186 
WALDEN. 
One afternoon, near the end of the first summer, 
when I went to the village to get a shoe from the cob¬ 
bler’s, I was seized and put into jail, because, as I have 
elsewhere related, I did not pay a tax to, or recognize 
the authority of, the state which buys and sells men, 
women, and children, like cattle at the door of its senate- 
house. I had gone down to the woods for other pur¬ 
poses. But, wherever a man goes, men will pursue and 
paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, 
constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow 
society. It is true, I might have resisted forcibly with 
more or less effect, might have run 66 amok ” against 
society; but I preferred that society should run “ amok” 
against me, it being the desperate party. However, I was 
released the next day, obtained my mended shoe, and 
returned to the woods in season to get my dinner of 
huckleberries on Fair-Haven Hill. I was never mo¬ 
lested by any person but those who represented the 
state. I had no lock nor bolt but for the desk which 
held my papers, not even a nail to put over my latch or 
windows. I never fastened my door night or day, 
though I was to be absent several days; not even when 
the next fall I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. 
And yet my house was more respected than if it had 
been surrounded by a file of soldiers. The tired ram¬ 
bler could rest and warm himself by my fire, the liter¬ 
ary amuse himself with the few books on my table, or 
the curious, by opening my closet door, see what was 
left of my dinner, and what prospect I had of a supper. 
Yet, though many people of every class came this way 
to the pond, I suffered no serious inconvenience from 
these sources, and I never missed any thing but one 
small book, a volume of Homer, which perhaps was im- 
