These are all the materials excepting the timber, stones and sand, which I claimed by squatter's right. I have also a small wood-shed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which was left after building the house.

I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me as much and will cost me no more than my present one.

I borrowed an axe :

Amos Bronson Alcott.

Walden Pond:

A small lake near Concord, Massachu

setts. The land in which Thoreau "squatted" belonged to Emer

son.

the gods of Troy :

Troy, an ancient city in Asia Minor,

figures in the Greek story of the Iliad.

- A. B. Alcott, Edmund

some of my acquaintances: Hosmer, G. W. Curtis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. E. Channing, and others.

the Iliad:

The famous Greek poem dealing with the ten

years' siege of Ilium (Troy) by the confederated states of Greece.

Concord :

A town seventeen miles from Boston; the home of a number of noted literary persons, - Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts, and others.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY

What do you think of Thoreau for borrowing an axe with which to begin his house? Why did he not buy one? Do you consider it "generous " to borrow, as the author suggests? What

do you learn from the fact that he returned the axe sharper than he found it? Why does the author stop to describe the weather and the scenery? Explain what he means by comparing people to the snake that he saw in the pond. Why did Thoreau “make the most " of his work instead of hurrying with it? Do you think, judging from the dates given, that he got along rapidly, or slowly? What kind of house do you think could be made from James Collins's shanty? When Thoreau's house is finished, does it seem to you an attractive one? How do the prices of materials compare with present prices? What is the meaning of the last paragraph in the selection? What should you judge to be the character of Thoreau, from reading what he says of building this cottage at Walden? Can you find out what his neighbors thought of him?

THEME SUBJECTS

Building a Shack
When the Ice Breaks Up
How One May Live Simply
A Visit to a Squatter's Cabin
Putting Up a Tent

The Old Trapper's Shack
How I Built a Dog Kennel
Thoreau's Life at Walden
Building a Chicken Coop

The Hermit

Some of Thoreau's Friends
Our Play House
The Barn-Raising
Watching the Carpenters
How Our House Was Built
Putting Up a Sky Scraper
How Concrete Is Used for
Buildings.

How I Made a Piece of Furniture.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THEME-WRITING

How I Made a Piece of Furniture: : - What piece of furniture did you make? Why did you make it? Was there any conversation over it, before you began? What persons did the talking, and what did they say? What wood did you choose for your work? Why did you choose that particular kind? Where did you get your tools? How did you begin? Go on and describe the making of the article. How did you finish it up? Was there any conversation about it when it was finished? Were you satisfied with it? What was its cost to you in materials? in time? in labor? What did you do with it, after it was done?

Thoreau's Life at Walden :1-Have you read any more of Thoreau's Walden than the selection in this book? Can you find out how Thoreau lived, while he was in his little shack on the edge of the pond? How many rooms had this house? What furniture did he have? What food did he eat? How did he prepare it? How did he occupy his time? Did he have any guests? Who were they, and what did they come for? How long did Thoreau live at Walden? Was he happy there? What do you think that his life there shows of the man himself?

COLLATERAL READINGS

See List of Books by Thoreau, page 142.

Roof-Tree (in Signs and Seasons, Chapter
XIII)

Frank R. Stockton.

John Burroughs

1 The teacher might read to the class some of the more interesting and appropriate passages from the Walden; also some brief selections from the various biographies of Thoreau.

NEIGHBORS OF THE WILDERNESS

HENRY D. THOREAU

(From Chapter XII of Walden)

THE mice which haunted my house were not the common ones, which are said to have been introduced into the country, but a wild native kind not found in the village. I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested him much. When I was building, one of these had its nest underneath the house, and before I had laid the second floor, and swept out the shavings, would come out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before; and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel, which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I leaned with my elbow on the bench one day, it ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round and round the paper which held my dinner, while I kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bo-peep with it; and when at last I held still a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward cleaned its face and paws, like a fly, and walked away.

A phobe soon built in my shed, and a robin for protection in a pine which grew against the house. In June the partridge (Tetrao umbellus), which is so shy a bird, led her brood past my windows, from the woods in the rear to the front of my house, clucking and calling to them like a hen, and in all her behavior

proving herself the hen of the woods. The young suddenly disperse on your approach, at a signal from the mother, as if a whirlwind had swept them away, and they so exactly resemble the dried leaves and twigs that many a traveller has placed his foot in the midst of a brood, and heard the whir of the old bird as she flew off, and her anxious calls and mewing, or seen her trail her wings to attract his attention, without suspecting their neighborhod. The parent will sometimes roll and spin round before you in such a dishabille, that you cannot, for a few moments, detect what kind of creature it is. The young squat still and flat, often running their heads under a leaf, and mind only their mother's directions given from a distance, nor will your approach make them run again and betray themselves. You may even tread on them, or have your eyes on them for a minute, without discovering them. I have held them in my open hand at such a time, and still their only care, obedient to their mother and their instinct, was to squat there without fear or trembling. So perfect is this instinct, that once, when I had laid them on the leaves again, and one accidentally fell on its side, it was found with the rest in exactly the same position ten minutes afterward. They are not callow like the young of most birds, but more perfectly developed and precocious even than chickens. The remarkably adult yet innocent expression of their open and serene eyes is very memorable. All intelligence seems reflected in them. They suggest not merely the purity of infancy, but a wisdom clarified by experience. Such an eye was not born when the bird was, but is coeval with the sky it reflects. The woods do not yield another such a gem. The traveller does not often look into such a limpid well. The ignorant or