12 December 1853 – 18 December 1853

Thursday. Fishing through ice began on Flint’s and Fair Haven yesterday. The first fishers succeed best. 9.30 aA. M.— Surveying near Strawberry Hill for Smith and Brooks.

Friday. The elms covered with hoar frost, seen in the east against the morning light, are very beautiful. These days, when the earth is still bare and the weather is so warm as to create much vapor by day, are the best for these frost works. Would you be well, see that you are attuned to each mood of nature. J. E. Cabot says the lunxus is a wolverene. Some creature has killed ten, at least, of H. Wheeler’s doves and left them together in the dove-house. I think it was my short-eared owl, which flew thither.

While surveying for Daniel Weston in Lincoln to-day, saw a great many — maybe a hun- dred — silvery-brown cocoons, wrinkled and flattish, . on young alders in a meadow, three or four inches long, fastened to the main stem and branches at same time, with dry alder and fragments of fern leaves at- tached to and partially concealing them; of some great moth.

Sunday. P. M.— Clears off cold after rain. Cross Fair Haven Pond at sunset. The western hills, these bordering it, seen through the clear, cold air, have a hard, distinct edge against the sunset sky. The distant hills are impurpled. I have seen but one or two small birds,— chickadees and probably tree sparrows. Young Weston said that they found, in redeeming a meadow, heaps of chestnuts under the grass, fifteen rods from the trees, without marks of teeth. Probably it was the work of the meadow mice. Dec. 22. A slight whitening of snow last evening, the second whitening of the winter; just enough to spoil the skating, now ten days old, on the ponds. Walden skimmed over in the widest part, but some acres still open; will probably freeze entirely to-night if this weather holds. Surveying the last three days. They have not yielded much that I am aware of. All I find is old bound- marks, and the slowness and dullness of farmers recon- firmed. They even complain that I walk too fast for them. Their legs have become stiff from toil. This coarse and hurried outdoor work compels me to live grossly or be inattentive to my diet; that is the worst of it. Like work, like diet; that, I find, is the rule. Left to my chosen pursuits, I should never drink tea nor coffee, nor eat meat. The diet of any class or gen- eration is the natural result of its employment and locality. It is remarkable how unprofitable it is for the most part to talk with farmers. They commonly stand on their good behavior and attempt to moralize or philosophize in a serious conversation. Sportsmen and loafers are better company. For society a man must not be too good or well-disposed, to spoil his natural disposition. ‘The bad are frequently good enough to let you see how bad they are, but the good as frequently endeavor [to] get between you and themselves.