Started a woodcock in the woods. Also saw a large telltale, I think yellow-shanks, whose note I at first mistook for a jay’s, giving the alarm to some partridges. The Polygonum orientale, probably some days, by Turnpike Bridge, a very rich rose-color large flowers . . .

  How earthy old people become,—mouldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it . . .