94 
WALDEN. 
ghosts, were stealthily withdrawing in every direction 
into the woods, as at the breaking up of some nocturnal 
conventicle. The very dew seemed to hang upon the 
trees later into the day than usual, as on the sides of 
mountains. 
This small lake was of most value as a neighbor in 
the intervals of a gentle rain storm in August, when, 
both air and water being perfectly still, but the sky over¬ 
cast, mid-afternoon had all the serenity of evening, and 
the wood-thrush sang around, and was heard from shore 
to shore. A lake like this is never smoother than at 
such a time; and the clear portion of the air above it 
being shallow and darkened by clouds, the water, full of 
light and reflections, becomes a lower heaven itself so 
much the more important. From a hill top near by, 
where the wood had been recently cut off, there was a 
pleasing vista southward across the pond, through a wide 
indentation in the hills which form the shore there, 
where their opposite sides sloping toward each other 
suggested a stream flowing out in that direction through a 
wooded valley, but stream there was none. That way 
I looked between and over the near green hills to some 
distant and higher ones in the horizon, tinged with blue. 
Indeed, by standing on tiptoe I could catch a glimpse of 
some of the peaks of the still bluer and more distant 
mountain ranges in the north-west, those true-blue coins 
from heaven’s own mint, and also of some portion of the 
village. But in other directions, even from this point, I 
could not see over or beyond the woods which sur¬ 
rounded me. It is well to have some water in your 
neighborhood, to give buoyancy to and float the earth. 
One value even of the smallest well is, that when you 
look into it you see that earth is not continent but insu- 
