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old homestead, aged two hundred years, still stands; 

 the "cranberry meadow" was readily found, but the 

 "stately pine wood" long since fell before the axe. 

 It must have been a magnificent grove, judging from 

 the size of the stumps which still remain. Needless 

 to say, no vestiges of the "altogether admirable and 

 shining family" were discovered, but Thoreau would 

 doubtless find, if he were living to-day, that they 

 had simply removed their domicile to some other 

 part of Concord. 



It is curious to note how little Thoreau was es- 

 teemed by most of his fellow villagers. He was com- 

 monly regarded as a sort of ne'er-do-well, squander- 

 ing his time in roaming over the fields and up and 

 down the river, rarely shooting or fishing, and with 

 no sensible object in view. To be sure, he some- 

 times did a job at surveying or whitewashing or 

 fence-building, and he helped his father occasionally 

 at pencil-making; but that he actually had a "pro- 

 fession" — such an idea could not be tolerated for a 

 moment. Yet Thoreau had a profession, and this is 

 his own statement of it : — 



" My profession ■ is to be always on the alert to find God 

 in Nature, to know his lurking places, to watch for and de- 

 scribe all the divine features which I can detect in Nature." 



This profession he followed faithfully and un- 

 swervingly. Nothing more deeply impresses itself 

 upon the mind of one who reads Thoreau's Journal 

 sympathetically, especially if that reading be in the 



