freedom and irresponsibleness, as though we trod on native ground, and were autochthones of the soil.[289] * * * * * Through the fogs of this distant vale we look back and upward to the source of song, whose crystal stream still ripples and gleams in the clear atmosphere of the mountain's side. * * * * * Some hours seem not to be occasion for anything, unless for great resolves to draw breath and repose in, so religiously do we postpone all action therein. We do not straight go about to execute our thrilling purpose, but shut our doors behind us, and saunter with prepared mind, as if the half were already done.[290] Sometimes a day serves only to hold time together.[291] _Sept. 12. Sunday._ Where I have been There was none seen. _Sept. 14._ No bravery is to be named with that which can face its own deeds. * * * * * In religion there is no society. * * * * * Do not dissect a man till he is dead. * * * * * Love does not analyze its object. * * * * * We do not know the number of muscles in a caterpillar dead; much less the faculties of a man living. * * * * * You must believe that I know before you can tell me. * * * * * To the highest communication I can make no reply; I lend only a silent ear. _Sept. 18. Saturday._ Barn.—It is a great event, the hearing of a bell ring in one of the neighboring towns, particularly in the night. It excites in me an unusual hilarity, and I feel that I am in season wholly and enjoy a prime and leisure hour. _Sept. 20. Monday._ Visited Sampson Wilder of Boston. His method of setting out peach trees is as follows:— Dig a hole six feet square and two deep, and remove the earth; cover the bottom to the depth of six inches with lime and ashes in equal proportions, and upon this spread another layer of equal thickness, of horn parings, tips of horns, bones, and the like, then fill up with a compost of sod and strong animal manure, say four bushels of hog manure to a cartload of sod. Cover the tree—which should be budded at two years old—but slightly, and at the end of two years dig a trench round it three feet from the tree and six inches deep, and fill it with lime and ashes. For grapes:— Let your trench be twelve feet wide and four deep, cover the bottom with paving-stones six inches, then old bricks with mortar attached or loose six inches more, then beef-bones, horns, etc., six more (Captain Bobadil), then a compost similar to the preceding. Set your roots one foot from the north side, the trench running east and west, and bury eight feet of the vine crosswise the trench, not more than eight inches below the surface. Cut it down for three or four years, that root may accumulate, and then train it from the sun up an inclined plane.