And there has been nothing like them done for some years, either. * * * * * June 25th. To-day you may imagine me frantically throwing stones at a squirrel. I said: “If I get him I won't have to go to the farmhouse to-morrow.” I had had nothing to eat but bread and apples for two meals, and I couldn't stand that again. I had fried squirrel and fried apples for supper. It was a very curious repast. And I was hungry, and I ate too much! That made me wild, of course, and I flung all my apples away into the woods. May they feed new squirrels! * * * * * June 26th. I get up every morning like--like the sun! I overflow with laughter--nothing frightens me now. I never knew what was the matter with me before--it was simply that I could not fight as I chose. If ever I go back again to have my soul pent up in the cities of men! I am full of it--full of it! I grapple with it all the day, I can not get enough of it. I do crazy things. And the harder it is the faster I go! This thing has been my torturing--it has made me fight and live. That is really the truth. * * * * * And I am coming to the end--really to the end! * * * * * June 27th. A rainy day! And no glass in my house--only a board cover to the window. I made myself a nest on the sheltered side. Nearer! Nearer! * * * * * June 29th. Wandering through the woods dreaming of a banquet-hall.--The guests are witty. * * * * * I have put into the mouths of the guests all that the world has said to me, since first I went poetical. * * * * * June 30th. To-day I got a big stock of things to eat. I count my time not by days, but by loaves of bread and dozens of hard-boiled eggs. * * * * * --This book goes out into the world, not to be judged, but to judge! * * * * * July 1st. You do not hear much from a man in a battle, just now and then a cry. I have gone in to seek out my last enemy--the last demon who has defied me. I shall close with him--I shall have the thing over with--I will no longer be haunted and made sick. --I believe I shall do it all in one day. I don't think I can lay it aside. * * * * * July 3d. It is done!-- I wrote that at three o'clock this morning, and then I lay back and laughed and sobbed, and in the end I fell asleep in the chair. I was not ill--my relief was so great. I was only happy. I lay back and closed my eyes. I have born my child. It is done! It is done! I realize it, and then I am like a crazy person. I do not know what I am doing--I only wander around and sit down in the woods and laugh and talk to myself. O God, I am so happy!