Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/144

120 utensils, were moved thither, his boat transferred to the cove, and on the Fourth of July, 1845, he became resident of this unique home, constructed by himself at a cost of $28.12½. The personal work in the structure of the house had for him a romantic, as well as economic, interest;—"Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed as birds universally sing when they are so engaged. But alas! we do like cow-birds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built and cheer no traveler with their chattering and unmusical notes." As the tourist stands in that tiny Thoreau room at the Concord Antiquarian Hall and looks at that cot, desk and chair preserved from the lodge, it is not difficult to picture the interior of the hut that gave opportunity for mental inspiration to the poet and naturalist. Mr. S. R. Bartlett, a frequent visitor, recalled that on the closet door was a sketch in pencil of a man feeding a tame mouse, an appropriate and suggestive decoration.

Reference has been made to this encampment at Walden as an experiment; for this term, we have Thoreau's own words, at least twice in the record of his life there. In the section on "Shelter" he