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  Looked at the falls and rocks. River higher than usual at this season, yet could cross all but about twenty feet on the rocks . . .

  Ascended the Fall Mountain with a heavy valise on my back, against the advice of the toll-man. But when I got up so soon and easily I was amused to remember his anxiety. It is seven hundred and fifty feet high, according to Gazetteer. Saw great red oaks on this hill, particularly tall, straight, and bare of limbs, for a great distance, amid the woods. Here, as at Brattleboro, a fine yiew of the country immediately beneath you; but these views lack breadth, a distant horizon. There is a complete view of the falls from this height.

  Saw a pair of middle-sized black hawks hovering a1 >out this cliff, with some white spots, with peculiar shrill snapping notes like a gull, a new kind to me . . .

  Rode the last mile into Walpole with a lumberer, who said that when he commenced operations at Bellows Falls be thought that there was not more than one hundred thousand there, but they had already got out four millions . Ile imported some of those masts I had seen go through Concord from Canada West. They were rafted along Lake Erie . . .

  Cardinal-flower, nearly done. beach plum, almost ripe. Squash vines on the Great Fields, generally killed and blackened by frost (though not so much in our garden), revealing the yellow fruit, perhaps prematurely . . .

  I received your note of yesterday this A.M. I am glad you write me so frankly. I know well how dear one’s own time & solitude may be, and I would not on any consideration violate the sanctity of your prerogative.

  I fear too that I may have heretofore trespassed upon your time too much If I have please pardon me as I did it unwittingly I felt the need of congenial society-& sought yours I forgot that I could not render you an equivalent. It is good for one to be checked-to be thrown more and more upon his own resources. I have lived years of solitude (seeing only my own family, & Uncle James occasionally,) and was never happier. My heart however was then more buoyant and the woods and fields-the birds & flowers, but more than these, my moral meditations afforded me a constant source of the truest enjoyment. I admire your strength & fortitude to battle the world. I am a weak and broken reed. Have charity for me, if not sympathy. Can any one heart know another’s? If not let us suspend our too hasty judgement against those from whom we differ.

  I hope to see you in due time at Brooklawn where you are always a welcome & instructive guest.

  With my kind regards to your family, I remain

  Yours faithfully
  D Ricketson

  Leaving Lowell at 7 A.M. in the cars, I observed and admired the dew on a fine grass in the meadows, which was almost as white and silvery as frost when the rays of the newly risen sun fell on it . . . (Journal, 14:76-77).