had to work hard to pay for them, and when he had worked hard he had
arch, which filled the lower stratum of the atmosphere, tinging the
might have tinged my employments and life. As I walked on the
John Field, with altered mind, letting go "bogging" ere this sunset.
to settle. Such gruel sustains life here, I thought; so, shutting
land, but own it not. Through want of enterprise and faith men are
arithmetic enough to carry it through. It was sailing by dead
recreation, I could, if I wished, catch as many fish as I should
So the Muse fables. But therein, as I found, dwelt now John Field,
shoes and thin clothing, which cost not half so much, though he
"Youd better go now, John," said his wife, with glistening and
worked so hard at bogging, he required thick boots and stout
With questions art never perplexed,
endeavor to compel you to sustain the slavery and war and other
railroad causeway, I used to wonder at the halo of light around my
not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food; but
butterflies or shells, vegetable winkles; where the swamp-pink and
meadows on the earth were left in a wild state, if that were the
small grove of sizable trees left in the township, supposed by some
an Irishman, and his wife, and several children, from the
not the case), and in an hour or two, without labor, but as a
Darting about."
poor unarmed fisherman. So I made haste for shelter to the nearest
never become English bay. Let the thunder rumble; what if it
That to destruction steers."
knee as in the palaces of nobles, and looked out from its home in
hilltop; such as the black birch, of which we have some handsome
"Debate with no man hast thou,
west, with the rainbow over my shoulder, and some faint tinkling
need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.
the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and
sparkle when you split this wood; the bass; the hornbeam; the Celtis
spiring higher and higher, are fit to stand before Valhalla, and the
to the pond, and had long been uninhabited:--
feet get talaria to their heels.
without I asked for a drink, hoping to get a sight of the well
hopeful face; but John demurred.
but shiftless man plainly was John Field; and his wife, she too was
in Italy or France, and it was particularly conspicuous when the
because it breathes its own breath over again; their shadows,
a thistle. But they fight at an overwhelming disadvantage --
my eyes, and excluding the motes by a skilfully directed
apples, leaped the brook, and scared the musquash and the trout. It
no halo about them, that it was only natives that were so
worked cheerfully at his fathers side the while, not knowing how
Sometimes I rambled to pine groves, standing like temples, or
one, it is not commonly noticed, and, in the case of an excitable
reckoning to them, and they saw not clearly how to make their port
Which some mossy fruit trees yield
to have been planted by the pigeons that were once baited with
catching a fair string, and he said it was his luck; but when we
which had also taken shelter here from the rain, stalked about the
superstition. Beside, he tells us that he showed it to very few.
hemlock than usual, standing like a pagoda in the midst of the
handkerchief for a shed; and when at length I had made one cast over
By gliding musquash undertook,
world, he nor his posterity, till their wading webbed bog-trotting
swamps where the usnea lichen hangs in festoons from the white
that I too, who came a-fishing here, and looked like a loafer, was
On thy rail-fenced lea." ...
ruin as his commonly amounts to; and how, if he chose, he might in a
life, though it was already half spent when I started. By the way
And hang conspiracies
if they had capital enough to begin such a course with, or
undertaken with a sort of moral bog hoe. I told him, that as he
clean house, which hardly cost more than the annual rent of such a
as may enable you to do without these, and where the state does not
light, so soft and green and shady that the Druids would have
distinguished. Benvenuto Cellini tells us in his memoirs, that,
tea, and coffee, and meat every day. But the only true America is
grass and leaves around, and dazzling me as if I looked through
"Landscape where the richest element
so neat a bole and beautifully lichen-painted, perfect in all its
beauty, and he is dazzled and tempted by nameless other wild
want for two days, or earn enough money to support me a week. If he
which I have referred, which is especially observed in the morning,
And Guy Faux of the state,
occidentalis, or false elm, of which we have but one well-grown;
month or two build himself a palace of his own; that I did not use
suddenly in the shadow of a cloud, and the thunder began to rumble
but also at other times, and even by moonlight. Though a constant
Take shelter under the cloud, while they flee to carts and sheds.
beechnuts near by; it is worth the while to see the silver grain
And ye who hate,
its loose golden vest, perfumed like the first; the beech, which has
built that floated his family to America. An honest, hard-working,
details, of which, excepting scattered specimens, Iknow but one
Once it chanced that I stood in the very abutment of a rainbows
visited both summer and winter.
I set out one afternoon to go a-fishing to Fair Haven, through
Flints Pond, where the trees, covered with hoary blue berries,
the woods, to eke out my scanty fare of vegetables. My way led
discoveries every day, with new experience and character.
bait sometimes, I allow. With his horizon all his own, yet he a
in which many events may happen, a large portion of our natural
primitive new country -- to catch perch with shiners. It is good
In thy plain russet gabardine dressed." ...
wild holly berries make the beholder forget his home with their
threaten ruin to farmers crops? That is not its errand to thee.
which are rare in this neighborhood, standing far away in the middle
according to thy nature, like these sedges and brakes, which will
where they are, buying and selling, and spending their lives like
shallows and quicksands, and rope broken withal, and bucket
But he, poor man, disturbed only a couple of fins while I was
poor a bargain the latter had made. I tried to help him with my
philosopher, or desired to be one. I should be glad if all the
line, and the hope and cynosure of the world, instead of John
as he began with tea, and coffee, and butter, and milk, and beef, he
clothing, which yet were soon soiled and worn out, but I wore light
seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the
But are they not indeed distinguished who are conscious that they
"And here a poet builded,
Partly to a ruddy brook,
could. I am not squeamish in such cases when manners are concerned.
so; therefore I suppose they still take life bravely, after their
"No one runs to revel
forbidden fruits, too fair for mortal taste. Instead of calling on
to improve her condition one day; with the never absent mop in one
serfs.
life, his Adams grandmother and boggy ways, not to rise in this
For behold a trivial cabin
morning and evening, reach farther than their daily steps. We
through Pleasant Meadow, an adjunct of the Baker Farm, that retreat
Is a little sunshine innocent." ...
As tame at the first sight as now,
colored crystal. It was a lake of rainbow light, in which, for a
dogwood grow, the red alderberry glows like eyes of imps, the
"Come ye who love,
"I catch shiners with fishworms, and bait the perch with them."
might think that I was dressed like a gentleman (which, however, was
wrinkled, sibyl-like, cone-headed infant that sat upon its fathers
spruce trees, and toadstools, round tables of the swamp gods, cover
the ground, and more beautiful fungi adorn the stumps, like
running by his side from the bog to escape the rain, to the
From the tough rafters of the trees!"
in detail; -- thinking to deal with it roughly, as one should handle
the privilege of infancy, not knowing but it was the last of a noble
some taller mast of a pine, a shingle tree, or a more perfect
use of such things. For I purposely talked to him as if he were a
specimens two feet in diameter; its cousin, the yellow birch, with
retired meadows, in sloughs and bog-holes, in forlorn and savage
than these, no worthier games than may here be played. Grow wild
short while, I lived like a dolphin. If it had lasted longer it
O Baker Farm!
under a pine, piling boughs over my head, and wearing my
shadow, and would fain fancy myself one of the elect. One who
are regarded at all?
water was seemingly distilled, and after consultation and long delay
what quarter, my Good Genius seemed to say -- Go fish and hunt far
visited me declared that the shadows of some Irishmen before him had
not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did
places, appeared for an instant trivial to me who had been sent to
changed seats in the boat luck changed seats too. Poor John Field!
confinement in the castle of St. Angelo a resplendent light appeared
had rated it as a gain in coming to America, that here you could get
split its massive columns with any fine entering wedge, and rout it
school and college; but as I ran down the hill toward the reddening
poor man, born to be poor, with his inherited Irish poverty or poor
grass was moist with dew. This was probably the same phenomenon to
in the summer for their amusement. John heaved a sigh at this, and
creeping juniper covers the ground with wreaths full of fruit; or to
after a certain terrible dream or vision which he had during his
was one of those afternoons which seem indefinitely long before one,
Children of the Holy Dove,
imagination like Cellinis, it would be basis enough for
consequence of mens beginning to redeem themselves. A man will not
of which a poet has since sung, beginning,--
Men come tamely home at night only from the next field or
brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving. Remember thy Creator in
his wife stared with arms a-kimbo, and both appeared to be wondering
with such emphasis that I could do no more than listen to it. The
a spade or bog hoe at the rate of ten dollars an acre and the use of
thinking to live by some derivative old-country mode in this
forsaken their oaks to worship in them; or to the cedar wood beyond
should come home from far, from adventures, and perils, and
promised a fair evening; so I took my departure. When I had got
-- I trust he does not read this, unless he will improve by it --
undercurrent, I drank to genuine hospitality the heartiest draught I
lofty stove; with round greasy face and bare breast, still thinking
"Thy entry is a pleasant field,
sounds borne to my ear through the cleansed air, from I know not
steps again to the pond, my haste to catch pickerel, wading in
significantly. Meanwhile my host told me his story, how hard he
broad-faced boy who assisted his father at his work, and now came
worked "bogging" for a neighboring farmer, turning up a meadow with
hand, and yet no effects of it visible anywhere. The chickens,
street, where their household echoes haunt, and their life pines
In the completed years,
over the shadow of his head at morning and evening, whether he was
room like members of the family, too humanized, methought, to roast
passed out to the thirsty one -- not yet suffered to cool, not yet
bottom, to complete my survey of the premises; but there, alas! are
like fleets at sea, full-rigged, with wavy boughs, and rippling with
brave to cook so many successive dinners in the recesses of that
waxwork grooves and crushes the hardest woods in its folds, and the
Fields poor starveling brat. There we sat together under that part
superfluous expenses which directly or indirectly result from the
"Do you ever fish?" I asked. "Oh yes, I catch a mess now and
gods must be proud, thought I, with such forked flashes to rout a
there came up a shower, which compelled me to stand half an hour
hut, which stood half a mile from any road, but so much the nearer
Before I had reached the pond some fresh impulse had brought out
And mercurial trout,
of the roof which leaked the least, while it showered and thundered
without. I had sat there many times of old before the ship was
woods; and many others I could mention. These were the shrines I
and wide day by day -- farther and wider -- and rest thee by many
fashion, face to face, giving it tooth and nail, not having skill to
Let not to get a living be thy trade, but thy sport. Enjoy the
well. They stood and looked in my eye or pecked at my shoe
But alas! the culture of an Irishman is an enterprise to be
as broad as it was long, indeed it was broader than it was long, for
irrecoverable. Meanwhile the right culinary vessel was selected,
tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did
and his family would live simply, they might all go a-huckleberrying
living, John Field, alas! without arithmetic, and failing so.
to eat hard again to repair the waste of his system -- and so it was
I thought of living there before I went to Walden. I "hooked" the
some scholar, I paid many a visit to particular trees, of kinds
As I was leaving the Irishmans roof after the rain, bending my
night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields
he was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet he
The shower was now over, and a rainbow above the eastern woods
then when I am lying by; good perch I catch. -- "Whats your bait?"
the pickerelweed, standing up to my middle in water, I found myself
of some pasture, or in the depths of a wood or swamp, or on a
that country where you are at liberty topursue such a mode of life
getting my living like himself; that I lived in a tight, light, and
experience, telling him that he was one of my nearest neighbors, and
the land with manure for one year, and his little broad-faced son
the midst of wet and hunger inquisitively upon the stranger, with
