28 INDOOR STUDIES 



deceived, and the game is well played. Writing 

 to a correspondent who had been doing some big 

 mountain- climbing, he says: — 



"It is after we get home that we really go over 

 the mountain, if ever. What did the mountain 

 say ? What did the mountain do ? I keep a moun- 

 tain anchored off eastward a little way, which I 

 ascend in my dreams, both awake and asleep. Its 

 broad base spreads over a village or two, which do 

 not know it; neither does it know them, nor do I 

 when I ascend it. I can see its general ou.tline as 

 plainly now in my mind as that of Wachusett. I 

 do not invent in the least, but state exactly what 

 I see. I find that I go up it when I am light- 

 footed and earnest. I am not aware that a single 

 villager frequents it, or knows of it. I keep this 

 mountain to ride instead of a horse." What a 

 saving clause is that last one, and what humor ! 



The bird Thoreau most admired was Chanticleer, 

 crowing from his- perch in the morning. He says 

 the merit of that strain is its freedom from all 

 plaiativeness. Unless our philosophy hears the 

 cock-crow in the morning, it is belated. " It is an 

 expression of the health and soundness of Nature, 

 — a brag for all the world." "Who has not be- 

 trayed his Master many times since he last heard 

 that note?" "The singer can easily move us to 

 tears or to laughter, but where is he who can excite 

 in us a pure morning joy 1 When in doleful 

 dumps, breaking the awful stillness of our wooden 

 sidewalk on a Sunday, or perchance a watcher in 



