diff --git a/205-0.txt b/205-0.txt index b5f18e6..4b67b69 100644 --- a/205-0.txt +++ b/205-0.txt @@ -10178,6 +10178,8 @@ this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. +Alas, I must adjourn for the night. I believe I hear a foul scratching outside I must attend to. I shall continue my thoughts on the morrow. + diff --git a/205-0.txt~ b/205-0.txt~ index faac6c4..b5f18e6 100644 --- a/205-0.txt~ +++ b/205-0.txt~ @@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ Preface Ralph Waldo Emerson had heard the stories about the woods around Walden Pond, so when his good friend asked for permission to build a cabin on Emerson's land, miles* from the nearest outpost of civilization, -he was afraid to say yes. +he was afraid to be honest. But it's not easy to say no to Henry David Thoreau. @@ -140,13 +140,13 @@ Economy When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived -alone, in the woods, a mile or more from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the chilly shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts. I earned my living by the labor of my hands only and had little time to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Days faded into nights and nights disappeared into days. I survived there two years, two months and not one day longer. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life once again. +alone, in the woods, a mile or more from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the damp and chilly shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts. I earned my living by the labor of my hands only and had little time to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Days faded into nights and nights disappeared into days. I struggled to survive there two years, two months and not one day longer. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life once again. I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of survival, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, -very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eatnm; if I did +very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children @@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ solace one gets from this savings is temporary, imaginary. There are things out there one can't expect. The illusion of safety will be shattered by the external. -I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to +I sometimes marvel that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to @@ -3759,7 +3759,9 @@ slight trace left, as a flower dropped, or a bunch of grass plucked and thrown away, even as far off as the railroad, half a mile distant, or by the lingering odor of a cigar or pipe. Nay, I was frequently notified of the passage of a traveller along the highway sixty rods off by the scent -of his pipe. +of his pipe. + +However, the oddness of artifacts left by my visitors has grown as of late. I find discarded items that appear ancient, seeming to belong to children of a time long ago. A layer of dust still remains on them, having not been disturbed at all by their transport to my doorstop. I do not think too much of the oddities, but my hair stands on end every time I arrive to another one of those 'gifts' left behind. There is commonly sufficient space about us. Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but @@ -5011,13 +5013,13 @@ had done, far in the night, threw the burning brands high into the air like skyrockets, which, coming down into the pond, were quenched with a loud hissing, and we were suddenly groping in total darkness. Through this, whistling a tune, we took our way to the haunts of men again. But -now I had made my home by the shore. +now I had made my home by the shore, among the trees and unknown creatures that lurked therein. Sometimes, after staying in a village parlor till the family had all retired, I have returned to the woods, and, partly with a view to the next day's dinner, spent the hours of midnight fishing from a boat by moonlight, serenaded by owls and foxes, and hearing, from time to time, -the creaking note of some unknown bird close at hand. These experiences +the creaking note of some unknown bird close at hand, or at least, of what I believed to be a bird. These experiences were very memorable and valuable to me--anchored in forty feet of water, and twenty or thirty rods from the shore, surrounded sometimes by thousands of small perch and shiners, dimpling the surface with their @@ -6832,21 +6834,23 @@ read the name of Nebuchadnezzar on them, I picked out as many fireplace bricks as I could find, to save work and waste, and I filled the spaces between the bricks about the fireplace with stones from the pond shore, and also made my mortar with the white sand from the same place. I -lingered most about the fireplace, as the most vital part of the house. -Indeed, I worked so deliberately, that though I commenced at the ground -in the morning, a course of bricks raised a few inches above the floor -served for my pillow at night; yet I did not get a stiff neck for it -that I remember; my stiff neck is of older date. I took a poet to board -for a fortnight about those times, which caused me to be put to it for -room. He brought his own knife, though I had two, and we used to scour -them by thrusting them into the earth. He shared with me the labors -of cooking. I was pleased to see my work rising so square and solid by -degrees, and reflected, that, if it proceeded slowly, it was calculated -to endure a long time. The chimney is to some extent an independent -structure, standing on the ground, and rising through the house to the -heavens; even after the house is burned it still stands sometimes, and -its importance and independence are apparent. This was toward the end of -summer. It was now November. +lingered most about the fireplace, as the most vital part of the house. +There I felt truly warm, watching the flickering light that would throw +shadows behind me, none the wiser to what may be happening in the +darknessoutside my window. Indeed, I worked so deliberately, that though +I commenced at the ground in the morning, a course of bricks raised a +few inches above the floor served for my pillow at night; yet I did not +get a stiff neck for it that I remember; my stiff neck is of older date. +I took a poet to board for a fortnight about those times, which caused me +to be put to it for room. He brought his own knife, though I had two, and +we used to scour them by thrusting them into the earth. He shared with me +the labors of cooking. I was pleased to see my work rising so square and +solid by degrees, and reflected, that, if it proceeded slowly, it was +calculated to endure a long time. The chimney is to some extent an +independent structure, standing on the ground, and rising through the +house to the heavens; even after the house is burned it still stands +sometimes, and its importance and independence are apparent. This was +toward the end of summer. It was now November. * * * * * @@ -7541,7 +7545,7 @@ long-headed farmer, who from far through the woods sought my house, to have a social "crack"; one of the few of his vocation who are "men on their farms"; who donned a frock instead of a professor's gown, and is as ready to extract the moral out of church or state as to haul a load -of manure from his barn-yard. We talked of rude and simple times, when +of manure from his barn-yard. I of course must note that this is completely unrealted to the crack that I have tried many a time in a many a back alley. That is in fact how I ened up in this whole mess. But that is unimportant right now. We talked of rude and simple times, when men sat about large fires in cold, bracing weather, with clear heads; and when other dessert failed, we tried our teeth on many a nut which wise squirrels have long since abandoned, for those which have the @@ -7883,7 +7887,7 @@ memory serves me, than any hunting-horn. At midnight, when there was a moon, I sometimes met with hounds in my path prowling about the woods, which would skulk out of my way, as if -afraid, and stand silent amid the bushes till I had passed. +afraid, and stand silent amid the bushes till I had passed. The beasts would move hazily through trees and bushes, never acknowledging my presence yet never leaving me in peace. Several times my bones were chilled by an uneartly howl that could only have been sourced by a monster of hell. Yet, did I even hear it? I could never tell. Squirrels and wild mice disputed for my store of nuts. There were scores of pitch pines around my house, from one to four inches in diameter, @@ -9907,11 +9911,12 @@ turn how he came there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the world goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me of burning a barn; but I never did it." As near as I could discover, he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe -there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being a clever -man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial to come on, -and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite domesticated and -contented, since he got his board for nothing, and thought that he was -well treated. +there; and so a barn was burnt - along with, as I would later discover, +everything of his mortal presence but his ghost. He had the reputation of +being a clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial +to come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite +domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and thought +that he was well treated. He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one stayed there long, his principal business would be to look out the window. I