Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why get all your holiday decorations delivered through instacart Because
maybe you only bought two wreaths but you have twelve windows,
Or maybe your toddler got very eager with the advent calendar,
or maybe the inflatable snowman didn't make it through the snowstorm,
or maybe the twinkle lights aren't twinkling. Whatever the reason,
this season, Instacart's here for hosts and their whole holiday haul.
(00:22):
Get decorations from the home depots, cvs and more through
instacart and enjoy free delivery on your first three orders
service fees in terms supply.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The holidays are all about sharing with family, meals, couches, stories,
Gramma secret pecan pie recipe, and now you can also
share a cart with Instacart's family carts. Everyone can add
what they want to one group cart from wherever they are,
so you don't have to go from room to room
to find out who wants cranberry sauce, or who should
get many marshmallows for the ams, or collecting votes for
sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then
(00:52):
share the meals and the moments. Download the instacart app
and get delivery in as fast as thirty minutes plus
enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service Bees
and terms apply.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Walden by Henry David Thoro, Chapter twelve. Brute Neighbors. Sometimes
I had a companion in my fishing who came through
the village to my house from the other side of town.
And the catching of the dinner was as much a
(01:22):
social exercise as the eating of it. Hermit, I wonder
what the world is doing now? I have not heard
so much as a locust over the sweet fern these
three hours. The pigeons are all asleep upon their roosts,
no flutter from them. Was that a farmer's noon horn
(01:44):
which sounded from beyond the woods. Just now the hands
are coming in to boiled salt beef and cider and
Indian bread. Why will men worry themselves so he does
not eat, need not work? I wonder how much they
(02:06):
have reaped? Who would live there? Where a body can
never think? For the barking of boats? And oh the
house keeping to keep bright? The devil's door knobs and
scour his tubs this bright day. Better not keep a house,
(02:29):
say some hollow tree. And then for morning calls and
dinner parties, only a woodpecker tapping. Oh, they swarm the
sun is too warm there they are borne too far
into life. For me, I have water from the spring
(02:52):
and a loaf of brown bread on the shelf. Hark,
I hear a rustling of the leaves. Is it some
ill fed village hound yielding to the instinct of the chase,
or the lost pig which is said to be in
these woods whose tracks I saw after the rain? It
(03:13):
comes on apace, my sumacs and sweetbriars. Tremble eh, mister poet,
is it you? How do you like the world to day? Poet?
See those clouds, how they hang? That's the greatest thing
(03:34):
I have seen to day. There's nothing like it in
old paintings, nothing like it in foreign lands, unless when
we were off the coast of Spain. That's a true
Mediterranean sky. I thought, as I have my living to
get and have not eaten to day, that I might
go a fishing. That's the true industry for poets. It
(03:59):
is the only I have learned. Come, let's along, hermit.
I cannot resist. My brown bread will soon be gone.
I will go with you gladly soon. But I am
just concluding a serious meditation, I think that I am
(04:20):
near the end of it. Leave me alone then for
a while, but that we may not be delayed. You
shall be digging the bait. Meanwhile, angle worms are rarely
to be met with in these parts, where the soil
was never fattened with manure, the race is nearly extinct.
The sport of digging the bait is nearly equal to
(04:42):
that of catching the fish when one's appetite is not
too keen, And this you may have all to yourself
to day. I would advise you to set in the
spade down yonder among the ground nuts, where you see
the Johnswart waving. I think that I may warrant you
one worm to every three sods you turn up. If
(05:04):
you look well in among the roots of the grass,
as if you were weeding, or if you choose to
go farther, it will not be unwise, for I have
found the increase of fair bait to be very nearly
as the squares of the distances. Hermit alone, let me
see where was I methinks I was nearly in this
(05:29):
frame of mind. The world lay about at this angle.
Shall I go to heaven or a fishing if I
should soon bring this meditation to an end, would another
so sweet occasion be likely to offer? I was as
(05:50):
near being resolved into the essence of things as ever
I was in my life. I fear my thoughts will
not go back to me. If it would do any good,
I would whistle for them when they make us an offer.
Is it wise to say we will think of it?
(06:14):
My thoughts have left no track, and I cannot find
the path again. What was it that I was thinking of?
And was a very hazy day? I will just try
these three sentences of CONFUTSI they may fetch that state
(06:37):
about again. I know not whether it was the dumps
or a budding ecstasy. Mem There never is but one
opportunity of a kind poet, How now, Hermit, is it
too soon? I have got just thirteen ones, besides several
(07:01):
which are imperfect or undersized. But they will do for
the smaller fry. They do not cover up the hook
so much. Those village worms are quite too large. A
shiner may make a meal of one without finding the skewer. Hermit, Well,
then let's be off, shall we to concord? There's good
(07:23):
sport there if the water be not too high. Why
do precisely these objects which we behold make a world?
Why has man just these species of animals for his neighbors,
as if nothing but a mouse could have filled this crevice?
(07:44):
I suspect that pill Pay and company have put animals
to their best use, for they are all beasts of burden,
in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts.
The mice which haunted my house were not the common
ones which are said to have been introduced into the country,
(08:06):
but a wild, native kind not found in the village.
I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested
him much. When I was building, one of these had
its nest underneath the house, and before I had laid
the second floor and swept out the shavings, would come
(08:26):
out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs
at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before,
and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over
my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend
the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel,
which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I
(08:49):
leaned with my elbow on the bench, one day, it
ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round
and round the paper which held my dinner, while I
kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bo
peep with it. And when at last I held still
a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it
(09:10):
came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward
cleaned its face and paws like a fly, and walked away.
A phoebe soon built in my shed, and a robin
for protection in a pine which grew against the house.
(09:31):
In June, the partridge tetrau umbellus, which is so shy.
A bird led her brood past my windows from the
woods in the rear to the front of my house,
plucking and calling to them like a hen, and in
all her behavior proving herself the hen of the woods.
(09:53):
The young suddenly disperse on your approach at a signal
from the mother, as if a whirlwind had swept them away,
And they so exactly resemble the dried leaves and twigs
that many a traveler has played.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Why get all your holiday decorations delivered through instacart, because
maybe you only bought two wreaths, but you have twelve windows,
Or maybe your toddler got very eager with the advent calendar,
or maybe the inflatable snowman didn't make it through the snowstorm,
or maybe the twinkle lights aren't twinkling. Whatever the reason,
this season, Instacart's here for hosts and their whole holiday haul.
(10:31):
Get decorations from the home depots, cvs and more through
instacart and enjoy free delivery on your first three orders
service fees.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
In terms ofpply, the holidays are all about sharing with family, meals, couches, stories,
gramma secret, pecan pie recipe, and now you can also
share a cart with Instacart's family carts. Everyone can add
what they want to one group cart from wherever they are,
so you don't have to go from room to room
to find out who wants cranberry sauce, or who should
get many marshmallows for the ams, or collecting votes for
(10:58):
sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then
share the meals and the moments. Download the instacart app
and get delivery in as fast as thirty minutes, plus
enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees
and terms apply.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Taste his foot in the midst of a brood, and
heard the whir of the old bird as she flew off,
and her anxious calls and mewing, or seen her trail
her wings to attract his attention without suspecting their neighborhood.
The parent will sometimes roll and spin round before you
in such a dishabille that you cannot, for a few
(11:34):
moments detect what kind of creature it is. The young
squat still and flat, often running their heads under a leaf,
and mind only their mother's directions given from a distance.
Nor will your approach make them run again and betray themselves.
You may even tread on them, or have your eyes
(11:56):
on them for a minute without discovering them. I have
held them in my open hand at such a time,
and still their only care, obedient to their mother, and
their instinct was to squat there without fear or trembling.
So perfect is this instinct that once, when I had
(12:16):
lain them on the leaves again, and one accidentally fell
on its side, it was found with the rest in
exactly the same position ten minutes afterward. They are not callow,
like the young of most birds, but more perfectly developed
and precocious even than chickens. The remarkably adult, yet innocent
(12:40):
expression of their open and serene eyes is very memorable.
All intelligence seems reflected in them. They suggest not merely
the purity of infancy, but a wisdom clarified by experience.
(13:00):
Such an eye was not born when the bird was,
but is coevil with the sky. It reflects. The woods
do not yield another such a gem. The traveler does
not often look into such a limpid well. The ignorant
(13:21):
or reckless sportsmen often shoots the parent at such a time,
and leaves these innocents to fall a prey to some
prowling beast or bird, or gradually mingle with the decaying
leaves which they so much resemble. It is said that
(13:43):
when hatched by a hen, they will directly disperse on
some alarm, and so are lost, for they never hear
the mother's call which gathers them again. These were my
hens and chickens. It is remarkable how many creatures live
wild and free, though secret in the woods, and still
(14:05):
sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by hunters.
Only how retired the otter manages to live here. He
grows to be four feet long, as big as a
small boy, perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse
of him. I formerly saw the raccoon in the woods
(14:31):
behind where my house is built, and probably still heard
there wintering at night. Commonly I rested an hour or
two in the shade at noon after planting, and ate
my lunch, and read a little by a spring which
was the source of a swamp and of a brook
oozing from under Brister's Hill, half a mile from my field.
(14:58):
The approach to this was the through a succession of
descending grassy hollows full of young pitch pines, into a
larger wood about the swamp. There, in a very secluded
and shaded spot, under a spreading white pine, there was
(15:19):
yet a clean firm sward to sit on. I had
dug out the spring and made a well of clear
gray water where I could dip up a pailful without
roiling it, And thither I went for this purpose almost
every day in midsummer, when the pond was warmest. Thither too,
(15:43):
the woodcock led her brood to probe the mud for worms,
flying but a foot above them down the bank, while
they ran in a troop beneath. But at last spying me,
She would leave her young and circle round and round me,
nearer and nearer, till within four or five feet, pretending
(16:06):
broken wings and legs to attract my attention, and get
off her young, who would already have taken up their
march with faint, wiry peep, single file through the swamp
as she directed. Or I heard the peep of the
young when I could not see the parent bird there too,
(16:30):
the turtle doves sat over the spring, or fluttered from
bow to bow of the soft white pines over my head,
or the red squirrel coursing down the nearest bough was
particularly familiar and inquisitive. You only need sit still long
enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all
(16:51):
its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns. I
was witnessed to events of a less peaceful character. One day.
When I went out to my wood pile, or rather
my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the
one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch
(17:13):
long and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once
got hold, they never let go, but struggled and wrestled
and rolled on the chips incessantly looking farther. I was
surprised to find that the chips were covered with such
combatants that it was not a dullum but a bellum,
(17:38):
a war between two races of ants, the red always
pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to
one black. The legions of these mere miduns covered all
the hills and vales in my wood yard, and the
(17:58):
ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both
red and black. It was the only battle which I
have ever witnessed, the only battlefield I ever trod. While
the battle was raging inter nessine war, the Red Republicans
(18:22):
on the one hand and the Black imperialists on the other.
On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet
without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers
never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were
fast locked in each other's embraces in a little sunny
(18:46):
valley amid the chips, now at noonday, prepared to fight
till the sun went down or life went out. The
smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to
his adversary's front, and through all the tumblings on that field,
never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of
(19:09):
his feelers near the route, having already caused the other
to go by the board, while the stronger black one
dashed him from side to side, and as I saw
on looking nearer, had already divested him of several of
his members. They fought with more pertinacity than bulldogs. Neither
(19:32):
manifested the least disposition to retreat. It was evident that
their battle cry was conquer or die in the Meanwhile,
there came along a single red ant on the hillside
of this valley, evidently full of excitement, who either had
(19:52):
dispatched his foe or had not yet taken part in
the battle, probably the latter, for he had lost none
of his limb, whose mother had charged him to return
with his shield or upon it, Or perchance he was
some Achilles who had nourished his wrath apart, and had
(20:13):
now come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Why get all your holiday decorations delivered through instacart, because
maybe you only bought two wreaths, but you have twelve windows.
Or maybe your toddler got very eager with the advent calendar,
or maybe the inflatable snowman didn't make it through the snowstorm,
or maybe the twinkle lights aren't twinkling. Whatever the reason,
this season, Instacart's here for hosts and their whole holiday hall.
(20:39):
Get decorations from the home depots, cvs and more through instacart,
and enjoy free delivery on your first three orders, service
fees in terms supply.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
The holidays are all about sharing with family, meals, couches, stories,
gramma secret pecan pie recipe, and now you can also
share a cart with Instacart's family carts. Everyone can add
what they want to one group cart from wherever they are,
so you don't have to go from room to room
to find out who wants cranberry sauce, or who should
get many marshmallows for the ams, or collecting votes for
sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then
(21:10):
share the meals and the moments. Download the instacart app
and get delivery in as fast as thirty minutes, plus
enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees
and terms apply.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
He saw this unequal combat from Afar, for the blacks
were nearly twice the size of the red. He drew
near with rapid pace, till he stood on his guard
within half an inch of the combatants. Then, watching his opportunity,
he sprang upon the Black warrior and commenced his operations
(21:44):
near the root of his right fore leg, leaving the
foe to select among his own members. And so there
were three united for life, as if a new kind
of attraction had been invented, which put all other locks
and cements to shame. I should not have wondered by
(22:05):
this time to find that they had their respective musical
bands stationed on some eminent chip and playing their national airs,
the while to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants.
I was myself excited, and somewhat even as if they
had been men. The more you think of it, the
(22:30):
less the difference. And certainly there is not the fight
recorded in Concord history, at least if in the history
of America they will bear a moment's comparison with this,
whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the
patriotism and heroism displayed. For numbers and for carnage. It
(22:55):
was an Austerlitz or Dresden Concord fireight. Two killed on
the Patriot's side, and Luther Blanchard wounded. Why here every
ant was a buttrick fire for God's sake, fire, and
(23:16):
thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer. There was
not one hireling there. I have no doubt that it
was a principle. They fought for as much as our ancestors,
and not to avoid a three penny tax on their tea.
And the results of this battle will be as important
(23:38):
and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of
the Battle of Bunker Hill. At least. I took up
the chip on which the three I have particularly described
were struggling, carried it into my house, and placed it
under a tumbler on my window sill in order to
see the issue. Holding a mice croscope to the first
(24:01):
mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously
gnawing at the near fore leg of his enemy, having
severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away,
exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of
the black warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for
him to pierce, and the dark carbuncles of the sufferer's
(24:26):
eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite.
They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler, and
when I looked again, the black soldier had severed the
heads of his foes from their bodies, and the still
living heads were hanging on either side of him like
(24:46):
ghastly trophies at his saddle bow, still apparently as firmly
fastened as ever, and he was endeavoring with feeble struggles,
being without feelers and with only the remnant of a leg,
and I know not how many other wounds, to divest
himself of them, which at length, after half an hour
(25:09):
more he accomplished. I raised the glass, and he went
off over the window sill in that crippled state. Whether
he finally survived, that combatant spent the remainder of his
days in some hotel des invalides, I do not know,
(25:30):
but I thought that his industry would not be worth
much thereafter. I never learned which part he was victorious,
nor the cause of the war. But I felt for
the rest of that day as if I had had
my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the
(25:51):
ferocity and carnage of a human battle before my door.
Kirby and Spence tell us that the battles of ants
have long been celebrated and the date of them recorded,
though they say that Huber is the only modern author
who appears to have witnessed them. Annius Silvius say they,
(26:16):
after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with
great obstinacy by a great and small species on the
trunk of a pear tree, adds that this action was
fought in the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the
presence of Nicholas Pistorienus, an eminent lawyer, who related the
(26:39):
whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity. A
similar engagement between great and small ants is recorded by
Olaus Magnus, in which the small ones, being victorious, are
said to have buried the bodies of their own soldiers,
but left those of their giant enemies a prey to
the bird words. This event happened previous to the expulsion
(27:03):
of the tyrant Christierne the Second from Sweden. The battle
which Eye witnessed took place in the presidency of Polk,
five years before the passage of Webster's Fugitive Slave Bill.
Many a village bose fit only to course. A mud
turtle in a victulling cellar sported his heavy quarters in
(27:27):
the woods without the knowledge of his master, and ineffectually
smelled at old fox burrows and wood chuck's holes, led
perchance by some slight cur which nimbly threaded the wood
and might still inspire a natural terror in its denizens.
Now far behind his guide, barking like a canine bull
(27:50):
towards some small squirrel which had treat itself for scrutiny,
then cantering off, bending the bushes with his weight, imagining
that he is on the track of some stray member
of the Gerbilla family. Once I was surprised to see
a cat walking along the stony shore of the pond,
(28:11):
for they rarely wander so far from the home. The
surprise was mutual. Nevertheless, the most domestic cat, which is
lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at
home in the woods, and by her sly and stealthy behavior,
proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants. Once,
(28:37):
when burying, I met with a cat with young kittens
in the woods, quite wild, and they all, like their mother,
had their backs up and were fiercely spitting at me.
A few years before I lived in the woods, there
was what was called a winged cat, and one of
(28:57):
the farm houses in Lincoln nearest the pond, mister Gillian Baker's.
When I called to see her in June eighteen forty two,
she was gone a hunting in the woods, as was
her wont I am not sure whether it was a
male or female, and so used the more common pronoun,
but her mistress told me that she came into the
(29:19):
neighborhood a little more than a year before in April,
and was finally taken into their house. That she was
of a dark brownish gray color, with a white spot
on her throat and white feet, and had a large
bushy tail like a fox. That in the winter the
fur grew thick and flatted out along her sides, forming
(29:43):
stripes ten or twelve inches long by two and a
half wide, and under her chin like a muff, the
upper side loose, the under matted like felt, and in
the spring these appendages dropped off. They gave me a
pair of her wings, which I keep still. There is
(30:06):
no appearance of a membrane about them. Some thought it
was part flying squirrel or some other wild animal, which
is not impossible, for according to naturalists, prolific hybrids have
been produced by the union of the marten and domestic cat.
This would have been the right kind of cat for
(30:26):
me to keep, if I had kept any, For why
should not a poet's cat be winged as well as
his horse. In the fall, the loon Columbus glacialis came,
as usual to molt and bathe in the pond, making
the woods ring with his wild laughter. Before I had
(30:48):
risen at rumor of his arrival, all the mill damned
sportsmen are on the alert in gigs in on foot
two by two and three by three, with patents, rifles
and conical balls and spyglasses. They come, rustling through the
woods like autumn leaves, at least ten men to one loon.
(31:11):
Some station themselves on this side of the pond, some
on that, for the poor bird cannot be omnipresent. If
he dive here, he must come up there. But now
the kind october wind rises, rustling the leaves and rippling
the surface of the water, so that no loon can
(31:33):
be heard or seen, though his foes sweep the pond
with spyglasses and make the woods resound with their discharges.
The waves generously rise and dash angrily, taking sides with
all water fowl, and our sportsmen must beat a retreat
to town and shop and unfinished jobs. But they were
(31:58):
too often successful. When I went to get a pail
of water hurly in the morning, I frequently saw this
stately bird sailing out of my cove within a few rods.
If I endeavored to overtake him in a boat in
order to see how he would maneuver, he would dive
(32:19):
and be completely lost, so that I did not discover
him again, sometimes till the latter part of the day.
But I was more than a match for him on
the surface. He commonly went off in a rain. As
I was paddling along the north shore one very calm
October afternoon. For such days especially, they settle on to
(32:43):
the lakes like the milkweed down. Having looked in vain
over the pond for a loon. Suddenly, one sailing out
from the shore toward the middle a few rods in
front of me, set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself.
I pursued with a paddle, and he dived. But when
(33:05):
he came up, I was nearer than before he dived again,
but I miscalculated the direction he would take, and we
were fifty rods apart when he came to the surface
this time, for I had helped to widen the interval.
And again he laughed long and loud, and with more
(33:25):
reason than before. He maneuvered so cunningly that I could
not get within half a dozen rods of him each time.
When he came to the surface, turning his head this
way and that, he coolly surveyed the water and the land,
and apparently chose his course so that he might come
(33:46):
up where there was the widest expanse of water, and
at the greatest distance from the boat. It was surprising
how quickly he made up his mind and put his
resolve into execution. He led me at once to the
widest part of the pond, and could not be driven
from it. While he was thinking one thing in his brain,
(34:08):
I was endeavoring to divine his thought in mind. It
was a pretty game played on the smooth surface of
the pond, a man against a loon. Suddenly your adversary's
checker disappears beneath the board, and the problem is to
place yours nearest to where his will appear again. Sometimes
(34:30):
he would come up unexpectedly on the opposite side of me,
having apparently passed directly under the boat. So long winded
was he and so unweariable, that when he had swum farthest,
he would immediately plunge again. Nevertheless, and then no wit
could divine where in the deep pond, beneath the smooth
(34:52):
surface he might be speeding his way like a fish,
for he had time and ability to visit the bottom
of the pond, and in its deepest part. It is
said that loons have been caught in the New York
Lakes eighty feet beneath the surface with hooks set for trout,
(35:13):
though Walden is deeper than that. How surprised must the
fishes be to see this ungainly visitor from another sphere
speeding his way amid their schools. Yet he appeared to
know his course as surely under water as on the surface,
and swam much faster there. Once or twice I saw
(35:36):
a ripple where he approached the surface, just put his
head out to reconnoiter, and instantly dived again. I found
that it was as well for me to rest on
my oars and wait his reappearing, as to endeavor to
calculate where he would rise for again and again, when
I was straining my eyes over the surface one way,
(35:58):
I would suddenly be startled by his unearthly laugh behind me.
But why, after displaying so much cunning did he invariably
betray himself the moment he came up by that loud laugh,
did not his white breast enough betray him? He was
(36:19):
indeed a silly loon. I thought I could commonly hear
the splash of the water when he came up, and
so also detected him. But after an hour he seemed
as fresh as ever, dived as willingly, and swam yet
farther than at first. It was surprising to see how
(36:40):
serenely he sailed off with unruffled breast when he came
to the surface, doing all the work with his webbed
feet beneath. His usual note was this demoniac laughter, yet
somewhat like that of a water fowl. But occasionally, when
(37:01):
he had bulked me most successfully and come up a
long way off, he uttered a long, drawn, unearthly howl,
probably more like that of a wolf than any bird,
as when a beast puts his muzzle to the ground
and deliberately howls. This was his looning, perhaps the wildest
(37:24):
sound that is ever heard here, making the woods ring
far and wide. I concluded that he laughed in derision
of my efforts, confident of his own resources. Though the
sky was by this time overcast, the pond was so
smooth that I could see where he broke the surface.
(37:46):
When I did not hear him. His white breast, the
stillness of the air, and the smoothness of the water
were all against him. At length, having come up fifty
rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as
if calling on the God of loons to aid him.
(38:07):
And immediately there came a wind from the east and
rippled the surface and filled the whole air with misty rain.
And I was impressed, as if it were the prayer
of the loon answered, and his God was angry with me,
And so I left him, disappearing far away on the
(38:27):
tumultuous surface. For hours in fall days, I watched the
ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of
the pond, far from the sportsman tricks which they will
have less need to practice in Louisiana Bayous. When compelled
(38:48):
to rise, they would sometimes circle round and round and
over the pond at a considerable height, from which they
could easily see to other ponds and the river, like
black moa in the sky. And when I thought they
had gone off thither long since, they would settle down
by a slanting flight of a quarter of a mile
(39:10):
on to a distant part which was left free. But
what besides safety they got by sailing in the middle
of Walden, I do not know, unless they love its
water for the same reason that I do. End of
(39:30):
Chapter twelve.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
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(39:56):
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Speaker 1 (40:06):
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Or maybe your toddler got very eager with the advent calendar,
or maybe the inflatable snowman didn't make it through the snowstorm,
or maybe the twinkle lights aren't twinkling. Whatever the reason,
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(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:29):
The holidays are all about sharing with family, meals, couches, stories,
Gramma secret pecan pie recipe, and now you can also
share a cart with Instacart's family carts. Everyone can add
what they want to one group cart from wherever they are,
so you don't have to go from room to room
to find out who wants cranberry sauce, or who should
get many marshmallows for the ams, or collecting votes for
sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then
(00:52):
share the meals and the moments. Download the instacart app
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Speaker 3 (01:01):
Walden by Henry David Thoro, Chapter twelve. Brute Neighbors. Sometimes
I had a companion in my fishing who came through
the village to my house from the other side of town.
And the catching of the dinner was as much a
(01:22):
social exercise as the eating of it. Hermit, I wonder
what the world is doing now? I have not heard
so much as a locust over the sweet fern these
three hours. The pigeons are all asleep upon their roosts,
no flutter from them. Was that a farmer's noon horn
(01:44):
which sounded from beyond the woods. Just now the hands
are coming in to boiled salt beef and cider and
Indian bread. Why will men worry themselves so he does
not eat, need not work? I wonder how much they
(02:06):
have reaped? Who would live there? Where a body can
never think? For the barking of boats? And oh the
house keeping to keep bright? The devil's door knobs and
scour his tubs this bright day. Better not keep a house,
(02:29):
say some hollow tree. And then for morning calls and
dinner parties, only a woodpecker tapping. Oh, they swarm the
sun is too warm there they are borne too far
into life. For me, I have water from the spring
(02:52):
and a loaf of brown bread on the shelf. Hark,
I hear a rustling of the leaves. Is it some
ill fed village hound yielding to the instinct of the chase,
or the lost pig which is said to be in
these woods whose tracks I saw after the rain? It
(03:13):
comes on apace, my sumacs and sweetbriars. Tremble eh, mister poet,
is it you? How do you like the world to day? Poet?
See those clouds, how they hang? That's the greatest thing
(03:34):
I have seen to day. There's nothing like it in
old paintings, nothing like it in foreign lands, unless when
we were off the coast of Spain. That's a true
Mediterranean sky. I thought, as I have my living to
get and have not eaten to day, that I might
go a fishing. That's the true industry for poets. It
(03:59):
is the only I have learned. Come, let's along, hermit.
I cannot resist. My brown bread will soon be gone.
I will go with you gladly soon. But I am
just concluding a serious meditation, I think that I am
(04:20):
near the end of it. Leave me alone then for
a while, but that we may not be delayed. You
shall be digging the bait. Meanwhile, angle worms are rarely
to be met with in these parts, where the soil
was never fattened with manure, the race is nearly extinct.
The sport of digging the bait is nearly equal to
(04:42):
that of catching the fish when one's appetite is not
too keen, And this you may have all to yourself
to day. I would advise you to set in the
spade down yonder among the ground nuts, where you see
the Johnswart waving. I think that I may warrant you
one worm to every three sods you turn up. If
(05:04):
you look well in among the roots of the grass,
as if you were weeding, or if you choose to
go farther, it will not be unwise, for I have
found the increase of fair bait to be very nearly
as the squares of the distances. Hermit alone, let me
see where was I methinks I was nearly in this
(05:29):
frame of mind. The world lay about at this angle.
Shall I go to heaven or a fishing if I
should soon bring this meditation to an end, would another
so sweet occasion be likely to offer? I was as
(05:50):
near being resolved into the essence of things as ever
I was in my life. I fear my thoughts will
not go back to me. If it would do any good,
I would whistle for them when they make us an offer.
Is it wise to say we will think of it?
(06:14):
My thoughts have left no track, and I cannot find
the path again. What was it that I was thinking of?
And was a very hazy day? I will just try
these three sentences of CONFUTSI they may fetch that state
(06:37):
about again. I know not whether it was the dumps
or a budding ecstasy. Mem There never is but one
opportunity of a kind poet, How now, Hermit, is it
too soon? I have got just thirteen ones, besides several
(07:01):
which are imperfect or undersized. But they will do for
the smaller fry. They do not cover up the hook
so much. Those village worms are quite too large. A
shiner may make a meal of one without finding the skewer. Hermit, Well,
then let's be off, shall we to concord? There's good
(07:23):
sport there if the water be not too high. Why
do precisely these objects which we behold make a world?
Why has man just these species of animals for his neighbors,
as if nothing but a mouse could have filled this crevice?
(07:44):
I suspect that pill Pay and company have put animals
to their best use, for they are all beasts of burden,
in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts.
The mice which haunted my house were not the common
ones which are said to have been introduced into the country,
(08:06):
but a wild, native kind not found in the village.
I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested
him much. When I was building, one of these had
its nest underneath the house, and before I had laid
the second floor and swept out the shavings, would come
(08:26):
out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs
at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before,
and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over
my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend
the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel,
which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I
(08:49):
leaned with my elbow on the bench, one day, it
ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round
and round the paper which held my dinner, while I
kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bo
peep with it. And when at last I held still
a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it
(09:10):
came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward
cleaned its face and paws like a fly, and walked away.
A phoebe soon built in my shed, and a robin
for protection in a pine which grew against the house.
(09:31):
In June, the partridge tetrau umbellus, which is so shy.
A bird led her brood past my windows from the
woods in the rear to the front of my house,
plucking and calling to them like a hen, and in
all her behavior proving herself the hen of the woods.
(09:53):
The young suddenly disperse on your approach at a signal
from the mother, as if a whirlwind had swept them away,
And they so exactly resemble the dried leaves and twigs
that many a traveler has played.
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Speaker 2 (10:37):
In terms ofpply, the holidays are all about sharing with family, meals, couches, stories,
gramma secret, pecan pie recipe, and now you can also
share a cart with Instacart's family carts. Everyone can add
what they want to one group cart from wherever they are,
so you don't have to go from room to room
to find out who wants cranberry sauce, or who should
get many marshmallows for the ams, or collecting votes for
(10:58):
sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then
share the meals and the moments. Download the instacart app
and get delivery in as fast as thirty minutes, plus
enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees
and terms apply.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Taste his foot in the midst of a brood, and
heard the whir of the old bird as she flew off,
and her anxious calls and mewing, or seen her trail
her wings to attract his attention without suspecting their neighborhood.
The parent will sometimes roll and spin round before you
in such a dishabille that you cannot, for a few
(11:34):
moments detect what kind of creature it is. The young
squat still and flat, often running their heads under a leaf,
and mind only their mother's directions given from a distance.
Nor will your approach make them run again and betray themselves.
You may even tread on them, or have your eyes
(11:56):
on them for a minute without discovering them. I have
held them in my open hand at such a time,
and still their only care, obedient to their mother, and
their instinct was to squat there without fear or trembling.
So perfect is this instinct that once, when I had
(12:16):
lain them on the leaves again, and one accidentally fell
on its side, it was found with the rest in
exactly the same position ten minutes afterward. They are not callow,
like the young of most birds, but more perfectly developed
and precocious even than chickens. The remarkably adult, yet innocent
(12:40):
expression of their open and serene eyes is very memorable.
All intelligence seems reflected in them. They suggest not merely
the purity of infancy, but a wisdom clarified by experience.
(13:00):
Such an eye was not born when the bird was,
but is coevil with the sky. It reflects. The woods
do not yield another such a gem. The traveler does
not often look into such a limpid well. The ignorant
(13:21):
or reckless sportsmen often shoots the parent at such a time,
and leaves these innocents to fall a prey to some
prowling beast or bird, or gradually mingle with the decaying
leaves which they so much resemble. It is said that
(13:43):
when hatched by a hen, they will directly disperse on
some alarm, and so are lost, for they never hear
the mother's call which gathers them again. These were my
hens and chickens. It is remarkable how many creatures live
wild and free, though secret in the woods, and still
(14:05):
sustain themselves in the neighborhood of towns, suspected by hunters.
Only how retired the otter manages to live here. He
grows to be four feet long, as big as a
small boy, perhaps without any human being getting a glimpse
of him. I formerly saw the raccoon in the woods
(14:31):
behind where my house is built, and probably still heard
there wintering at night. Commonly I rested an hour or
two in the shade at noon after planting, and ate
my lunch, and read a little by a spring which
was the source of a swamp and of a brook
oozing from under Brister's Hill, half a mile from my field.
(14:58):
The approach to this was the through a succession of
descending grassy hollows full of young pitch pines, into a
larger wood about the swamp. There, in a very secluded
and shaded spot, under a spreading white pine, there was
(15:19):
yet a clean firm sward to sit on. I had
dug out the spring and made a well of clear
gray water where I could dip up a pailful without
roiling it, And thither I went for this purpose almost
every day in midsummer, when the pond was warmest. Thither too,
(15:43):
the woodcock led her brood to probe the mud for worms,
flying but a foot above them down the bank, while
they ran in a troop beneath. But at last spying me,
She would leave her young and circle round and round me,
nearer and nearer, till within four or five feet, pretending
(16:06):
broken wings and legs to attract my attention, and get
off her young, who would already have taken up their
march with faint, wiry peep, single file through the swamp
as she directed. Or I heard the peep of the
young when I could not see the parent bird there too,
(16:30):
the turtle doves sat over the spring, or fluttered from
bow to bow of the soft white pines over my head,
or the red squirrel coursing down the nearest bough was
particularly familiar and inquisitive. You only need sit still long
enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all
(16:51):
its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns. I
was witnessed to events of a less peaceful character. One day.
When I went out to my wood pile, or rather
my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the
one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch
(17:13):
long and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once
got hold, they never let go, but struggled and wrestled
and rolled on the chips incessantly looking farther. I was
surprised to find that the chips were covered with such
combatants that it was not a dullum but a bellum,
(17:38):
a war between two races of ants, the red always
pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to
one black. The legions of these mere miduns covered all
the hills and vales in my wood yard, and the
(17:58):
ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both
red and black. It was the only battle which I
have ever witnessed, the only battlefield I ever trod. While
the battle was raging inter nessine war, the Red Republicans
(18:22):
on the one hand and the Black imperialists on the other.
On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet
without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers
never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were
fast locked in each other's embraces in a little sunny
(18:46):
valley amid the chips, now at noonday, prepared to fight
till the sun went down or life went out. The
smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to
his adversary's front, and through all the tumblings on that field,
never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of
(19:09):
his feelers near the route, having already caused the other
to go by the board, while the stronger black one
dashed him from side to side, and as I saw
on looking nearer, had already divested him of several of
his members. They fought with more pertinacity than bulldogs. Neither
(19:32):
manifested the least disposition to retreat. It was evident that
their battle cry was conquer or die in the Meanwhile,
there came along a single red ant on the hillside
of this valley, evidently full of excitement, who either had
(19:52):
dispatched his foe or had not yet taken part in
the battle, probably the latter, for he had lost none
of his limb, whose mother had charged him to return
with his shield or upon it, Or perchance he was
some Achilles who had nourished his wrath apart, and had
(20:13):
now come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
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(20:39):
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Speaker 2 (20:47):
The holidays are all about sharing with family, meals, couches, stories,
gramma secret pecan pie recipe, and now you can also
share a cart with Instacart's family carts. Everyone can add
what they want to one group cart from wherever they are,
so you don't have to go from room to room
to find out who wants cranberry sauce, or who should
get many marshmallows for the ams, or collecting votes for
sugar cookies versus shortbread. Just share a cart and then
(21:10):
share the meals and the moments. Download the instacart app
and get delivery in as fast as thirty minutes, plus
enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees
and terms apply.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
He saw this unequal combat from Afar, for the blacks
were nearly twice the size of the red. He drew
near with rapid pace, till he stood on his guard
within half an inch of the combatants. Then, watching his opportunity,
he sprang upon the Black warrior and commenced his operations
(21:44):
near the root of his right fore leg, leaving the
foe to select among his own members. And so there
were three united for life, as if a new kind
of attraction had been invented, which put all other locks
and cements to shame. I should not have wondered by
(22:05):
this time to find that they had their respective musical
bands stationed on some eminent chip and playing their national airs,
the while to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants.
I was myself excited, and somewhat even as if they
had been men. The more you think of it, the
(22:30):
less the difference. And certainly there is not the fight
recorded in Concord history, at least if in the history
of America they will bear a moment's comparison with this,
whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the
patriotism and heroism displayed. For numbers and for carnage. It
(22:55):
was an Austerlitz or Dresden Concord fireight. Two killed on
the Patriot's side, and Luther Blanchard wounded. Why here every
ant was a buttrick fire for God's sake, fire, and
(23:16):
thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer. There was
not one hireling there. I have no doubt that it
was a principle. They fought for as much as our ancestors,
and not to avoid a three penny tax on their tea.
And the results of this battle will be as important
(23:38):
and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of
the Battle of Bunker Hill. At least. I took up
the chip on which the three I have particularly described
were struggling, carried it into my house, and placed it
under a tumbler on my window sill in order to
see the issue. Holding a mice croscope to the first
(24:01):
mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously
gnawing at the near fore leg of his enemy, having
severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away,
exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of
the black warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for
him to pierce, and the dark carbuncles of the sufferer's
(24:26):
eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite.
They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler, and
when I looked again, the black soldier had severed the
heads of his foes from their bodies, and the still
living heads were hanging on either side of him like
(24:46):
ghastly trophies at his saddle bow, still apparently as firmly
fastened as ever, and he was endeavoring with feeble struggles,
being without feelers and with only the remnant of a leg,
and I know not how many other wounds, to divest
himself of them, which at length, after half an hour
(25:09):
more he accomplished. I raised the glass, and he went
off over the window sill in that crippled state. Whether
he finally survived, that combatant spent the remainder of his
days in some hotel des invalides, I do not know,
(25:30):
but I thought that his industry would not be worth
much thereafter. I never learned which part he was victorious,
nor the cause of the war. But I felt for
the rest of that day as if I had had
my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the
(25:51):
ferocity and carnage of a human battle before my door.
Kirby and Spence tell us that the battles of ants
have long been celebrated and the date of them recorded,
though they say that Huber is the only modern author
who appears to have witnessed them. Annius Silvius say they,
(26:16):
after giving a very circumstantial account of one contested with
great obstinacy by a great and small species on the
trunk of a pear tree, adds that this action was
fought in the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the
presence of Nicholas Pistorienus, an eminent lawyer, who related the
(26:39):
whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity. A
similar engagement between great and small ants is recorded by
Olaus Magnus, in which the small ones, being victorious, are
said to have buried the bodies of their own soldiers,
but left those of their giant enemies a prey to
the bird words. This event happened previous to the expulsion
(27:03):
of the tyrant Christierne the Second from Sweden. The battle
which Eye witnessed took place in the presidency of Polk,
five years before the passage of Webster's Fugitive Slave Bill.
Many a village bose fit only to course. A mud
turtle in a victulling cellar sported his heavy quarters in
(27:27):
the woods without the knowledge of his master, and ineffectually
smelled at old fox burrows and wood chuck's holes, led
perchance by some slight cur which nimbly threaded the wood
and might still inspire a natural terror in its denizens.
Now far behind his guide, barking like a canine bull
(27:50):
towards some small squirrel which had treat itself for scrutiny,
then cantering off, bending the bushes with his weight, imagining
that he is on the track of some stray member
of the Gerbilla family. Once I was surprised to see
a cat walking along the stony shore of the pond,
(28:11):
for they rarely wander so far from the home. The
surprise was mutual. Nevertheless, the most domestic cat, which is
lain on a rug all her days, appears quite at
home in the woods, and by her sly and stealthy behavior,
proves herself more native there than the regular inhabitants. Once,
(28:37):
when burying, I met with a cat with young kittens
in the woods, quite wild, and they all, like their mother,
had their backs up and were fiercely spitting at me.
A few years before I lived in the woods, there
was what was called a winged cat, and one of
(28:57):
the farm houses in Lincoln nearest the pond, mister Gillian Baker's.
When I called to see her in June eighteen forty two,
she was gone a hunting in the woods, as was
her wont I am not sure whether it was a
male or female, and so used the more common pronoun,
but her mistress told me that she came into the
(29:19):
neighborhood a little more than a year before in April,
and was finally taken into their house. That she was
of a dark brownish gray color, with a white spot
on her throat and white feet, and had a large
bushy tail like a fox. That in the winter the
fur grew thick and flatted out along her sides, forming
(29:43):
stripes ten or twelve inches long by two and a
half wide, and under her chin like a muff, the
upper side loose, the under matted like felt, and in
the spring these appendages dropped off. They gave me a
pair of her wings, which I keep still. There is
(30:06):
no appearance of a membrane about them. Some thought it
was part flying squirrel or some other wild animal, which
is not impossible, for according to naturalists, prolific hybrids have
been produced by the union of the marten and domestic cat.
This would have been the right kind of cat for
(30:26):
me to keep, if I had kept any, For why
should not a poet's cat be winged as well as
his horse. In the fall, the loon Columbus glacialis came,
as usual to molt and bathe in the pond, making
the woods ring with his wild laughter. Before I had
(30:48):
risen at rumor of his arrival, all the mill damned
sportsmen are on the alert in gigs in on foot
two by two and three by three, with patents, rifles
and conical balls and spyglasses. They come, rustling through the
woods like autumn leaves, at least ten men to one loon.
(31:11):
Some station themselves on this side of the pond, some
on that, for the poor bird cannot be omnipresent. If
he dive here, he must come up there. But now
the kind october wind rises, rustling the leaves and rippling
the surface of the water, so that no loon can
(31:33):
be heard or seen, though his foes sweep the pond
with spyglasses and make the woods resound with their discharges.
The waves generously rise and dash angrily, taking sides with
all water fowl, and our sportsmen must beat a retreat
to town and shop and unfinished jobs. But they were
(31:58):
too often successful. When I went to get a pail
of water hurly in the morning, I frequently saw this
stately bird sailing out of my cove within a few rods.
If I endeavored to overtake him in a boat in
order to see how he would maneuver, he would dive
(32:19):
and be completely lost, so that I did not discover
him again, sometimes till the latter part of the day.
But I was more than a match for him on
the surface. He commonly went off in a rain. As
I was paddling along the north shore one very calm
October afternoon. For such days especially, they settle on to
(32:43):
the lakes like the milkweed down. Having looked in vain
over the pond for a loon. Suddenly, one sailing out
from the shore toward the middle a few rods in
front of me, set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself.
I pursued with a paddle, and he dived. But when
(33:05):
he came up, I was nearer than before he dived again,
but I miscalculated the direction he would take, and we
were fifty rods apart when he came to the surface
this time, for I had helped to widen the interval.
And again he laughed long and loud, and with more
(33:25):
reason than before. He maneuvered so cunningly that I could
not get within half a dozen rods of him each time.
When he came to the surface, turning his head this
way and that, he coolly surveyed the water and the land,
and apparently chose his course so that he might come
(33:46):
up where there was the widest expanse of water, and
at the greatest distance from the boat. It was surprising
how quickly he made up his mind and put his
resolve into execution. He led me at once to the
widest part of the pond, and could not be driven
from it. While he was thinking one thing in his brain,
(34:08):
I was endeavoring to divine his thought in mind. It
was a pretty game played on the smooth surface of
the pond, a man against a loon. Suddenly your adversary's
checker disappears beneath the board, and the problem is to
place yours nearest to where his will appear again. Sometimes
(34:30):
he would come up unexpectedly on the opposite side of me,
having apparently passed directly under the boat. So long winded
was he and so unweariable, that when he had swum farthest,
he would immediately plunge again. Nevertheless, and then no wit
could divine where in the deep pond, beneath the smooth
(34:52):
surface he might be speeding his way like a fish,
for he had time and ability to visit the bottom
of the pond, and in its deepest part. It is
said that loons have been caught in the New York
Lakes eighty feet beneath the surface with hooks set for trout,
(35:13):
though Walden is deeper than that. How surprised must the
fishes be to see this ungainly visitor from another sphere
speeding his way amid their schools. Yet he appeared to
know his course as surely under water as on the surface,
and swam much faster there. Once or twice I saw
(35:36):
a ripple where he approached the surface, just put his
head out to reconnoiter, and instantly dived again. I found
that it was as well for me to rest on
my oars and wait his reappearing, as to endeavor to
calculate where he would rise for again and again, when
I was straining my eyes over the surface one way,
(35:58):
I would suddenly be startled by his unearthly laugh behind me.
But why, after displaying so much cunning did he invariably
betray himself the moment he came up by that loud laugh,
did not his white breast enough betray him? He was
(36:19):
indeed a silly loon. I thought I could commonly hear
the splash of the water when he came up, and
so also detected him. But after an hour he seemed
as fresh as ever, dived as willingly, and swam yet
farther than at first. It was surprising to see how
(36:40):
serenely he sailed off with unruffled breast when he came
to the surface, doing all the work with his webbed
feet beneath. His usual note was this demoniac laughter, yet
somewhat like that of a water fowl. But occasionally, when
(37:01):
he had bulked me most successfully and come up a
long way off, he uttered a long, drawn, unearthly howl,
probably more like that of a wolf than any bird,
as when a beast puts his muzzle to the ground
and deliberately howls. This was his looning, perhaps the wildest
(37:24):
sound that is ever heard here, making the woods ring
far and wide. I concluded that he laughed in derision
of my efforts, confident of his own resources. Though the
sky was by this time overcast, the pond was so
smooth that I could see where he broke the surface.
(37:46):
When I did not hear him. His white breast, the
stillness of the air, and the smoothness of the water
were all against him. At length, having come up fifty
rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as
if calling on the God of loons to aid him.
(38:07):
And immediately there came a wind from the east and
rippled the surface and filled the whole air with misty rain.
And I was impressed, as if it were the prayer
of the loon answered, and his God was angry with me,
And so I left him, disappearing far away on the
(38:27):
tumultuous surface. For hours in fall days, I watched the
ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of
the pond, far from the sportsman tricks which they will
have less need to practice in Louisiana Bayous. When compelled
(38:48):
to rise, they would sometimes circle round and round and
over the pond at a considerable height, from which they
could easily see to other ponds and the river, like
black moa in the sky. And when I thought they
had gone off thither long since, they would settle down
by a slanting flight of a quarter of a mile
(39:10):
on to a distant part which was left free. But
what besides safety they got by sailing in the middle
of Walden, I do not know, unless they love its
water for the same reason that I do. End of
(39:30):
Chapter twelve.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
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