AMERICAN BITTERN; STAKE-DRIVER 67 



side of a root might be ; and its attitude is accidental, 

 too, bent forward and perfectly motionless. Therefore 

 there is no change in appearance but such as can be 

 referred to the motion of the sailor. 



May 13, 1853. Heard a stake-driver in Hubbard's 

 meadow from Corner road. Thua far off, I hear only, 

 or chiefly, the last dry, hard click or stroke part of the 

 note, sounding like the echo from some near wood of 

 a distant stake-driving. Here only this portion of the 

 note, but close by it is more like pumping, when the 

 dry stroke is accompanied by the incessant sound of 

 the pump. 



May 27, 1853. Heard a stake-driver yesterday in 

 the rain. It sounded exactly like a man pumping, 

 while another man struck on the head of the pump 

 with an axe, the last strokes sounding peculiarly dry 

 and hard like a forcible echo from the wood-side. One 

 would think all Concord would be built on piles by this 

 time. Very deliberately they drive, and in the intervals 

 are considering the progress of the pile into the soft 

 mud. They are working by the day. He is early and 

 late at his work, building his stake [?] -house, yet did 

 anybody ever see the pile he had driven ? He has come 

 back from his Southern tour to finish that job of spile- 

 driving which he undertook last year. It is heavy work 

 — not to be hurried. Only green hands are overhasty. 



May 20, 1856. See and hear a stake-driver in the 

 swamp. It took one short pull at its pump and stopped. 



June 15, 1857. It was pleasant walking thus 1 at 5 

 P. M. by solitary sandy paths, through commonly low 



1 ["In Plymouth, Mass.] 



