A rock in a meadow

November 15.

To-day I see a lichen on a rock in a meadow. It forms a perfect circle about fifteen inches in diameter, though the rock is uneven.

Like a rich lamp-mat, it is handsomely shaded by a darker stripe of older leaves, an inch or more wide, just within its circumference. The recent growth on the outside, half an inch in width, is a tea-green or bluish-green color.

The ivy berries are now sere and yellowish, or sand colored , like the berries of the dogwood.

The farmers are now casting out their manure, and removing the muck-heap from the shore of ponds where it will be inaccessible in the winter; or are doing their plowing, which destroys many insects and mellows the soil.

I also see some pulling their turnips, and even getting in corn which has been left out notwithstanding the crows.

Those who have wood to sell, as the weather grows colder and people can better appreciate the value of fuel, lot off their woods and advertise a wood auction.

You can tell when a cat has seen a dog by the size of her tail.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 15, 1850
 

To-day I see a lichen on a rock in a meadow. See January 1, 1852 ("Perhaps the only thing that spoke to me on this walk was the bare, lichen-covered gray rock at the Cliff, in the moonlight, naked and almost warm as in summer.")

The size of her tail. See November 11, 1850 ("Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.:)

")