Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/109

 when it is mature it drops to the ground, and if it is not disturbed springs again. Some dig up the root, some sever the stalk, some pluck the flower, some gather the kernel; but all equally interrupt the order of Nature. The wise incline to make an innocent use of all, and regard each as one of the phases of the flower.

We passed a ferry and fall on our way home, rowing between Manchester and Bedford. The canal-boats go down many of these falls at high water without danger, and some of them even at low water, though locks are at hand. Sometimes even a small boat is guided down in the deepest part, by humoring the current, and keeping the boat perfectly straight and upright,—though not without danger; for two lads, we were told, had been drowned at Coos Falls the week before, while making the experiment.

No such risks were run by the cautious Thoreaus, who, the next (Friday) morning, at five o clock, had fifty miles to run before the wind, which had now shifted to the northwest and blew coldly autumnal; and [61]