Thoreau writes in his journal:
A fine Indian-summer afternoon. There is much gossamer on the button-bushes, now bare of leaves, and on the sere meadow-grass, looking toward the sun, in countless parallel lines, like the ropes which connect the masts of a vessel . . .
Thoreau also writes to Charles Sumner (MS, Whitewall collection [?], Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts).
