Some Sample Walks 57 



in the west, and felt the continent to con- 

 quer, I should be impelled eastward ; but 

 at present I follow empire, and set my face 

 toward the setting sun, toward untravelled 

 spaces where the snow flies early. 



One jaunt took me through the woods 

 about Walden Pond, region hallowed to 

 tramps for all time. And they were there : 

 Parched Perkins and Needham Neverwork 

 had bathed in Thoreau's lake, thereby 

 violating their traditions, and were even 

 shaving themselves. Is there something in 

 this region that stimulates the fancy as 

 other spots of earth do not, or do memories 

 of the Concord great turn our thoughts 

 from accustomed channels? The latter, 

 doubtless, for we find in the outer world 

 what we have in ourselves, and we are 

 thinking "Walden" when we visit the 

 water that the book was named for. After 

 losing myself delightedly among the woods, 

 I met Ralph Waldo Emerson, and rode 

 into Boston with him. A business episode 

 of a previous year was my excuse for an 

 introduction. Doubtless I bored the phi- 

 losopher, yet no sooner had I said, " I have 



