Page:Summer - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/236

226 they were to take their nooning like the Italians, relax and expand and never do any work in the middle of the day,–enjoy a little sabbath then. I still perceive that wonderful fragrance from the meadow (?) on the Corner causeway, intense as ever. It is one of those effects whose cause it is best not to know perchance.

White Pond very handsome to-day. The shore alive with pollywogs of large size, which ripple the water on our approach. There is a fine sparkle on the water, though not equal to the fall one quite. The water is very high, so that you cannot walk round it, but it is the more pleasant while you are swimming to see how the trees actually rise out of it on all sides. It bathes their feet. The dog worried a woodchuck half-grown, which did not turn its back and run into its hole, but backed into it, and faced him and us, gritting its teeth and prepared to die. Even this little fellow was able to defend himself against the dog with his sharp teeth. That fierce gritting of their teeth is a remarkable habit with these animals.

The Linnæa borealis just going out of bloom. I should have found it long ago. Its leaves densely cover the ground.

June 24, 1853. It is surprising that so many birds find hair enough to line their nests with. If I wish for a horse-hair for my compass