Few men do not love better to give advice than to give assistance.

June 4. 


To-day, June 4th, I have been tending a burning in the woods. 

Ray was there. It is a pleasant fact that you will know no man long, however low in the social scale, however poor, miserable, intemperate, and worthless he may appear to be, a mere burden to society, but you will find at last that there is something which he understands and can do better than any other. I was pleased to hear that one man had sent Ray as the one who had had the most experience in setting fires of any man in Lincoln.

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There are few men who do not love better to give advice than to give assistance.

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The fire stopped within a few inches of a partridge's nest to-day, June 4th, whom we took off in our hands and found thirteen creamy-colored eggs.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 4, 1850