In Winter Quarters 



want to see no ship ! What ah wants to 

 see is ah tree!" And there are no tips 

 to the stewards, no customs officers or 

 cabbies to hold you up at the dock. 



Thoreau tells us of the nonsense of 

 wanting to travel into distant climes 

 for changes of air and temperature, 

 pointing out that if you live anywhere 

 in the temperate zones all you have to 

 do to get any kind of climate you like 

 is just to sit down and wait for it, and 

 it will come along in due course. That 

 is of course only a quiet jab at the 

 fickleness of our weather conditions, 

 and a reminder of the terrific extremes 

 of heat and cold to which we are each 

 calendar year subjected; but it is worth 

 thinking about. And so with traveling. 

 That can easily be managed at home. 



There is a tiny French clock out 

 there in the drawing-room. I do not 

 have to get tickets and passports to 

 visit Versailles. I have only to shut 

 off the lights save those of the crystal 

 chandelier, seat myself in one of those 

 [162] 



