Concord, Massachusetts
1895
April 16
  Cloudy and cold with strong N.E. wind a fine rain. At [?]
5 P.M. the sky cleared and the sun came out.
  After spending a week at Cambridge I returned here on the
evening of the 13th. It rained heavily (2 1/4 meters according to
the newspaper reports) on the 14th and yesterday was also cloudy
with light rain. The river has risen at least two feet in
the last three days and the meadows are all flooded again
& more deeply than ever.  Practically all the snow & ice have
disappeared even in the woods.
  I spent to-day at Ball's Hill planting a number
of pines & several hemlocks. A musk rat trapper had set
a line of traps entirely around my land but I easily
persuaded him to remove them by paying him 75c as
an inducement. He was a Frenchman, a rather fine looking
old fellow with gray beard, erect, military carriage & an honest
face. He had lost a leg, in the French army he told me.
Early in the afternoon I heard a Carolina Grebe gives the
cuckoo call & presently saw the bird swimming near the
button bushes opposite the cabin.
  I started for home at 5 P.M. The wind had changed
to north & sunk to a light steady breeze. I had sailed about
half-a-mile when I discovered two Canada Geese swimming
near the middle of Great Meadow. Hauling in the sheet
& steering carefully so as to keep them nearly covered by the
sail I actually got within less than 40 yards before they
rose which they did rather heavily striking the water with
their feet at first & croaking (oc-oc-oc) a few times, their
great wings making a fuff-fuff-fuff-ing sound. They carried
their heads so low when swimming that I at first took them
for Black Drakes but they stretched them up full length just before rising.
[margin]Two Geese
on Great Meadows[/margin]