,
only t sediment ed around me. Beside, there
ed to me evidences of unexplored and uncultivated
continents on ther side.
o my lodge t a true homeric or
Papable and poetic a name t I am
sorry I cannot print it here -- a Canadian, a woodchopper and
post-maker, s in a day, w
supper on a woodc. oo, has heard of
;if it for books,quot; ;not knoo do
rainy days,quot; t read one whrough for
many rainy seasons. Some priest whe Greek
itself taugo read estament in ive
paris translate to he
book, Aco Patroclus for enance. --
quot;ears, Patroclus, like a young girl?quot;
quot;Or hia?
t Menoetius lives yet, son of Actor,
And Peleus lives, son of AEacus, among the Myrmidons,
Eitly grieve.quot;
;ts good.quot; bundle of we oak bark
under ;I
suppose ter suco-day,quot; says
o er, t ing was
about knoural man it would be
o find. Vice and disease, w such a sombre moral hue
over to ance for him. he was
about ty-eig Canada and hers
o ates, and earn money to
buy a farm last, perive country.
in t mould; a stout but sluggis gracefully
carried, neck, dark bushy hair, and dull
sleepy blue eyes, h expression.
gray clotcoat, and
co, usually carrying
o my house -- for he
cin pail; cold meats, often cold
tle wring
from ; and sometimes he offered me a drink. he came along
early, crossing my bean-field, t anxiety or e to
get to . a-going to
care if ly he
would leave a
and
leave it in ter
deliberating first for sink it in
till nigo dhese
t by in t;he
pigeons are! If my trade, I could get
all t I s by ing-pigeons, woodcs,
partridges -- by gos all I s for a week in
one day.quot;
he was a skilful chopper, and indulged in some flourishes and
ornaments in . rees level and close to the
ground, t ts be more
vigorous and a sled migumps; and instead of
leaving a o support
ao a slender stake or splinter wh
your last.
erested me because and solitary and so
entment which overflowed
at alloy. Sometimes I saw
rees, and me h a
laugisfaction, and a salutation in Canadian
Frenchough he spoke English as well. hen I approached him he
would suspend he
trunk of a pine whe inner
bark, roll it up into a ball and c while he laughed and
talked. Sucs he
sometimes tumbled doer at
anytickled him. Looking round upon
trees ;By George! I can enjoy myself well
enoug no better sport.quot; Sometimes, w
leisure,
pistol, firing salutes to regular intervals as he walked.
In ter noon he warmed his coffee in
a kettle; and as on a log to eat he chickadees
imes come round and alig the
potato in ;liked to tle
fellers about ;
In he animal man chiefly was developed. In physical
endurance and contentment o the rock. I
asked sometimes tired at niger working
all day; and h a sincere and serious look,
quot;Gorrappit, I never ired in my life.quot; But tellectual and
ual man in .
ructed only in t innocent and ineffectual way in
eache pupil
is never educated to t only to the
degree of trust and reverence, and a c made a man, but
kept a cure made rong body and
contentment for ion, and propped h
reverence and reliance, t live out hreescore years
and ten a cicated t no
introduction o introduce han if you
introduced a o find
as you did. play any part. Men paid him wages for
he never exchanged
opinions urally humble -- if he
can be called y was no
distinct quality in . iser men
o old such a one was coming,
t anyt nothing
of take all ty on itself, and let him
be forgotten still. he sound of praise. he
particularly reverenced ter and their
performances e
considerably, for a long time t it he
ing w, for e a remarkably good hand
imes found tive parish handsomely
ten in t,
and kne o e
s. ten letters for
t, but ried to e ts -- no, he
could not, tell o put first, it would kill him,
and to be attended to at time!
I a distinguished wise man and reformer asked him if
to be c h a
c, not kno the
question ertained before, quot;No, I like it well
enoug; It o a po
o a stranger o knohing
of t I sometimes saw in him a man whom I had
not seen before, and I did not know wher he was as wise as
S as a co suspect him
of a fine poetic consciousness or of stupidity. A toold me
t he village in his small
close-fitting cap, and o himself, he reminded him of a
prince in disguise.
ic, in w
. t of cyclopaedia to
o contain an abstract of human knowledge, as
indeed it does to a considerable extent. I loved to sound him on
to look at them
in t simple and practical light. he had never heard of such
t factories? I asked. he had
gray, was good. Could
ea and coffee? Did try afford any
beverage beside er? er and
drank it, and t t ter ter in her.
money, he
convenience of money in suco suggest and coincide h
t ps of titution,
and tion of the word pecunia. If an ox were his
property, and o get needles and t tore, he
t it and impossible soon to go on
mortgaging some portion of ture eacime to t amount.
itutions better than any philosopher,
because, in describing true
reason for tion suggested to
anotime, os definition of a man
-- a biped feat one exed a cock plucked
and called it Platos man, it an important difference
t t times exclaim, quot;how
I love to talk! By George, I could talk all day!quot; I asked him
once, w seen a new
idea t;Good Lordquot; -- said ;a man t o work
as I do, if forget the ideas he has had, he will do
o race; then, by
gorry, your mind must be t; he would
sometimes ask me first on such occasions, if I had made any
improvement. One er day I asked isfied
o suggest a substitute he
priest , and some ive for living. quot;Satisfied!quot;
said ;some men are satisfied h
anot enougisfied
to sit all day o to table,
by George!quot; Yet I never, by any manoeuvring, could get o take
tual vie t o
conceive of an
animal to appreciate; and tically, is true of most men.
If I suggested any improvement in his mode of life, he merely
ans expressing any regret, t it oo late. Yet
y and tues.
tain positive originality, , to be
detected in hinking
for himself and expressing his own opinion, a phenomenon so rare
t I en miles to observe it, and it amounted
to tion of many of titutions of society.
tated, and pero express himself
distinctly, able t be his
tive and immersed in ,
t rarely ripened
to anyted. ed t t be
men of genius in t grades of life, ly
erate,
pretend to see at all; wtomless even as alden Pond was
t to be, they may be dark and muddy.
Many a traveller came out of o see me and the inside of
my er.
I told t I drank at ted ther, offering
to lend t exempted from
tation of
April, whe move; and I had my share of good
luck, tors.
ted men from to see me; but
I endeavored to make t they had, and make
to me; in suc theme of our
conversation; and so ed. Indeed, I found some of them
to be men
of to it ime t tables urned.
it to , I learned t t much difference
beticular, an
inoffensive, simple-minded pauper, wen seen
used as fencing stuff, standing or sitting on a bushe fields
to keep cattle and raying, visited me, and expressed
a most simplicity and
trute superior, or rato anyt is
called y, t ;deficient in intellect.quot; these were
he Lord cared
as muc;I ; said he,
quot;from my c like other
c he Lords will, I
suppose.quot; And to prove truth of his words. he was
a metapo me. I a fellowman on such
promising ground -- it rue all
t rue enougion as o
ed. I did not kno first but it was
t of a seemed t from such a basis of
truthe poor weak-headed pauper had laid, our
intercourse migo sometter the
intercourse of sages.
I s from t reckoned commonly among the
to w
any rate; guests o your ality, but to your
alality; wly wiso be heir
appeal ion t thing,
never to or t
actually starving, t appetite in the
. Objects of cy are not guests. Men
ed, t
about my business again, anser and greater
remoteness. Men of almost every degree of called on me in the
migrating season. Some to do
ation manners, ime
to time, like the hounds
a-baying on track, and looked at me beseechingly, as much as
to say, --
quot;O Cian, will you send me back?
One real runa, wo forward
toar. Men of one idea, like a h one
c a duckling; men of a t
o take charge of a hundred
c of one bug, a score of t in every
mornings dew -- and become frizzled and mangy in consequence; men
of ideas instead of legs, a sort of intellectual centipede t made
you crawl all over. One man proposed a book in wors
se t te Mountains; but, alas! I
oo good a memory to make t necessary.
I could not but notice some of ties of my visitors.
Girls and boys and young o be in the
the flowers, and improved
time. Men of business, even farmers, t only of solitude
and employment, and of t distance at w from
somet they loved a ramble in
t t. Restless
committed men, aken up in getting a living or
keeping it; ministers whey enjoyed a monopoly
of t, ors,
lawyers, uneasy o my cupboard and bed when
I -- o kno my ss as
clean as o be young, and had
concluded t it to folloen track of the
professions -- all t it possible to
do so mucion. Ay! the old and
infirm and timid, of most of
sickness, and sudden accident and deato them life seemed full of
danger -- think of any? -- and
t t a prudent man t
position, s o
terally a community, a league for mutual
defence, and you t go
a- a medicine c. t of it is, if
a man is alive, t he
danger must be alloo be less in proportion as he is
dead-and-alive to begin s as many risks as he runs.
Finally, tyled reformers, test bores of
all, I was forever singing,--
t I built;
t lives in t I built;
but t kno third line was,
t he man
t lives in t I built.
I did not fear t no c I
feared ther.
I ors t. Children come
a-berrying, railroad men taking a Sunday morning walk in clean
ss, fisers, poets and p, all
pilgrims, o the woods for freedoms sake, and
really left to greet h --
quot;elcome, Englis; for I had had
communication race.