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小说: 04-sounds 字数: 每页4000字

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                              Sounds



    But while we are confined to books; though the most select and

classic; and read only particular written languages; which are

themselves but dialects and provincial; we are in danger of

forgetting the language which all things and events speak without

metaphor; which alone is copious and standard。  Much is published;

but little printed。  The rays which stream through the shutter will

be no longer remembered when the shutter is wholly removed。  No

method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever

on the alert。  What is a course of history or philosophy; or poetry;

no matter how well selected; or the best society; or the most

admirable routine of life; compared with the discipline of looking

always at what is to be seen?  Will you be a reader; a student

merely; or a seer?  Read your fate; see what is before you; and walk

on into futurity。

    I did not read books the first summer; I hoed beans。  Nay; I

often did better than this。  There were times when I could not

afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work;

whether of the head or hands。  I love a broad margin to my life。

Sometimes; in a summer morning; having taken my accustomed bath; I

sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon; rapt in a revery;

amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs; in undisturbed solitude

and stillness; while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless

through the house; until by the sun falling in at my west window; or

the noise of some traveller's wagon on the distant highway; I was

reminded of the lapse of time。  I grew in those seasons like corn in

the night; and they were far better than any work of the hands would

have been。  They were not time subtracted from my life; but so much

over and above my usual allowance。  I realized what the Orientals

mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works。  For the most

part; I minded not how the hours went。  The day advanced as if to

light some work of mine; it was morning; and lo; now it is evening;

and nothing memorable is accomplished。  Instead of singing like the

birds; I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune。  As the

sparrow had its trill; sitting on the hickory before my door; so had

I my chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my

nest。  My days were not days of the week; bearing the stamp of any

heathen deity; nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the

ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians; of whom it is

said that 〃for yesterday; today; and tomorrow they have only one

word; and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward

for yesterday forward for tomorrow; and overhead for the passing

day。〃  This was sheer idleness to my fellow…townsmen; no doubt; but

if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard; I should

not have been found wanting。  A man must find his occasions in

himself; it is true。  The natural day is very calm; and will hardly

reprove his indolence。

    I had this advantage; at least; in my mode of life; over those

who were obliged to look abroad for amusement; to society and the

theatre; that my life itself was become my amusement and never

ceased to be novel。  It was a drama of many scenes and without an

end。  If we were always; indeed; getting our living; and regulating

our lives according to the last and best mode we had learned; we

should never be troubled with ennui。  Follow your genius closely

enough; and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every

hour。  Housework was a pleasant pastime。  When my floor was dirty; I

rose early; and; setting all my furniture out of doors on the grass;

bed and bedstead making but one budget; dashed water on the floor;

and sprinkled white sand from the pond on it; and then with a broom

scrubbed it clean and white; and by the time the villagers had

broken their fast the morning sun had dried my house sufficiently to

allow me to move in again; and my meditations were almost

uninterupted。  It was pleasant to see my whole household effects out

on the grass; making a little pile like a gypsy's pack; and my

three…legged table; from which I did not remove the books and pen

and ink; standing amid the pines and hickories。  They seemed glad to

get out themselves; and as if unwilling to be brought in。  I was

sometimes tempted to stretch an awning over them and take my seat

there。  It was worth the while to see the sun shine on these things;

and hear the free wind blow on them; so much more interesting most

familiar objects look out of doors than in the house。  A bird sits

on the next bough; life…everlasting grows under the table; and

blackberry vines run round its legs; pine cones; chestnut burs; and

strawberry leaves are strewn about。  It looked as if this was the

way these forms came to be transferred to our furniture; to tables;

chairs; and bedsteads  because they once stood in their midst。

    My house was on the side of a hill; immediately on the edge of

the larger wood; in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and

hickories; and half a dozen rods from the pond; to which a narrow

footpath led down the hill。  In my front yard grew the strawberry;

blackberry; and life…everlasting; johnswort and goldenrod; shrub

oaks and sand cherry; blueberry and groundnut。  Near the end of May;

the sand cherry (Cerasus pumila) adorned the sides of the path with

its delicate flowers arranged in umbels cylindrically about its

short stems; which last; in the fall; weighed down with goodsized

and handsome cherries; fell over in wreaths like rays on every side。

I tasted them out of compliment to Nature; though they were scarcely

palatable。  The sumach (Rhus glabra) grew luxuriantly about the

house; pushing up through the embankment which I had made; and

growing five or six feet the first season。  Its broad pinnate

tropical leaf was pleasant though strange to look on。  The large

buds; suddenly pushing out late in the spring from dry sticks which

had seemed to be dead; developed themselves as by magic into

graceful green and tender boughs; an inch in diameter; and

sometimes; as I sat at my window; so heedlessly did they grow and

tax their weak joints; I heard a fresh and tender bough suddenly

fall like a fan to the ground; when there was not a breath of air

stirring; broken off by its own weight。  In August; the large masses

of berries; which; when in flower; had attracted many wild bees;

gradually assumed their bright velvety crimson hue; and by their

weight again bent down and broke the tender limbs。

    As I sit at my window this summer afternoon; hawks are circling

about my clearing; the tantivy of wild pigeons; flying by two and

threes athwart my view; or perching restless on the white pine

boughs behind my house; gives a voice to the air; a fish hawk

dimples the glassy surface of the pond and brings up a fish; a mink

steals out of the marsh before my door and seizes a frog by the

shore; the sedge is bending under the weight of the reed…birds

flitting hither and thither; and for the last half…hour I have heard

the rattle of railroad cars; now dying away and then reviving like

the beat of a partridge; conveying travellers from Boston to the

country。  For I did not live so out of the world as that boy who; as

I hear; was put out to a farmer in the east part of the town; but

ere long ran away and came home again; quite down at the heel and

homesick。  He had never seen such a dull and out…of…the…way place;

the folks were all gone off; why; you couldn't even hear the

whistle!  I doubt if there is such a place in Massachusetts now:



      〃In truth; our village has become a butt

       For one of those fleet railroad shafts; and o'er

       Our peaceful plain its soothing sound is  Concord。〃



    The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods

south of where I dwell。  I usually go to the village along its

causeway; and am; as it were; related t

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