30 INDOOR STUDIES 



if some eruption would break out there soon, either 

 scarlatina or canker-rash, — until at length some 

 more favorable puff of wind, making haste over the 

 fields and up the Wayland road, brought me infor- 

 mation of the ' trainers ! ' " 



What visitors he had, too, in his little hut — 

 what royal company ! — ■ " especially in the morning, 

 when nobody called." "One inconvenience I some- 

 times experience in so small a house, — the difficulty 

 of getting to a sufficient distance from my guest 

 when we began to utter the big thoughts in big 

 words." "The bullet of your thought must have 

 overcome its lateral and ricochet motion and fallen 

 into its last and steady course before it reaches the 

 ear of the hearer, else it may plow out again through 

 the side of his head." He bragged that Concord 

 could show him nearly everything worth seeing in 

 the world or in nature, and that he did not need to 

 read Dr. Kane's " Arctic Voyages " for phenomena 

 that he could observe at home. He declined all 

 invitations to go abroad, because he should then 

 lose so much of Concord. As much of Paris, or 

 London, or Berlin as he got, so much of Concord 

 should he lose. He says in his journal: "It would 

 be a wretched bargain to accept the proudest Paris 

 in exchange for my native village." "At best, 

 Paris could only be a school in which to learn to 

 live here, — a stepping-stone to Concord, a school 

 in which to fit for this university." "The sight 

 of a marsh- hawk in Concord meadows is worth more 

 to me than the entry of the Allies into Paris." 



