Page:Winter - from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau.djvu/50

36 Dec. 26, 1860. M sent to me yesterday a perfect Strix Asio, or red owl of Wilson, not at all gray. This is now generally made the same with the Nœvia, but while some consider the red the old, others consider it the young. This is, as Wilson says, a bright &quot;nut-brown.&quot; It is twenty-three inches alar extent by about eleven long. Feet extend one inch beyond tail. Cabot makes the old bird red, Audubon, the young.

To such an excess have our civilization and division of labor come that A., a professional huckleberry picker, has hired B.'s field, and we will suppose is now gathering the crop, perhaps with the aid of a patented machine. C., a professed cook, is superintending the cooking of a pudding made of some of the berries, while Professor D., for whom the pudding is intended, sits in his library writing a book, a work on the Vaccinieæ, of course. And now the result of this downward course will be seen in that book, which should be the ultimate fruit of the huckleberry field, and account for the existence of the two professors who come between D. and A. It will be worthless. There will be none of the spirit of the huckleberry in it. The reading of it will be a weariness to the flesh. To use a homely illustration, it is to save at the spile, and waste at the bung. I believe in a different kind