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  They are burning brush nowadays. You see a great slanting column of dun smoke on the northeast of the town, which turns out to be much farther off than you suppose . . .

  C. [William Ellery Channing] says he saw a great many wood turtles on the bank of the Assabet to-day . . .

  P.M.—To Holbrook’s improvements.

   Many painted turtles out along a ditch Swamp. These the first I have seen, the water is so high in the meadows. One drops into the water from some dead brush which lies in it, and leaves on the brush two of its scales. Perhaps the sun causes the loosened scales to curl up, and so helps the turtle to get rid of them . . .

  One tells me he found the saxifrage out a Lee’s Cliff this afternoon, and another, Ellen Emerson, saw a yellow or little brown snake, evidently either the Coluber ordinatus or else amænus, probably the first . . .

  I am surprised, but at the same time a little encouraged, to hear that you have been imprisoned by a cold, like myself, most of the winter. I am encouraged, because I should like to discover that it is owing to some peculiarity in the season, rather than in my constitution. I hope that the knowledge of my sickness will be, at least an equal benefit to you. I hear that throat complaints have been very prevalent and unmanageable of late; but it is hard to come at the truth, for it is natural that we, having such complaints, should hear much more than usual about them. I may say that I have been a close prisoner ever since the 3d of December, for the very few times I have ventured out a little way, in the warmest days, just to breathe the fresh air, it has been against the advice of my friends.

  However, I may say that I have been unexpectedly well, considering how confined and sedentary my life has been. I have had a good time in the house, and it is really as if nothing had happened; or only I have lost the phenomena of winter. I have been quite as busy as usual, reading and writing, and I trust that, as warm weather advances, & I get out of doors more & more, my cough will gradually cease . . .

  The only excursion that I made last year was a very short though pleasant one to Monadnock, with my neighbor Channing. We built 2 spruce huts, and lived (in one at a time) on the rocky summit, for 6 days & 5 nights, without descending. It was an easy way to get an idea of the mountain . . .

  Accept these words from

Yrs truly
Henry D. Thoreau

  I love to see the domestic animals reassert their native rights,—any evidence that they have not lost their original wild habits and vigor. . .

  I visited a retired, now almost unused, graveyard in Lincoln today, where five British soldiers lie buried who fell on the 19th April, ’75. Edmund Wheeler, grandfather of William, who lived in the old house now pulled down near the present went over the next day and carted them to this ground. . .

  The water was over the turnpike below Master Cheney’s when I returned (May 31st, 1850).

  I am going in search of the Azalea nudiflora. Sophia brought home a single flower without twig or leaf from Mrs. Brook’s last evening. Mrs. Brooks. I find, has a large twig in a vase of water, still pretty fresh, which she says George Melvin gave to her son George. I called at his office. He says that Melvin came in to Mr. Gourgas’s office, where he and others were sitting Saturday evening, with his arms full and gave each a sprig, but he does n’t know where he got it. Somebody, I heard, had seen it at Captain Jarvis’s; so I went there. I found that they had some still pretty fresh in the house. Melvin gave it to them Saturday night, but they did not know where he got it. A young man working at Stedman Buttrick’s said it was a secret; there was only one bush in the town; Melvin knew of it and Stedman knew; when asked, Melvin said he got it in the swamp, or from a bush, etc. The young man thought it grew on the Island across the river on the Wheeler farm. I went on to Melvin’s house, though I did not expect to find him home at this hour, so early in the afternoon. (Saw the wood-sorrel out, a day or two perhaps, by the way.) At length I saw his dog by the door, and knew he was at home . . .

  P.M.—To Miles Meadow by boat.

  A cold southeast wind. Blue-eyed grass, apparently in pretty good season. Saw a greater telltale, and this is the only one I have seen probably; distinguished by its size. It is very watchful, but not timid, allowing me to come quite near, while it stands on the lookout at the water’s edge . . .