116 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
enough. It was excellent for mittens; you 
could hardly wear it out. Spoke of the cuckoo, 
which was afraid of other birds, was easily 
beaten, would dive into the middle of a poplar, 
then come out on to some bare twig and look 
round for a nest to rob of young or eggs. 
March 11, 1859. Mrs. A. takes on dolefully 
on account of the solitude in which she lives; 
but she gets little consolation. Mrs. B. says 
she envies her that retirement. Mrs. A. is 
aware that she does, and says it is as if a thirsty 
man should envy another the river in which he 
is drowning. So goes the world, it is either 
this extreme or that. Of solitude, one gets too 
much ; another, not enough. 
March 11, 1860. I see a woodchuck out on 
the calm side of Lee’s Hill (Nawshawtuck). 
He has pushed away the withered leaves which 
filled his hole and come forth, and left his 
tracks on those slight patches of the recent 
snow which are left about his hole. 
I was amused with the behavior of two red 
squirrels, as I approached the hemlocks. They 
were as gray as red, and white beneath. I at 
first heard a faint, sharp chirp, like a bird, with¬ 
in the hemlock, on my account, and then one 
rushed forward on a descending limb toward 
me, barking or chirruping at me after his fash¬ 
ion, within a rod. They seemed to vie with 
