Let a slight snow come and cover the earth, and the tracks of men will show how little the woods and fields are frequented.

February 3.

To Fitchburg to lecture.

Observed that the Nashua at the bridge beyond Groton Junction was open for twenty rods, as the Concord is not anywhere in Concord. This must be owing to the greater swiftness of the former.

Though the snow was not deep, I noticed that an unbroken snow-crust stretched around Fitchburg, and its several thousand inhabitants had been confined so long to the narrow streets, some of them a track only six feet wide. Hardly one individual had anywhere departed from this narrow walk and struck out into the surrounding fields and hills.

If I had had my cowhide boots, I should not have confined myself to those narrow limits, but have climbed some of the hills. It is surprising to go into a New England town in midwinter and find its five thousand inhabitants all living thus on the limits, confined at most to their narrow moose-yard in the snow. Scarcely here and there has a citizen stepped aside one foot to let a sled pass.

And almost as circumscribed is their summer life, going only from house to shop and back to house again. If, Indian-like, one examined the dew or bended grass, he would be surprised to discover how little trodden or frequented the surrounding fields were, to discover perhaps large tracts wholly untrodden, which await, as it were, for some caravan to assemble before any will traverse them.

It is as if some vigilance committee had given notice that if any should transgress those narrow limits he should be outlawed and his blood should be upon his own head. You don't see where the inhabitants get sufficient exercise, unless they swing dumb-bells down cellar.

Let a slight snow come and cover the earth, and the tracks of men will show how little the woods and fields are frequented.

I was pleased to see several loads entirely of beech wood in the street at Fitchburg. It had a peculiarly green, solid, sappy look, coasting down the hills into Fitchburg.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 3, 1857

To Fitchburg to lecture. See December 18, 1856 ("Lectured [at Amherst, N. H.] in basement (vestry) of the orthodox church, and I trust helped to undermine it.") Thoreau presented "Walking or the
Wild" at Fitchburg February 3rd and at Worcester February 13, 1857. See Thoreau's Lectures after Walden. 283-89

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, February 3

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

 "A book, each page written in its own season, 

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

 ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2023