My First Summer 



deadly habit of endless hoarding for the fu- 

 ture is formed, which smothers all real life, 

 and is continued long after every reasonable 

 need has been over-supplied. 



On Mt. Hoffman I saw a curious dove- 

 colored bird that seemed half woodpecker, 

 half magpie or crow. It screams something 

 like a crow, but flies like a woodpecker, 

 and has a long, straight bill, with which I 

 saw it opening the cones of the mountain 

 and white-barked pines. It seems to keep 

 to the heights, though no doubt it comes 

 down for shelter during winter, if not for 

 food. So far as food is concerned, these 

 bird-mountaineers, I guess, can glean nuts 

 enough, even in winter, from the different 

 kinds of conifers; for always there are a 

 few that have been unable to fly out of 

 the cones and remain for hungry winter 

 gleaners. 



August 2. --Clouds and showers, about 

 the same as yesterday. Sketching all day on 

 the North Dome until four or five o'clock 

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