EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 253 
frost is out of it and we may safely commit these 
seeds to it in some places. 
Yesterday I walked with a farmer beside his 
team and saw one furrow turned quite round 
his field. What noble work is plowing, with 
the broad and solid earth for material, the ox 
for fellow-laborer, and the simple, but efficient 
plow for tool. Work that is not done in any 
shop, in a cramped position, work that tells, 
that concerns all men, which the sun shines and 
the rain falls on, and the birds sing over. You 
turn oyer the whole vegetable mould, expose 
how many grubs, and put a new aspect on the 
face of the earth. It comes pretty near to mak¬ 
ing a world. Redeeming a swamp does, at any 
rate. A good plowman is a terrse-filius. A 
plowman, we all know, whistles as he drives his 
team afield. 
Often I can give the truest and most inter¬ 
esting account of any adventure I have had, 
after years have elapsed, for then I am not con¬ 
fused, only the most significant facts surviving 
in my memory. Indeed, all that continues to 
interest me after such a lapse of time is sure to 
be pertinent, and I may safely record all that I 
remember. 
March 28, 1858. I notice the hazel stigmas 
in a warm hollow just beginning to peep forth. 
This is an unobserved, but very pretty and in- 
