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The Ponds

作品:Walden 作者:亨利·大卫·梭罗 字数: 下载本书  举报本章节错误/更新太慢

    Sometimes,  of y and gossip, and

    all my village friends, I rambled still fartward

    tually do yet more unfrequented parts of the

    to;to fresures ne; or, whe sun was

    setting, made my supper of huckleberries and blueberries on Fair

    ore for several days.  ts do not

    yield true flavor to to him who

    raises t.  t one o obtain it, yet

    feake t he flavor of huckleberries,

    ask tridge.  It is a vulgar error to suppose

    t you asted hem.  A

    on; t been knohere

    since tial

    part of t is lost he

    market cart, and ternal

    Justice reigns, not one innocent ransported

    trys hills.

    Occasionally, after my he day, I joined

    some impatient companion whe pond since

    morning, as silent and motionless as a duck or a floating leaf, and,

    after practising various kinds of philosophy, had concluded

    commonly, by time I arrived, t o t

    sect of Coenobites.  t fisher

    and skilled in all kinds of , wo look upon

    my ed for the convenience of fishermen; and

    I o arrange his

    lines.  Once in a oget one end

    of t, and I at t not many ween

    us, for er years, but he occasionally

    h my philosophy.

    Our intercourse ogether one of unbroken harmony, far

    more pleasing to remember t had been carried on by speech.

    o commune h, I used

    to raise triking he side of my

    boat, filling ting

    sound, stirring the keeper of a menagerie his wild

    beasts, until I elicited a growl from every wooded vale and

    hillside.

    In ly sat in t playing te,

    and sao have charmed, hovering around me,

    and travelling over ttom, wrewed

    .  Formerly I o this pond

    adventurously, from time to time, in dark summer nigh a

    companion, and, making a fire close to ters edge, which we

    t attracted t pouts h a bunch of worms

    strung on a t, threw

    to ts, which, coming

    doo th a loud hissing, and we were

    suddenly groping in total darkness.  tling a tune,

    ook our o ts of men again.  But now I had made my

    he shore.

    Sometimes, after staying in a village parlor till the family had

    all retired, I urned to tly h a view

    to t days dinner, spent t fishing from a

    boat by moonlight, serenaded by owls and foxes, and hearing, from

    time to time, te of some unkno hand.

    to me -- anchored

    in forty feet of er, and ty or ty rods from the shore,

    surrounded sometimes by thousands of small perch and shiners,

    dimpling tails in t, and

    communicating by a long flaxen line erious nocturnal fishes

    beloimes dragging

    sixty feet of line about ted in tle night

    breeze, no vibration along it, indicative

    of some life pro its extremity, of dull uncertain

    blundering purpose to make up its mind.  At length

    you slowly raise, pulling  squeaking

    and squirming to t was very queer, especially in

    dark nigs o vast and cosmogonal

    to feel t jerk, wo

    interrupt your dreams and link you to Nature again.  It seemed as if

    I mig cast my line upo the air, as well as downward

    into t, wo

    fis h one hook.

    though very

    beautiful, does not approaco grandeur, nor can it much concern

    one ed it or lived by its s this

    pond is so remarkable for its depty as to merit a

    particular description.  It is a clear and deep green well, half a

    mile long and a mile and ters in circumference, and

    contains about sixty-one and a he

    midst of pine and oak  any visible inlet or outlet

    except by tion.  the surrounding hills rise

    abruptly from ter to t of forty to eig,

    t and east ttain to about one hundred

    and one y feet respectively, er and a

    they are exclusively woodland.  All our Concord

    ers  least; one ance, and

    anot  depends more on the

    lighey

    appear blue at a little distance, especially if agitated, and at a

    great distance all appear alike.  In stormy hey are

    sometimes of a dark slate-color.  to be

    blue one day and green anot any perceptible che

    atmosphe landscape being

    covered er and ice  as green as grass.

    Some consider blue quot;to be ter, wher liquid or

    solid.quot;  But, looking directly doo our ers from a boat,

    to be of very different colors.  alden is blue at one

    time and green at anot of view.  Lying

    bet partakes of th.

    Vie reflects t near at

    is of a yello next the

    sand, t green, wo a uniform dark

    green in ts, viewed even from a

    op, it is of a vivid green next the shore.  Some have referred

    to tion of t it is equally green there

    against the leaves

    are expanded, and it may be simply t of the prevailing blue

    mixed s iris.

    t portion, also, whe ice being

    of ted from ttom, and also

    transmitted ts first and forms a narrow canal

    about till frozen middle.  Like t of our ers, when

    mucated, in clear  the waves

    may reflect t t angle, or because there is more

    lig, it appears at a little distance of a darker

    blue tself; and at sucime, being on its surface,

    and looking o see tion, I have

    discerned a matc blue, sucered

    or c, more cerulean the

    sky itself, alternating e

    sides of t appeared but muddy in comparison.  It

    is a vitreous greenis, like tches of

    ter sky seen tas in t before sundown.

    Yet a single glass of its er o t is as colorless

    as an equal quantity of air.  It is  a large plate of

    glass , oo its

    quot;body,quot; but a small piece of the same will be colorless.  how large

    a body of alden er o reflect a green tint I

    er of our river is black or a very dark

    broo one looking directly do, and, like t of most

    ponds, imparts to t a yellowisinge;

    but ter is of sucalline purity t the

    bater ill more unnatural,

    ed hal, produces a

    monstrous effect, making fit studies for a Michael Angelo.

    ter is so transparent t ttom can easily be

    discerned at ty-five or ty feet.  Paddling over

    it, you may see, many feet beneathe schools of perch

    and s the former easily

    distinguisransverse bars, and you t t

    be ascetic fis find a subsistence ter,

    many years ago, wting he ice in

    order to catcepped asossed my axe back on

    to t, as if some evil genius ed it, it slid

    four or five rods directly into one of ter

    y-five feet deep.  Out of curiosity, I lay dohe ice

    and looked til I satle on one

    side, standing on its s  and gently swaying

    to and fro  migood

    erect and sill in time tted off,

    if I  disturbed it.  Making anotly over it

    ting do birch

    wh my knife, I made a

    slip-noose, s end, and, letting it down

    carefully, passed it over t by a

    line along t again.

    t of smoote stones

    like paving-stones, excepting one or two s sand beaches, and is

    so steep t in many places a single leap o er

    over your  not for its remarkable transparency,

    t  to be seen of its bottom till it rose on the

    opposite side.  Some t is bottomless.  It is nowhere muddy,

    and a casual observer  t all in

    it; and of noticeable plants, except in ttle meadoly

    overfloo it, a closer scrutiny

    does not detect a flag nor a bulrush, nor even a lily, yellow or

    only a feamogetons, and

    perer-target or t

    perceive; and ts are clean and brig

    tones extend a rod or to ter, and

    ttom is pure sand, except in t parts, where

    ttle sediment, probably from the

    leaves o it so many successive falls, and

    a brig up on ancer.

    e  like te Pond, in Nine Acre

    Corner, about t, though I am

    acquainted  of this

    centre I do not knoer.

    Successive nations perc, admired, and fathomed

    it, and passed aill its er is green and pellucid as

    ever.  Not an intermitting spring!  Per spring morning

    w of Eden alden Pond was already in

    existence, and even tle spring rain

    accompanied  and a south myriads

    of ducks and geese, w ill such

    pure lakes sufficed t o rise and

    fall, and s ers and colored they

    noained a patent of o be the only alden Pond

    in tiller of celestial dews.  ho knows in how many

    unremembered nations literatures talian

    Fountain? or  is

    a gem of t er w.

    Yet perc  some

    trace of tsteps.  I o detect

    encircling t been cut down

    on teep hillside,

    alternately rising and falling, approache

    ers edge, as old probably as the

    feet of aboriginal ers, and still from time to time untingly

    trodden by t occupants of ticularly

    distinct to one standing on ter, just

    after a liging we

    line, unobscured by er of a

    mile off in many places w is inguishable

    close at s it, as it were, in clear we

    type alto-relievo.  ted grounds of villas which will one

    day be built ill preserve some trace of this.

    t w, and

    period, nobody knoend to

    kno is commonly er and lohe summer,

    t corresponding to t and dryness.  I can

    remember  or t

    least five feet .  there is a narrow

    sand-bar running into it, er on one side, on which

    I tle of che main

    s t  been possible to do for

    ty-five years; and, on to listen

    y  a feer I was

    accustomed to fis in a secluded cove in the woods,

    fifteen rods from they knew, which place was long

    since converted into a meado teadily for

    t five feet higher

    t y years ago, and

    fishis makes a difference of

    level, at tside, of six or seven feet; and yet ter shed

    by t in amount, and this

    overflo be referred to causes he deep springs.

    to fall again.  It is remarkable

    t tuation, o

    require many years for its accomplis.  I have observed one rise

    and a part of t t a dozen or fifteen years

    er will again be as low as I .

    Flints Pond, a mile easturbance

    occasioned by its inlets and outlets, and termediate

    ponds also, sympatly attained their

    greatest  at time ter.  true,

    as far as my observation goes, of e Pond.

    t long intervals serves this use

    at least; ter standing at t  for a year or

    more, t makes it difficult to , kills the

    srees s edge since t

    rise -- pitchers -- and,

    falling again, leaves an unobstructed shore; for, unlike many ponds

    and all ers o a daily tide, its shore is

    cleanest .  On t my

    ceen feet high, has been killed and

    tipped over as if by a lever, and top put to their

    encroacs; and tes how many years have elapsed

    since t rise to t.  By tuation the pond

    asserts its title to a she

    trees cannot  by righe lips of

    t licks its cime to

    time.  er is at its , the alders, willows, and

    maples send forts several feet long from

    all sides of tems in ter, and to t of three or

    four feet from t to maintain themselves; and

    I  the shore, which

    commonly produce no fruit, bear an abundant crop under these

    circumstances.

    Some o tell he shore became so regularly

    paved.  My toion -- t

    people tell me t t in t anciently

    the Indians were holding a pow-wow upon a hill here, which rose as

    o to th, and

    ty, as tory goes, this vice is one

    of wy, and whus

    engaged the hill shook and suddenly sank, and only one old squaw,

    named alden, escaped, and from  has been

    conjectured t s

    side and became t s is very certain, at any rate,

    t once this

    Indian fable does not in any respect conflict  of

    t ancient settler wioned, who remembers so well

    w came hin vapor

    rising from ted steadily downward, and

    o dig a ill

    t to be accounted for by tion of the

    I observe t the surrounding hills are

    remarkably full of tones, so t they have been

    obliged to pile t

    nearest t stones whe

    s abrupt; so t, unfortunately, it is no longer a

    mystery to me.  I detect t derived

    from t of some Englisy -- Saffron alden, for instance

    -- one mig it was called originally alled-in Pond.

    ts

    er is as cold as it is pure at all times; and I t it is

    t t, in toer,

    all er han springs and

    ed from it.  temperature of the pond

    er  from five oclock in

    ternoon till noon t day, the

    ter o 65x or 70x some of time, owing

    partly to than

    ter of one of t  drawn.

    temperature of the

    of any er tried, t is t t I know of

    in summer,  surface er is not

    mingled .  Moreover, in summer, alden never becomes so warm

    as most er  of its depth.

    In t her I usually placed a pailful in my cellar,

    , and remained so during the day;

    ted to a spring in t was as

    good e of

    the shore of a

    pond, needs only bury a pail of er a fe deep in the shade

    of o be independent of the luxury of ice.

    t in alden pickerel, one weighing seven

    pounds -- to say noth

    great velocity,  eight pounds

    because  see s, some of each weighing

    over two pounds, shiners, chivins or roach (Leuciscus pulchellus), a

    very few breams, and a couple of eels, one weighing four pounds -- I

    am ticular because t of a fiss only

    title to fame, and the only eels I have heard of here; --

    also, I  recollection of a little fish some five inches

    long,  dace-like in

    its cer, s to

    fable.  Nevert very fertile in fiss

    pickerel, t abundant, are its c.  I

    one time lying on t least t

    kinds: a long and seel-colored, most like t

    in t golden kind, ions and

    remarkably deep, w common her,

    golden-colored, and s, but peppered on the sides

    s, intermixed

    blood-red ones, very mucrout.  the specific name

    reticulatus  apply to t status rather.

    their size

    promises.  ts, and perche

    fis this pond, are much cleaner, handsomer, and

    firmer-fles othe

    er is purer, and tinguishem.

    Probably many ics ies of some of

    tortoises, and a few

    mussels in it; muskrats and minks leave traces about it, and

    occasionally a travelling mud-turtle visits it.  Sometimes, when I

    pus in turbed a great mud-turtle

    .  Ducks and

    geese frequent it in te-bellied swallows

    (, and ts (totanus

    macularius) quot;teeterquot; along its stony shores all summer.  I have

    sometimes disturbed a fisting on a he

    er; but I doubt if it is ever profaned by the wind of a gull,

    like Fair  most, it tolerates one annual loon.  these are

    all t it now.

    You may see from a boat, in calm he sandy

    eastern ser is eigen feet deep, and also

    in some ots of the pond, some circular heaps half a dozen

    feet in diameter by a foot in , consisting of small stones

    less t

    first you he ice

    for any purpose, and so, o the

    bottom; but too regular and some of too fresh

    for t.  to t as there

    are no suckers nor lampreys  by w fishey could

    be made.  Pers of these lend a

    pleasing mystery to ttom.

    t to be monotonous.  I have in

    my minds eye tern, indented he bolder

    nortifully scalloped southern shore, where

    successive capes overlap eac unexplored coves

    bet ting, nor is so

    distinctly beautiful, as whe middle of a small lake

    amid ers edge; for ter in which

    it is reflected not only makes t foreground in such a case,

    but, s ural and agreeable boundary

    to it.  tion in its edge there, as

    ivated field abuts on it.

    trees o expand on ter side, and each

    sends forts most vigorous branc direction.  there

    Nature ural selvage, and t

    gradations from to t trees.

    traces of mans o be seen.  ter laves the

    s did a thousand years ago.

    A lake is t beautiful and expressive feature.

    It is earto whe

    depture.  tile trees next the shore are

    t, and the wooded hills and

    cliffs around are its overhanging brows.

    Standing on t t end of the pond,

    in a calm September afternoon, w e

    sinct, I ;the

    glassy surface of a lake.quot;   your  looks like

    a t gossamer stretche valley, and

    gleaming against tant pine ing one stratum of

    tmosp you could walk

    dry under it to te  the swallows which skim

    over mig.  Indeed, times dive belohis

    line, as it ake, and are undeceived.  As you look over

    to employ boto

    defend your eyes against ted as rue sun, for

    t; and if, bets

    surface critically, it is literally as smoot where

    ter insects, at equal intervals scattered over its whole

    extent, by tions in t imaginable

    sparkle on it, or, percself, or, as I have

    said, a so touc.  It may be t in the

    distance a fis in the air,

    and t flas emerges, and anot

    strikes ter; sometimes the whole silvery arc is revealed; or

    le-doing on its surface,

    and so dimple it again.  It is like molten

    glass cooled but not congealed, and tes in it are pure and

    beautiful like tions in glass.  You may often detect a

    yet smooter, separated from t as if by an

    invisible cober nymping on it.  From a

    op you can see a fis any part; for not a

    pickerel or s from t it

    manifestly disturbs t is

    elaborateness t is advertised --

    t -- and from my distant perch I

    distinguisions whey are half a dozen rods

    in diameter.  You can even detect a er-bug (Gyrinus) ceaselessly

    progressing over ter of a mile off; for

    ter slightly, making a conspicuous ripple bounded

    by t ters glide over it

    rippling it perceptibly.  ated

    ters nor er-bugs on it, but apparently, in calm

    days, turously glide forthe

    s impulses till tely cover it.  It is a

    soot, on one of the fall when all

    ted, to sit on a stump on

    suc as tudy the dimpling

    circles s otherwise invisible

    surface amid ted skies and trees.  Over t expanse

    turbance but it is t once gently smoothed away

    and assuaged, as, rembling

    circles seek t a fish can leap

    or an insect fall on t it is ted in circling

    dimples, in lines of beauty, as it ant welling up of

    its fountain, tle pulsing of its life, ts

    breast.  thrills of pain are

    undistinguishe lake!  Again

    twig

    and stone and cob mid-afternoon as when covered

    ion of an oar or an insect

    produces a flas; and if an oar falls,  the echo!

    In sucember or October, alden is a perfect

    forest mirror, set round ones as precious to my eye as if

    fe time so

    large, as a lake, perch.  Sky

    er.  It needs no fence.  Nations come and go  defiling it.

    It is a mirror wone can crack, whose quicksilver will

    never inually repairs; no storms,

    no dust, can dim its surface ever fresh; -- a mirror in which all

    impurity presented to it sinks, s and dusted by the suns hazy

    brus dust-clotains no breat

    is breat, but sends its oo float as clouds high above

    its surface, and be reflected in its bosom still.

    A field of er betrays t t is in t is

    continually receiving neion from above.  It is

    intermediate in its nature bethe

    grass and trees  ter itself is rippled by the wind.

    I see reaks or flakes of

    lig is remarkable t s surface.  e

    s length, and

    mark ler spirit s.

    ters and er-bugs finally disappear in tter part

    of October, ws hen and in

    November, usually, in a calm day, tely noto

    ripple ternoon, in t the end

    of a rain-storm of several days duration, will

    completely overcast and t, I observed t

    t it  to

    distinguiss surface; t no longer reflected t

    tints of October, but the surrounding

    as gently as possible, t

    undulations produced by my boat extended almost as far as I could

    see, and gave a ribbed appearance to tions.  But, as I was

    looking over t a distance a faint

    glimmer, as if some skater insects ws

    miged the surface, being so

    smootrayed wtom.  Paddling

    gently to one of to find myself

    surrounded by myriads of small perc five inches long, of a

    ricer, sporting tantly

    rising to t, sometimes leaving bubbles on

    it.  In sucransparent and seemingly bottomless er, reflecting

    to be floating the air as in a balloon,

    and t or hovering, as

    if t flock of birds passing just beneath my level

    on t or left, t all around them.

    tly improving the

    s season before er er over their

    broad skyligimes giving to the surface an appearance as if

    a sligruck it, or a fehere.  hen I

    approachey made a sudden splash

    and rippling ails, as if one ruck ter h a

    brusantly took refuge in t length

    t increased, and to run, and

    t of er, a

    s, t once above the surface.

    Even as late as th of December, one year, I saw some dimples

    on t o rain ely,

    t, I made e to take my place at the oars

    and row hough

    I felt none on my cicipated a t

    suddenly the perch,

    hs, and I saw

    t a dry afternoon after

    all.

    An old man  ty years

    ago, s, tells me t in

    times sa all alive her

    er-fo t it.  he came here

    a-fishe shore.

    It  and pinned together, and

    off square at t  lasted a

    great many years before it became er-logged and pero

    ttom.   kno belonged to the pond.

    o make a cable for rips of hickory bark

    tied togetter, whe pond before

    tion, told  t at the

    bottom, and t .  Sometimes it ing

    up to t o, it o

    deep er and disappear.  I o he old log

    canoe, erial

    but more graceful construction, w been a

    tree on t o ter, to

    float tion, t proper vessel for the lake.

    I remember t o there were

    many large trunks to be seen indistinctly lying on ttom, which

    on t t

    cutting, ly

    disappeared.

    paddled a boat on alden, it ely

    surrounded by ty pine and oak s

    coves grape-vines rees next ter and formed

    bos

    seep, and t,

    as you looked do end, it he appearance of an

    ampre for some land of sylvan spectacle.  I  many

    an ing over its surface as the zephyr

    o the middle, and lying on my back

    across ts, in a summer forenoon, dreaming ail I was

    aroused by t touco see w shore

    my fates o; days w

    attractive and productive industry.  Many a forenoon olen

    ao spend t valued part of the day; for

    I was ric in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and

    spent t t I did not e more of

    teac since I left those

    sill furte, and now

    for many a year the aisles of

    tas ter.

    My Muse may be excused if s h.  how can you

    expect to sing w down?

    Norunks of trees on ttom, and the old log canoe,

    and the villagers, who

    scarcely knoead of going to to bathe

    or drink, are to bring its er, which should be as sacred

    as t least, to to washeir

    diso earn turning of a cock or

    dra devilish Iron horse, whose ear-rending

    neig town, he Boiling Spring

    , and  is t he woods on

    alden s trojan housand men in his belly,

    introduced by mercenary Greeks!  rys champion,

    to meet  t and t an

    avenging lance beted pest?

    Neverters I have known, perhaps alden

    , and best preserves its purity.  Many men have been

    likened to it, but fe he woodchoppers

    t, and the Irish have

    built ties by it, and ts

    border, and t once, it is itself

    uncer whe

    c  acquired one permanent er

    all its ripples.  It is perennially young, and I may stand and see a

    sly to pick an insect from its surface as of

    yore.  It struck me again tonig seen it almost

    daily for more ty years -- he same

    I discovered so many years ago; w

    do er anots shore as

    lustily as ever; t is o its surface t

    is to itself and its

    Maker, ay, and it may be to me.  It is the work of a brave man

    surely, in h his

    in , and in his will

    bequeat to Concord.  I see by its face t it is visited by

    tion; and I can almost say, alden, is it you?

    It is no dream of mine,

    to ornament a line;

    I cannot come nearer to God and heaven

    to alden even.

    I am its stony shore,

    And t passes oer;

    In the hollow of my hand

    Are its er and its sand,

    And its deepest resort

    Lies .

    to look at it; yet I fancy t the

    engineers and firemen and brakemen, and those passengers who have a

    season ticket and see it often, are better men for t.  the

    engineer does not forget at nigure does not, t he

    y and purity once at least during

    t once, it o ate Street

    and t.  One proposes t it be called quot;Gods Drop.quot;

    I  alden  nor outlet, but it

    is on tantly and indirectly related to Flints Pond,

    wed, by a c

    quarter, and on tly and manifestly to Concord River,

    whrough which in some

    ot may tle digging,

    o floher again.  If by

    living tere, like a  in the woods, so

    long, it y,

    t tively impure ers of Flints Pond should be

    mingled , or itself so e its sness in

    the ocean wave?

    Flints, or Sandy Pond, in Lincoln, our greatest lake and inland

    sea, lies about a mile east of alden.  It is much larger, being

    said to contain one y-seven acres, and is more

    fertile in fis it is comparatively s remarkably

    pure.  A en my recreation.  It

    o feel the wind blow on your cheek

    freely, and see the life of mariners.  I

    a-cnutting ts

    o ter and ; and one

    day, as I crept along its sedgy she fresh spray blowing in my

    face, I came upon t, the sides gone,

    and s flat bottom left amid the

    rus its model was s were a large

    decayed pad, s veins.  It was as impressive a wreck as one

    could imagine on t is by

    time mere vegetable mould and undistinguishable pond shore,

    to admire the

    ripple marks on ttom, at this pond,

    made firm and o t of the

    er, and the rushes which grew in Indian file, in waving lines,

    corresponding to the waves had

    planted tities,

    curious balls, composed apparently of fine grass or roots, of

    pipe pero four incer, and

    perfectly sper on

    a sandy bottom, and are sometimes cast on they are

    eittle sand in t first

    you  tion of the waves, like

    a pebble; yet t are made of equally coarse materials,

    one season of the

    year.  Moreover, t, do not so mucruct as

    erial hey

    preserve te period.

    Flints Pond!  Sucy of our nomenclature.

    rigupid farmer, his

    sky er, wo give his

    name to it?  Some skin-flint, ing

    surface of a dollar, or a brig, in which he could see his own

    brazen face;  as

    trespassers; o crooked and bony talons from the

    long  of grasping  is not named for me.  I

    go not to see o , who

    never bat, ed it, who

    never spoke a good , nor t .

    Rat it be named from t s, the wild

    fo, the wild flowers which grow by

    its sory is

    inters o from itle to it

    but ture gave him --

    only of its money value; whose presence perchance

    cursed all ted t, and would

    fain ed ters ;  it

    Engliso

    redeem it, forsooth, in his eyes -- and would have drained and sold

    it for t its bottom.  It did not turn  was

    no privilege to o be.  I respect not his labors, his

    farm ws price, whe landscape,

    , if  anything for

    o market for  is; on whing

    grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers,

    s, but dollars; y of his

    fruits,  ripe for ill turned to

    dollars.  Give me ty t enjoys true h.  Farmers are

    respectable and interesting to me in proportion as they are poor --

    poor farmers.  A model farm! wands like a fungus in

    a muckheap, chambers for men horses, oxen, and swine, cleansed and

    uncleansed, all contiguous to one anotocked h men!  A

    great grease-spot, redolent of manures and buttermilk!  Under a high

    state of cultivation, being manured s and brains of

    men!  As if you o raise your potatoes in the churchyard!  Such

    is a model farm.

    No, no; if t features of to be named

    after men, let t and  men alone.  Let our

    lakes receive as true names at least as the Icarian Sea, where

    quot;still t; a quot;brave attempt resounds.quot;

    Goose Pond, of small extent, is on my o Flints; Fair

    o contain some seventy

    acres, is a mile sout; and e Pond, of about forty acres, is

    a mile and a ry.

    ter privileges; and night and

    day, year in year out, t as I carry to them.

    Since tters, and the railroad, and I myself have

    profaned alden, per attractive, if not t

    beautiful, of all our lakes, te Pond; --

    a poor name from its commonness, whe remarkable

    purity of its ers or ts sands.  In these as in

    ots,  is a lesser they are so

    muc you  be connected under ground.

    It ony ss ers are of the same hue.  As

    at alden, in sultry dog-day he woods

    on some of its bays  t tion

    from ttom tinges ts ers are of a misty bluish-green

    or glaucous color.  Many years since I used to go to collect

    tloads, to make sandpaper inued

    to visit it ever since.  One  proposes to call it

    Virid Lake.  Per mighe

    folloance.  About fifteen years ago you could see the

    top of a pitcs,

    t is not a distinct species, projecting above the surface in

    deep er, many rods from t was even supposed by some

    t tive forest

    t formerly stood t even so long ago as 1792, in

    a quot;topograpion of to; by one of its

    citizens, in tions of tts orical

    Society, ter speaking of alden and e Ponds, adds,

    quot;In tter may be seen, wer is very

    loree  now

    stands, alts are fifty feet belohe

    er; top of tree is broken off, and at t place

    measures fourteen incer.quot;  In the spring of 49 I

    talked  told

    me t it  tree ten or fifteen years before.

    As near as  stood teen rods from

    ter y or forty feet deep.  It was in

    ter, and ting out ice in the forenoon, and had

    resolved t in ternoon, he aid of his neighbors, he

    ake out the ice

    to over and along and out on to the ice

    , before he had gone far in his work, he was surprised

    to find t it umps of the

    brancing doened in the

    sandy bottom.  It  a foot in diameter at the big end, and

    ed to get a good sa it ten as to be

    fit only for fuel, if for t.   in hen.

    tt.  he

    t t it migree on t was

    finally bloo ter top had become

    er-logged, ill dry and light, had

    drifted out and sunk wrong end up.  y years old,

    could not remember  tty large logs

    may still be seen lying on ttom, he

    undulation of ter snakes in

    motion.

    t, for there is

    little in it to tempt a fisead of te lily, which

    requires mud, or t flag, the blue flag (Iris

    versicolor) groer, rising from tony

    bottom all around t is visited by hummingbirds in

    June; and ts bluiss flowers and

    especially tions, is in singular he

    glaucous er.

    e Pond and alden are great crystals on the

    eart.  If tly congealed, and

    small enougo be clutchey would, perchance, be carried off

    by slaves, like precious stones, to adorn t

    being liquid, and ample, and secured to us and our successors

    forever, er the diamond of Kohinoor.

    too pure to  value; tain no muck.  how

    muciful transparent than

    our cers, are them.  how

    muche farmers door, in which his

    ducks swim!  ure has no human

    inant wes heir plumage and

    tes are in  h or

    maiden conspires  beauty of Nature?  She

    flouris alone, far from towns walk

    of h.