Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/309

Rh Shall the nut fall green from the tree? Let not the year be disappointed of its crop. I knew a crazy man who walked into an empty pulpit one Sunday, and taking up a hymn book, remarked, &quot;We have had a good fall for getting in corn and potatoes, let us sing Winter.&quot; So I say, &quot;Let us sing winter.&quot; What else can we sing, and our voices be in harmony with the season.

As we walked up the river, a little flock of chickadees apparently flew to us from a woodside fifteen rods off, and uttered their lively day day day, and followed us along a considerable distance, flitting by our side on the button-bushes and willows. It is the most, if not the only, sociable bird we have.

Jan. 30, 1856. What a difference between life in the city and life in the country at present! between walking in Washington Street, threading your way between countless sledges and travelers over the discolored snow, and crossing Walden Pond, a spotless field of snow surrounded by woods, whose intensely blue shadows and your own are the only objects. What a solemn silence reigns here!

Jan. 30, 1859. How peculiar is the hooting of an owl; not shrill and sharp like the scream of a hawk, but full, round, and sonorous, waking the echoes of the wood.

Jan. 30, 1860. 2 To Nut Meadow