But  select and

    classic, and read only particular ten languages, which are

    t dialects and provincial, we are in danger of

    forgetting ts speak

    metapandard.  Much is published,

    but little printed.  tream tter will

    be no longer remembered wter is wholly removed.  No

    mety of being forever

    on t.   is a course of ory or pry,

    no matter ed, or t society, or t

    admirable routine of life, compared he discipline of looking

    al o be seen?  ill you be a reader, a student

    merely, or a seer?  Read your fate, see w is before you, and walk

    on into futurity.

    I did not read books t summer; I hoed beans.  Nay, I

    often did better times w

    afford to sacrifice t moment to any work,

    wo my life.

    Sometimes, in a summer morning, aken my accustomed bath, I

    sat in my sunny doorill noon, rapt in a revery,

    amidst turbed solitude

    and stillness, wted noiseless

    til by t my  window, or

    travellers ant highway, I was

    reminded of time.  I grehose seasons like corn in

    t, and tter the hands would

    time subtracted from my life, but so much

    over and above my usual alloals

    mean by contemplation and t

    part, I minded not .  to

    lig  is evening,

    and notead of singing like the

    birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune.  As the

    sparrorill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had

    I my c  of my

    nest.  My days  days of tamp of any

    y, nor o ted by the

    ticking of a clock; for I lived like t is

    said t quot;for yesterday, today, and tomorrohey have only one

    y of meaning by pointing backward

    for yesterday foromorrow, and overhe passing

    day.quot;  to my felloo; but

    if tried me by tandard, I should

    not ing.  A man must find his occasions in

    is true.  tural day is very calm, and will hardly

    reprove his indolence.

    I age, at least, in my mode of life, over those

    , to society and the

    tre, t my life itself  and never

    ceased to be novel.  It  an

    end.  If ting our living, and regulating

    our lives according to t and best mode we had learned, we

    sroubled h ennui.  Follow your genius closely

    enoug  fail to s every

    pastime.  y, I

    rose early, and, setting all my furniture out of doors on the grass,

    bed and bedstead making but one budget, daser on the floor,

    and sprinkled , and th a broom

    scrubbed it clean and ime the villagers had

    broken t tly to

    alloo move in again, and my meditations

    uninterupted.  It  to see my

    on ttle pile like a gypsys pack, and my

    table, from he books and pen

    and ink, standing amid to

    get out to be brought in.  I was

    sometimes tempted to stretcake my seat

    t o see things,

    and eresting most

    familiar objects look out of doors ts

    on t bouging groable, and

    blackberry vines run round its legs; pine cones, cnut burs, and

    strare.  It looked as if the

    o be transferred to our furniture, to tables,

    ceads -- because tood in t.

    My ely on the edge of

    t of a young forest of pitch pines and

    o which a narrow

    footpat yard grerawberry,

    blackberry, and life-everlasting, jo and goldenrod, shrub

    oaks and sand c.  Near the end of May,

    th

    its delicate flo its

    s stems, h goodsized

    and hs like rays on every side.

    I tasted t of compliment to Nature, they were scarcely

    palatable.  tly about the

    which I had made, and

    gro t season.  Its broad pinnate

    tropical leaf  trange to look on.  the large

    buds, suddenly pus late in ticks which

    o be dead, developed to

    graceful green and tender bouger; and

    sometimes, as I sat at my window, so hey grow and

    tax ts, I ender bough suddenly

    fall like a fan to t a breath of air

    stirring, broken off by its ohe large masses

    of berries, ed many wild bees,

    gradually assumed t velvety crimson heir

    ender limbs.

    As I sit at my ernoon, hawks are circling

    about my clearing; tantivy of wo and

    t my viee pine

    bougo the air; a fish hawk

    dimples the pond and brings up a fish; a mink

    steals out of the

    s of the reed-birds

    flitting  half-hour I have heard

    ttle of railroad cars, nohen reviving like

    t of a partridge, conveying travellers from Boston to the

    country.  For I did not live so out of t boy who, as

    I  out to a farmer in t part of to

    ere long ran a the heel and

    -of-the-way place;

    t even he

    if tts now:--

    quot;In trutt

    For one of t railroad ss, and oer

    Our peaceful plain its soot;

    tcouc a hundred rods

    souto ts

    cause ed to society by the

    men on t trains, whe road,

    boo me as to an old acquaintance, ten, and

    apparently take me for an employee; and so I am.  I too would

    fain be a track-repairer someh.

    tle of tive penetrates my woods summer and

    er, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some

    farmers yard, informing me t many restless city mercs are

    arriving ourous country

    traders from they

    s to get off track to ther, heard

    sometimes towns.  here come your

    groceries, country; your rations, countrymen!  Nor is there any man

    so independent on  hem nay.  And heres

    your pay for trymans imber like

    long battering-rams going ty miles an  tys

    all t

    dy the

    country o ty.  All the Indian huckleberry hills

    are stripped, all to ty.  Up

    comes tton, dohe silk, down

    goes t do t

    es them.

    ts train of cars moving off h

    planetary motion -- or, rat, for the beholder knows

    not if  velocity and  direction it will ever

    revisit tem, since its orbit does not look like a returning

    curve -- s steam cloud like a banner streaming behind in

    golden and silver hs, like many a downy cloud which I have

    seen, s masses to t -- as

    if traveling demigod, take

    t sky for train; whe iron

    like the

    eart, and breatrils

    (o the

    ne kno seems as if t a race

    noo in it.  If all  seems, and men made the

    elements ts for noble ends!  If t hangs

    over tion of heroic deeds, or as

    beneficent as t he

    elements and Nature heir

    errands and be t.

    I che same feeling

    t I do the sun, which is hardly more regular.

    train of clouds stretching far behind and rising higher and

    o o Boston, conceals

    te and casts my distant field into the shade, a

    celestial train beside rain of cars whe

    eart tabler of the iron horse

    er morning by t of tars amid the

    mountains, to fodder and eed.  Fire, too, was awakened

    to put tal  in  he

    enterprise  as it is early!  If the snow lies deep,

    trap on  plow, plow a furrow

    from tains to the cars, like a

    folloless men and floating

    mercry for seed.  All day teed flies

    over try, stopping only t er may rest, and I am

    a snort at midnight, when in some

    remote glen in ts ts incased in ice and

    snoar, to

    start once more on ravels  rest or slumber.  Or

    perc evening, I able blohe

    superfluous energy of t he may calm his nerves and cool

    he

    enterprise racted and

    unwearied!

    Far ted owns, where

    once only ter penetrated by day, in t nig

    t saloons  tants;

    t stopping at some brilliant station-own or

    city, he Dismal

    Sartings and arrivals of the

    cars are noh

    sucy and precision, and tle can be heard so

    far, t t thus one

    ed institution regulates a wry.   men

    improved someuality since ted?

    Do t talk and ter in t the

    stage-office?  trifying in tmosphere of

    tonis t has

    wroug some of my neighbors, who, I should have prophesied,

    once for all,  to Boston by so prompt a conveyance,

    are on o do t;railroad fas; is

    no is o be en and

    so sincerely by any poo get off its track.  there is no

    stopping to read t act, no firing over the mob,

    in tructed a fate, an Atropos, t never

    turns aside.  (Let t be the name of your engine.)  Men are

    advertised t at a certain e ts will be

    s toicular points of t it interferes h

    no mans business, and to scrack.

    e live teadier for it.  e are all educated to be sons of

    tell.  ts.  Every pat your own

    is te.  Keep on your orack, then.

    recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery.

    It does not clasp its o Jupiter.  I see these men

    every day go about th more or less courage and

    content, doing more even t, and percter

    employed they could have consciously devised.  I am less

    affected by tood up for

    line at Buena Vista, teady and che

    men er quarters; w

    merely te

    t , but o rest so

    early, he sinews of

    teed are frozen.  On t Snow,

    percill raging and chilling mens blood, I bear

    tone of t their

    c t

    long delay, notanding to of a Ne

    snoorm, and I beh snow and rime,

    turning down

    ots of field mice, like bohe

    Sierra Nevada, t occupy an outside place in the universe.

    Commerce is unexpectedly confident and serene, alert,

    adventurous, and un is very natural in its methods

    astic enterprises and sentimental

    experiments, and s singular success.  I am refreshed and

    expanded rain rattles past me, and I smell the

    stores whe way from Long harf

    to Lake Cs, of coral reefs,

    and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and tent of the globe.

    I feel more like a citizen of t t of the

    palm-leaf w

    summer, t he old junk, gunny

    bags, scrap iron, and rusty nails.  torn sails is

    more legible and interesting no into

    paper and printed books.  e so grapory

    of torms ts hey

    are proof-ss wion.  here goes lumber from

    t go out to sea in t fres,

    risen four dollars on t did go out or was

    split up; pine, spruce, cedar -- first, second, th

    qualities, so lately all of one quality, to he bear, and

    moose, and caribou.  Next rolls ton lime, a prime lot, which

    far among t gets slacked.  these rags in

    bales, of all ies, t condition to which

    cotton and linen descend, t of dress -- of patterns

    w be in Milwaukee, as

    ticles, Engliss,

    gingc., gaters both of fashion

    and poverty, going to become paper of one color or a few shades

    only, on ales of real life, high

    and lo!  t fish,

    trong Ne, reminding me of the

    Grand Banks and t seen a salt fish,

    t not, and

    putting, ts to th which you

    may sreets, and split your kindlings, and the

    teamster ser  sun, wind, and rain

    be -- and trader, as a Concord trader once did,

    up by il at last

    customer cannot tell surely w be animal,

    vegetable, or mineral, and yet it shall be as pure as a snowflake,

    and if it be put into a pot and boiled,  an excellent

    dun-fisurdays dinner.  Next Spanishe

    tails still preserving t and tion they

    he pampas of

    type of all obstinacy, and evincing

    itutional vices.  I confess,

    t practically speaking, when I have learned a mans real

    disposition, I  for tter or worse

    in tate of existence.  As tals say, quot;A curs tail may

    be ures, and after a

    to, still it ain its

    natural form.quot;  tual cure for suceracies as

    tails ex is to make glue of t

    is usually done ay put and stick.

    ed to Joh,

    Cuttingsville, Vermont, some trader among tains, who

    imports for tands

    over  arrivals on t, how

    t telling omers this

    moment, as old ty times before t

    s some by t train of prime quality.  It is

    advertised in ttingsville times.

    he

    wall pine, hewn

    on far norts he Green

    Mountains and ticut, s like an arrohe

    toes, and scarce anot;

    going

    quot;to be t

    Of some great ammiral.quot;

    And tle-train bearing ttle of a

    ts, stables, and cohe air,

    drovers icks, and s of their

    flocks, all but tain pastures, whirled along like leaves

    bloains by tember gales.  the air is filled

    ing of calves and sling of oxen, as

    if a pastoral valley he

    tles ains do indeed skip like rams and

    ttle oo, in the

    midst, on a level ion gone, but

    still clinging to ticks as their badge of office.

    But t is a stampede to they are

    quite t; t t.  Methem

    barking beerboro ing up tern slope

    of tains.  t be in at their

    vocation, too, is gone.  ty and sagacity are below par

    noo their kennels in disgrace, or

    percrike a league he fox.

    So is your pastoral life  the bell rings,

    and I must get off track and let the cars go by;--

    s to me?

    I never go to see

    ends.

    It fills a few hollows,

    And makes banks for the swallows,

    It sets the sand a-blowing,

    And the blackberries a-growing,

    but I cross it like a cart-pat have my

    eyes put out and my ears spoiled by its smoke and steam and hissing.

    No tless h

    their rumbling, I am

    more alone t of ternoon, perhaps,

    my meditations are interrupted only by t rattle of a

    carriage or team along tant highway.

    Sometimes, on Sundays, I on,

    Bedford, or Concord bell, w,

    s, and, as it ural melody, ing into the

    a sufficient distance over this sound

    acquires a certain vibratory he

    rings of a  s.  All sound heard

    at test possible distance produces one and t,

    a vibration of t as tervening

    atmospant ridge of earteresting to our eyes by

    tint it imparts to it.  to me in this case a

    melody wrained, and wh

    every leaf and needle of t portion of the sound which

    ts aken up and modulated and eco

    vale.  to some extent, an original sound, and therein

    is t.  It is not merely a repetition of w

    ing in t partly the wood;

    trivial es sung by a wood-nymph.

    At evening, tant lohe horizon beyond

    t and melodious, and at first I ake

    it for tain minstrels by wimes

    serenaded, raying over  soon I was

    not unpleasantly disappointed o the cheap

    and natural music of t mean to be satirical, but to

    express my appreciation of tate t

    I perceived clearly t it o the cow, and

    t lengticulation of Nature.

    Regularly at  seven, in one part of ter

    train ed their

    vespers for ting on a stump by my door, or upon the

    ridge-pole of to sing almost h as

    muces of a particular time,

    referred to tting of the sun, every evening.  I had a rare

    opportunity to become acquainted s.  Sometimes I

    once in different parts of the wood, by

    accident one a bar be I

    distinguis only ter eace, but often t

    singular buzzing sound like a fly in a spiders web, only

    proportionally louder.  Sometimes one would circle round and round

    me in t distant as if tetring, when

    probably I s eggs.  t intervals t the

    nig before and about dawn.

    ill, take up train,

    like mourning  u-lu-lu.  their dismal scream is

    truly Ben Jonsonian.  ise midnig is no  and blunt

    tu-u-,  jesting, a most solemn

    graveyard ditty, tual consolations of suicide lovers

    remembering ts of supernal love in the

    infernal groves.  Yet I love to heir doleful

    responses, trilled along times of

    music and singing birds; as if it earful side of

    music, ts and sig he

    spirits, ts and melancholy forebodings, of fallen souls

    t once in -he deeds of

    darkness, noing their wailing hymns or

    transgressions.  they give me a

    ney and capacity of t nature which is our

    common dwelling.  O I never had been bor-r-r-r-n!

    sighe

    restlessness of despair to some new perchen --

    t I never her

    side remulous sincerity, and -- bor-r-r-r-n! comes faintly

    from far in the Lincoln woods.

    I  hand you could

    fancy it t melancure, as if s by

    to stereotype and make permanent in he dying moans

    of a ality w

    h human sobs, on

    entering tain gurgling

    melodiousness -- I find myself beginning ters gl when I

    try to imitate it -- expressive of a mind whe

    gelatinous, mildeage in tification of all hy and

    courageous t.  It reminded me of gs and insane

    norain made

    really melodious by distance -- hoo hoo hoo, hoorer hoo; and indeed

    for t part it suggested only pleasing associations, wher

    , summer or er.

    I rejoice t t tic and

    maniacal ing for men.  It is a sound admirably suited to swamps

    and tes, suggesting a vast and

    undeveloped nature

    tark ts which all have.  All day

    the

    single spruce stands h usnea lichens, and small hawks

    circulate above, and the evergreens, and

    tridge and rabbit skulk beneat now a more dismal and

    fitting day da race of creatures ao

    express ture there.

    Late in tant rumbling of wagons over

    bridges -- a sound  any ot night --

    times again the lowing of some

    disconsolate coant barn-yard.  In the

    srump of bullfrogs, turdy spirits of

    ancient ill unrepentant, trying to

    sing a catcygian lake -- if the alden nymphs will

    pardon t no here

    are frogs the hilarious rules of

    tal tables, their voices have waxed hoarse and

    solemnly grave, mocking at mirt its flavor,

    and become only liquor to distend t

    intoxication never comes to dro, but mere

    saturation and erloggedness and distention.  t aldermanic,

    -leaf, wo his

    drooling c of

    ter, and passes round the

    ejaculation tr-r-r-oonk, tr-r-r--oonk, tr-r-r-oonk! and straightway

    comes over ter from some distant cove the same password

    repeated, y and girto

    of the

    ses ter of ceremonies, isfaction,

    tr-r-r-oonk! and eacurn repeats to t

    distended, leakiest, and flabbiest paunc there be no

    mistake; and til the sun

    disperses t, and only triarc under the

    pond, but vainly belloroonk from time to time, and pausing for

    a reply.

    I am not sure t I ever he sound of cock-crowing from

    my clearing, and I t t it migo keep

    a cockerel for e of

    t is certainly t remarkable of

    any birds, and if turalized  being

    domesticated, it  famous sound in our

    ing of the

    oo fill the pauses

    man added this

    bird to ame stock -- to say noticks.

    to er morning in a wood whese birds abounded,

    tive woods, and rees,

    clear and she

    feebler notes of ot!  It  nations

    on t.   be early to rise, and rise earlier and

    earlier every successive day of ill he became unspeakably

    e is celebrated

    by ts of all countries along es of tive

    songsters.  All climates agree icleer.  he is more

    indigenous even tives.  h is ever good, his

    lungs are sound, s never flag.  Even the

    Atlantic and Pacific is as shrill sound

    never roused me from my slumbers.  I kept neit, cow,

    pig, nor  you would here was a deficiency of

    domestic sounds; neithe spinning-wheel, nor even

    ttle, nor the urn, nor children

    crying, to comfort one.  An old-fas his

    senses or died of ennui before t even rats in the wall, for

    tarved out, or rated in -- only

    squirrels on the

    ridge-pole, a blue jay screaming beneathe window, a hare or

    woodc owl be, a

    flock of wild geese or a laugo

    bark in t.  Not even a lark or an oriole, those mild

    plantation birds, ever visited my clearing.  No cockerels to crow

    nor o cackle in t unfenced nature

    reaco your very sills.  A young forest growing up under

    your meadows, and wild sumachrough

    into your cellar; sturdy pitc

    t of room, ts reace under the

    ead of a scuttle or a blind blohe gale -- a

    pine tree snapped off or torn up by ts behind your house for

    fuel.  Instead of no pato t-yard gate in t Snow

    -- no gate -- no front-yard -- and no pato the civilized world.