CHAPTER I. 1850 (Æt. 32-33) The Religion of the Hindoos—Narrow Shoes—The Town of Bedford—A Visit to Haverhill and the Dustin House—Taste in Eating—Sawing Buttonwood Logs—The Insanity of Heroes—The Sand Cherry—Life in a Small Meadow—Turtle and Horned Pout—Limestone—The Energy of Our Ancestors—A New Bosphorus—Sippio Brister’s Gravestone—Fences—Driving Cows to Pasture—Setting Fire to the Woods—The Incendiary—The View from Goodman’s Hill in Sudbury—A Burner of Brush—Tending a Burning—The Regularity of the Cars—The Levels of Life—A Proposed Method of Fighting Wood-Fires—The Yezidis—Insects over the River—Cows in a Pasture—Horses Fighting—The Advantages of a Fire in the Woods—Walking by Night—An Indian Squaw—A Button from the Marquis of Ossoli’s Coat—Bones on the Beach—Fresh Water in Sand-Bars—Rags and Meanness—Tobacco Legislation—An Ideal Friend—Conforming—A Drunken Dutchman—Legs as Compasses—Walks about Concord—Meadow-Hay—The Old Marlborough Road—Surface of Water—The Money-Digger—The Railroad—Tall Ambrosia—The Ways of Cows—Flocks of Birds—A Great Blue Heron—The Elm—Uncle Charles Dunbar—Lines on a Flower growing in the Middle of the Road—A Beautiful Heifer—Water the Only Drink—On the River—Music—The Canadian Excursion—Living and Loving one’s Life—Canadian Houses—A Frog in the Milk—Apostrophe to Diana—Aground at Patchogue—The Relics of a Human Body on the Beach—Echoes—Sawmills—Begging Indians—The Indian and his Baskets—Uncle Charles on the Dock at New York—Nature in November—The Approach of Winter—Changes made in Views from the cutting down of Woods—Cats run Wild—The Growth of a Wood—Canadian Greatcoats—A Root Fence—Wild Apples—An Old Bone—A Miser and his Surveyor—The Remains of a Coal-Pit—The Pickerel in the Brooks—Wildness—The Attraction of the West—Frightened Cows—The Passing of the Wild Apple—Begging Governments—Old Maps—The First Cold Day—A New Kind of Cranberry—The Discoveries of the Unscientific Man—The Sportiveness of Cattle—Fair Haven Pond—Friends and Acquaintances—Summer Days in Winter—A Muskrat on the Ice—An Encampment of Indians at Concord—Indian Lore—Indian Inventions—Instinct in Women—The Little Irish Boy—Puffballs—An Ocean of Mist.
CHAPTER II. December, 1850 (Æt. 33) Moss—Circulation in Plants—The First Snow—Blue-Curls and Indigo-weed—Hands and Feet—Sweet-Gale—Promethea Cocoons—Frozen-thawed Apples—Swamps in Winter—An Old-fashioned Snow-Storm—A Shrike with Prey—The Death of Friends—Notes from Gordon Cumming—Blue Jays.
CHAPTER III. January-April, 1851 (Æt. 33) A Visit to the Clinton Gingham-Mills—Behavior—The Knowledge of an Unlearned Man—Snow-covered Hills—The Walker Errant—Sauntering—Freedom—F. A. Michaux on Certain Trees—Divine Communications—The Tameness of English Literature—Quotations from Ovid—Panoramas of the Rhine and the Mississippi—The Fertility of America—Midwinter—Sir John Mandeville on the Peoples of the Earth—A Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance—America the She Wolf To-day—The Gregariousness of Man—The Edge of the Meadow—Fleets of Ice-Flakes—Waterfalls within Us—The Ice-Flakes again—Antiquity—The Health of the Farmer—Eating—The Fallibility of Friends—Moral Freedom—Manners and Character—Getting a Living—Actinism—The Floating Crust of the Meadow—Mythology and Geology—Law and Lawlessness—Carrying off Sims—Governor Boutwell—Concord and Slavery—The Fugitive Slave Law—Slavery and the Press—Mahomet—The Sentence of the Judge—The Servility of Newspapers—A False Idea of Liberty—Real and Actual Communications—The Cat—Love and Marriage.
CHAPTER IV. May, 1851 (Æt. 33) Purity—An Optical Illusion—A Mountain Tarn—Experiments in Living—The Caliph Omar—The Harivansa—The Taming of Beasts and Men—The Study of Nature—False Teeth or a False Conscience—Taking Ether—Moonlight—Notes from Michaux—Vegetation and Human Life—The Development of the Mind—The Mind and its Roots—Man our Contemporary—Names—Wild Apples and their Names—An Inspiring Regret—Medical Botany—The Designs of Providence—True Sites for Houses—The View from the Wayland Hills—An Organ-Grinder—Materia Medica—Tobacco—More Names for Wild Apples.
CHAPTER V. June, 1851 (Æt. 33) A Visit to Worcester—A Fallen Oak—Angelica and Hemlock—Transcendentalism—The Past and the Future—Who boosts You?—F. A. Michaux on the Ohio—Various Trees—Our Garments and the Trees’—A Moonlight Walk—Crossing Bridges at Night—Air-Strata at Night—A Book of the Seasons—South American Notes from Darwin’s “Voyage of a Naturalist”—Moonlight—Breathing—The Shimmering of the Moon’s Reflections on the Rippled Surface of a Pond—The Bittern’s Pumping—Twilight—Music Out-of-Doors—The Whip-poor-will’s Moon—Fireflies—Darwin again—The Rapid Growth of Grass—The Birch the Surveyor’s Tree—Criticism—Calmness—The Wood Thrush’s Song—The Ox’s Badges of Servitude—A Visit to a Menagerie—Old Country Methods of Farming—The HypÆthral Character of the “Week”—Dog and Wagon—Haying begun—The Fragrance of the Fir.
CHAPTER VI. July, 1851 (Æt. 33-34) Travellers heard talking at Night—Potato-Fields—Hubbard’s Bridge—Moonlight—Sam, the Jailer—Intimations of the Night—Shadows of Trees—Perez Blood’s Telescope—The Chastity of the Mind—A Rye-Field—A Visit to the Cambridge Observatory—Charles River—A Gorgeous Sunset—The Forms of Clouds—A Moonlight Walk—The Light of the Moon—Waterfalls within Us—Another Moonlight Walk—Eating a Raw Turnip—The Experience of Ecstasy—The Song Sparrow—Berry-Picking—Signs of the Season—The First of the Dog-Days—Pitch Pine Woods—The Ideal Self—The Life of the Spirit—A Proposed Occupation—The River’s Crop—An Old Untravelled Road—A Black Veil—A Human Footprint—The Gentleman—An Immortal Melody—Wild Pigeons—Mirabeau as a Highwayman—Ambrosial Fog—Maimed Geniuses—The Charm of the French Names in Canada—Walking and Writing—Swallows—The Moods of the Mind—Drought—A South Shore Excursion—On the Hingham Boat—Hull—The Cohasset Shore—Daniel Webster’s Farm—A Mackerel Schooner—Clark’s
