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Thoreau writes in his journal:

People are considerably alarmed. Some years ago a boy in Lincoln was bitten by a raccoon and died of hydrophobia. I observed to Minott to-night that I did not think that our doctors knew how to cure this disease, but he said they could cure it, he had seen a man bitten who was cured . . .

P.M.—To J. P. Brown’s pond-hole.

J. Hosmer showed me a pestle which his son had found this summer while plowing on the plain between his house and the river . . .

I dug for for frogs at Heart-leaf Pond, but found none . . .

(Journal, 5:522-527)

29 November 1856. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Begins to snow this morning and snows slowly and interruptedly with a little fine hail all day . . . (Journal, 9:140).

29 November 1857. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Again I am struck by the singularly wholesome colors of the withered oak leaves, especially the shrub oak, so thick and firm and unworn, without speck or fret, clear reddish-brown (sometimes paler or yellowish brown), its whitish under sides contrasting with it in a very cheerful manner. So strong and cheerful, as if it rejoiced at the advent of winter, and exclaimed, “Winter, come on!” It exhibits the fashionable colors of the winter on the two sides of its leaves. It sets the fashions, colors good for bare ground or for snow, grateful to the eyes of rabbits and partridges. This is the extent of its gaudiness, red brown and misty white, and yet it is gay . . .

(Journal, 10:213-216)

29 November 1858. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

P.M.—To Hill . . . I see a living shrike caught to-day in the barn of the Middlesex House (Journal, 11:351).

Amos Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:

Evening. I meet at Emerson’s and we discuss Private Life. Present are Henry James and Sam G. Ward from out of town; then Thoreau, W. E. Channing, Sanborn, G. Brooks, Mrs. Brooks, Mad. Emerson, Mrs. Emerson, the Pratts, Miss Thoreau, Miss Ripley, Stacy, and others of our townsfolk.

(The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 310).

29 November 1859. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

P.M.—To Copan . . .

Saw quite a flock of snow buntings not yet very white. They rose from the midst of a stubble-field unexpectedly. The moment they settled after wheeling around, they were perfectly concealed . . .

(Journal, 12:456-457)

29 November 1860. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Get up my boat, 7 A.M. Thin ice of the night is floating down the river. I hear that some boys went on to Goose Pond on the 26th and skated. It must have been thin.

P.M.—To Fair Haven Hill.

The Bear Garden pitch pines are so generally open that young pitch pines of all sizes are intermixed with the others. There are many small white pines beside, but few if any seed-bearing ones.

I proceed through Potter’s young wood south of this grove (toward Fair Haven Hill-side) and here I find by the stumps what I remember . . .

(Journal, 14:279-284)

29 November to 11 December 1841. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau lives with Charles Stearns Wheeler temporarily in order to qualify as a “Resident Graduate” at Harvard University, which would allow him to check out books from their library (Concord Saunterer, OS vol. 6, no. 2 (June 1971):4-6).

Probably sometime before Thoreau arrives in Cambridge, Josiah Quincy writes a note to Thaddeus William Harris: “Mr Thoreau being engag[ed] in a work, as he states, for which the aid of our Library is requisite, is hereby authorized, to receive from the library the usual number of volumes—and for y^e usual length of time, on the usual conditions until the Corporation can be consulted on his application.”

(The Transcendentalists and Minerva, 2:474)

29 October 1835. Cambridge, Mass.

Thoreau checks out Ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes & Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians, volume 3 by Charles Rollin from Harvard College Library (Companion to Thoreau’s Correspondence, 287).

29 October 1837. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Two ducks, of the summer or wood species, which were merrily dabbling in their favorite basin, struck up a retreat on my approach, and seemed disposed to take French leave, paddling off with swan-like majesty. They are first-rate swimmers, beating me at a round pace, and—what was to me a new trait in the duck character—dove every minute or two and swam several feet under water, in order to escape our attention. Just before immersion they seemed to give each other a significant nod, and then, as if by a common understanding, ’t was heels up and head down in the shaking of a duck’s wing. When they reappeared, it was amusing to observe with what a self-satisfied, darn-it-how-he-nicks-’em air they paddled off to repeat the experiment.

(Journal, 1:6-7)

29 October 1854. Concord, Mass.

Thoreau writes in his journal:

Detected a large English cherry in Smith’s woods beyond Saw Mill Brook by the peculiar fresh orange-scarlet color of its leaves . . . (Journal, 7:67).

Isaac Hecker writes to Orestes Brownson:

Do give in yr next Review a notice of “Thoreaus Life in the Woods.” He places himself fairly before the public and is a fair object of criticism. I have not read all his book through, & I dont think anyone else will except as a feat. I read enough in it to see that under his seeming truthfulness & frankness he conceals an immense amount of pride, pretention & infidelity.

This tendency to solitude & asceticism means something, and there is a certain degree of truthfulness & even bravery in his attempts to find out what this something is; but his results are increased pride, pretention & infidelity, instead of humility, simplicity & piety . . .

He brags of not having committed himself in not having purchased a farm, he forgets that he takes a deed for his book in the shape of a copy right . . .

(The Brownson-Hecker Correspondence, University of Notre Dame Press (1979), 170)

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