In the midst of a chilling northeast storm the ground is strewed with the white-and-pink blossoms from the apple-trees. The next day the mercury stands at eighty degrees. Summer has come. There was no Spring. The winter is over. You think so? Robespierre thought the Revolution was over in the beginning of his last Thermidor. He lost his head after that. When the first buds are set, and the corn is up, and the cucumbers have four leaves, a malicious frost steals down from the north and kills them in a night. That is the last effort of spring. The mercury then mounts to ninety degrees. The season has been long, but, on the whole, successful. Many people survive it. IN THE WILDERNESS [CW#36][cwitw10.txt]3132 According to the compass, the Lord only knew where I was Business of civilization to tame or kill Canopy of mosquitoes Caricature of a road Compass, which was made near Greenwich, was wrong Democrats became as scarce as moose in the Adirondacks Everlasting dress-parade of our civilization Grand intentions and weak vocabulary How lightly past hardship sits upon us! I hain't no business here; but here I be! Kept its distance, as only a mountain can Man's noblest faculty, his imagination, or credulity. Marriage is mostly for discipline Misery, unheroic and humiliating Near-sighted man, whose glasses the rain rendered useless No conceit like that of isolation No nervousness, but simply a reasonable desire to get there Not lost, but gone before Posthumous fear Procession of unattainable meals stretched before me Sense to shun the doctor; to lie down in some safe place Solitude and every desirable discomfort Stumbled against an ill-placed tree Suffering when unaccompanied by resignation Ten times harder to unlearn anything than it is to learn it There is an impassive, stolid brutality about the woods BADDECK [CW#37][cwbdk10.txt]3133 Best part of going to sea is keeping close to the shore Can leave it without regret Dependent upon imagination and memory Great part of the enjoyment of life Luxury of his romantic grief Picturesque sort of dilapidation Rest is never complete--unless he can see somebody else at work Won't see Mt. Desert till midnight, and then you won't BACKLOG STUDIES [CW#38][cwbls10.txt]3134