64 
WALDEN. 
down on it, mankind begin to look up at it. As for 
your high towers and monuments, there was a crazy fel¬ 
low once in this town who undertook to dig through to 
China, and he got so far that, as he said, he heard the 
Chinese pots and kettles rattle; but I think that I shall 
not go out of my way to admire the hole which he made. 
Many are concerned about the monuments of the 
West and the East, — to know who built them. For 
my part, I should like to know who in those days did 
not build them, — who were above such trifling. But to 
proceed with my statistics. 
By surveying, carpentry, and day-labor of various 
other kinds in the village in the mean while, for I have 
as many trades as fingers, I had earned $13 34. The 
expense of food for eight months, namely, from July 4th 
to March 1st, the time when these estimates were made, 
though I lived there more than two years, — not count¬ 
ing potatoes, a little green corn, and some peas, which I 
had raised, nor considering the value of what was on 
hand at the last date, was 
Rice,. 
Molasses, , 
Rye meal, 
Indian meal, 
Pork, . 
Flour, . 
$1 73 £ 
1 73 
1 04| 
0 99| 
0 22 
0 88 
Sugar, . 
Lard, . 
Apples, . 
Dried apple, 
Sweet potatoes, 
One pumpkin, 
One watermelon, 0 2 
Salt, . . .03 
Cheapest form of the saccharine. 
Cheaper than rye. 
) Costs more than Indian meal, 
} both money and trouble. 
0 80 
0 65 
0 25 
0 22 
0 10 
0 6 
B 3 
CD CD 
C. 3 
Yes, I did eat $8 74, all told; but I should not thus 
