[LI] 
Diary from Nov 1st, 1918 to 
March 28th, 1919 Nov 1st. Cool day of cloud and sun. Go to Woodstock to Whiteheads. Their car comes down for us. Reach there before noon. Good to be back to old place where I have spent so many pleasant days and years gone by. 2 Bright cool morning, a pleasant night here. The Whiteheads very hospitable. Their car brings us back before noon. Bring John with us from Kingston. 
3.
 A good day, cool. Julian and his family down in p.m. have a pleasant visit. 

4.
 Cool, calm, cloudy with light rain in p.m. Help Hud and Harbunch cut and saw up hickory in Gordons lot, a five lot of wood. 

5.
 Cloudy, cold from N.E. Go up to vote about 10 War news satisfactory. The terms to the Hems made known in a day or two, will amount to unconditional surrender, a long walk in p.m. around by Harts place - over three miles in all, too much, did not sleep well, 2 partridges by Gordons gravel bark. 

6.
 Clear, sharp. Drive to P. in p.m. mainly for clothes. Calm, not so cold (C.B. Betty, John and I.) 

7.
 Still clear and sharp, but calm. Wind S. this morning. 


-If the Kaiser and his six sons are left in Germany, they will be centres of Hohenzollern infection for generations to come. They should all be bundled off to St. Helena. Wilsons words are too soft, so soft that they are equivocal - he is equivocal about Alsase and Lorain and about the freedom of the seas. Let us call a spade a spade and a pirate a pirate. 8, 9,10 Bright sharp days from the N. Great war news. 
11. Clear sharp. Woke up this morning at 5. to hear a fevet confused din of bells and whistles in the deviation of P. heralding. I fancied the end of the war. Got up and dressed and sat by the open fire till daylight. The mail at 6:15 told the story. The Hum had capitulated. Glory to God - not to the Hum God, but to the Christian God of the allies. Go to P. in p.m. Bedlam turned loose, such a rocket. Everybody bent on making a discordant noise, soon tire of it, sit in 
G.M.C.A. Building for 2 hours, meet Ed Platt, a fine fellow. 12 Bright and sharp - down to 22 some say. The medicine Germany has to take - has taken in papers this morning, none to drastic, criminals must be handcuffed. G. must be kept handcuffed for generation. But what an ignoble figure is the Kaiser - fleeing to Holland - a fugitive from justice. Had he stayed and died with his cause, the world would have had some respect for him in the end, not a drop of heroic blood in him. And his six sons all unharmed during the whole war! They should all be turned over to the knife of the Gilder, and men allowed to perpetuate the Hohenzollern tribe. What do these German philosophers now think of the doctrine of the universal of the fittest? Who survives? The fittest of course and the nations and peoples that have some sense of justice and fair dealing and mercy and truthfulness survive in our times. In were primitive times might had its way tempered [with] by the golden rule is bound to triumph. Moral values today have survival value, and more truth force must take a back seat. I should like to ask that renegade English man, Chamberlin what he thinks about "The foundations of the 19th Century" now? are Tectonic frightfulness and shamelessness, good foundations to build upon? I should like to ask E if "The Problems of Human Life" do not look a little different to him? I should like to ask Enken if he does not get a glimpse of a new biological law that applies to the human species alone? The German, staked their all on the doctrine that might in the physical world or brute world make right in the moral human world and they have failed. The war is over! Think of it! Chaos and famine may come to Europe, but the Hem is crushed. Great evils always follow in the footsteps of great good, but time will restore the safe balance. Sleep well,. eat well, feel well and work pretty well. Weigh about 130, but my legs are weakening. 
P.m. every hour I have to nudge myself and say "wake up, wake up" "dont you know the was is ended?" It seems incredible that my life should go on just as before. But it does, I saw wood, doze before my open fire, read the paper, walk a little, ponder over moultons "Introduction to Astronomy," dream of the old days, receive callers, or sit vacant in my chair. And yet the most fervent and devout desire of hope of my life has suddenly come true. It is a relief like that the early man must have felt when he saw an eclipse of the sun passing off. The world is at last freed from the grip of this monster and his claws are drawn; not in this or in another generation. Can he make another spring if he ever can. 
13.
 Cloudy this a.m. and not so cold. Writing on our motor trip. C.B. still in N.Y. need rain. 

14.
 Still clear and sharp and dry. The break up of Germans and the consequences good and bad in all mens minds. 

15.
 Still clear and sharp, alone in the house. Writing on the motor trip and on the Germans. 

16.
 Fair and cool. Drive to P. and get my dinner and my new suit of N.C. home spur. 

17.
 Milder, light rain. Julian and Emily come down in p.m. 

18.
 Rained heavy all night, must warm. Thunder. 


P.m. raining intermittently of all afternoon, Mch thunder at 5. and sharp brief shower. C.B. not home yet. Finished the story of our motor trip, a fine letter from Mrs. Frank Baker who is now in California. 19, 20, 21. Chilly, partly cloudy days. Writing on motor trip and on The Failure of Germany. 
22.
 Cloudy, sharp. Write in study. Clifton Johnson comes at night, a fine visit with him. Large flocks of wild geese going south in p.m. (no, this was on 21st) 

23.
 Partly cloudy and sharp. Health improving I think under the enema every 2d day. 

24.
 Sunday. Bright, clear, sharp. Froze hard last night - too cold to drive up to cemetery today as I had hoped to do .That poor neglected grave troubles me, she would not have neglected mine. 

25.
 Clear, sharp, dry. Down to 24. Longstroth and his friend call and stay to dinner, a very pleasant 2 hours. 

26.
 Remarkable weather continues, - clear, [sha] dry, cold; down to 20. Wind north for a week. Extra dry cold is like extra dry champaigne exhilarating a net cold - how it chills one. Give me a cold with the chill taken out of it. In Nov. one wonders how he will keep warm when winter really arrives, the cold penetrates, its arrows are moisture. Later it fails to penetrate, the frost glances off, or acts like friction. The living thermometer acts so differently from the dead one! 27 Still cold and dry. The Philpotts leave today. Down to 22 


28. Thanksgiving, cold and hazy. Down to 20. Storm brewing. Snow I think, a glassy river nearly all the week. 
-Began raining in p.m. and rained at times all night. 
29.
 Bright and much warmer this morning, up to 52. Wind N.W. Lower temperature near. 

30.
 Fine in fore noon, colder in p.m. and at night. Dec 1. Down to 20. Windy, sharp. 2 Flurries of snow, cloudy at times. 3 An inch of snow last night our first. Cloudy and milder today. 12 M. a flock of evening. Grosbeaks in the maple in front of my window. The first and only ones I ever saw there in the 40 or more years I have sat here, 8 or 10 of them, pecking at the birds a pretty sight. The impulse to leave seemed to seize then all at the same instant. Where one felt it they all felt it and turned their heads in the same direction. Rare visitants, will any one else see them? Have they ever been here before? Then I heard the loud [fo] hum of an airplane and looking out saw one high and dim over Hyde Park, going south. Probably the same one I saw yesterday going N. over this place. I am convinced that in 5 years or less we shall all be making journeys in them and that they will be as safe as the slider cars or autos. Writing on phones of nature and of the universe - modest themes. 


4. Mild (50 degrees) Work a little in a.m. Go up to Kingston at 2 p.m. to visit J's family. Spend 4 hours with them, all well. Then home at 8 p.m. 5 Clear, sharp, down to 27, a good sleep last night. Feel fine 
6.
 Two inches of snow last night, milder. Go to P. to lunch with Sara Taylor, a good lunch. Grows cold in p.m. 

7.
 Down to 10 this morning. Cloudy. 

8.
 Sunday, cloudy and milder. Judge Frank Talbot here - very glad to see him, a noble product of the farm, great comment of spirit, between us. We heard a delightful day together. Goes home at 4:30. 

9.
 Clear, mild, calm, snow melting, like a fine Nov. day. 


13.
 A period of calm, misty, foggy weather - 3 days of it now, a little below freezing at times. Writing a little on the despicable Germans, and arranging MS of a proposed vol. on manifold nature. 

14.
 Still calm, foggy deal with a little rain. 15 A good deal of rain in the night, heavy at times. Dark and heavy this morning but warm - up to 52, but wind has shifted to N.W. and a cool wave is near. Frost all out of the ground. Pawing over the material for the new vol. .the Heart of nature - these days adding a little and cutting out a little. More thoughts about my poor wife these days than usual - miss her more and more as time goes on, "We were young together." Thoughts of the informal Germans, still fill my mind and move my pen, my last expression - "Germany's Failure" not yet off my hands. N.A. Review declined it. 


-Julian and his family come at 5, so glad to see them. 
16.
 Cloudy all day and mild - 52 degrees - 2 grs calomel last night. 

17.
 Bright and cooler, 30 this morning. Wind north. at Yama Farm Dec 19. Clear and cold, a short walk in the morning, a small oak tree at the forl of the rocks, full of clinging dry leaves; one leaf near the top in constant motion, swaying to and fro while the other leaves were wither still or showed a slight tremendous motion at times. But the one leaf was visibly greatly agitated. It reminded me of these high strongly sensitive souls few or many in all life communities who are moved or thrilled by thoughts or influences that the great mass is quite insensible to or only faintly conscious of - the poets, prophets, seers when place is high in the tree of life. The oak leaf I refer to to seemed to have a longer and unflexible stem or ptiole than the other leaves and no doubt hung at a different angle to the slight air currents than the others. 


20. All such emotional leaves I find have the stem broken and hang by a mere thread. 
-Had Job lived in our times he would hardly have boasted caust then send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee. Here we are? The lightnings not only careens and says. here we are; it says here we are with a message or here we are ready to do your errand, or your work. 
19. At Yama Farms Inn. Bright and sharp - a good time, the Inn all to myself. 20, 21. Bright, mild, lovely days; like Nov. walk a little, write a little, read much. 
22.
 Began raining before noon. Rained all night, very hard at times. 

23.
 Clear and mild. Streams at flood from the heavy rain. Leave Yama at 9 with Mr Seam in car for Kingston, an enjoyable ride, like April. Home on noon train. 

24.
 Calm, cloudy, misty, mild, storm here. 


-What heathenish, unchivalrous or non-chivalrous creatures the birds are. Two nuthatches a male and female, are feeding nearly every hour each day on the piece of seevet on the trunk of the maple tree in front of my window. But their is not the least cereity or fraternizing between them. The male on all occasions treats the female rudely and spitefully. He will not allow her to feed at all while he is around. She often timidly approaches, but he instantly makes a dive at her. He is a little barbarian, when the downy woods pecker comes there he has to eat at second table. Downy will tolerate no other guests. 
25. Mild day with fitful gleams of sunshine. Spend it with Julian and his family in K. so glad to be with them and able to eat a good dinner. J. and I discuss his problems, but do not reach a solution that satisfies him. I give the children each a present of a few dollars. I receive a few little gifts at home, many cards and a few telegrams. Mr Ford is sending me by express a little donkey saddled and bridlerd and well broken from the far West for me to ride. I trust I shall get much good out of him. His 4 young legs might be much better than my two old legs. Xmas is always a rather sad day for the old, such a flood of memories does it bring. 26 Cloudy and cooler, with gentle sprinkles of snow, a good sleep last night. 
-Why does Julians boyhood diaries (10 to 13) so impress and hold me. They are brief jottings of his life from day to day, many of the events I remember distinctly, but these records make me feel as if I had just lived them of course my love of Julian has much to do with it. He is now a middle aged man. In these Diaries, he is again the boy in whom I was so wrapped up, I see his simple life here and my own too and my wife, so vividly. For the moment his doings fill all these long gone days. His fishing, his swimming, his skating, his hoeing, his net knitting, his scapping etc. are great events, oh, the past, here it lives again in such records. This is the advantage of a diary; it embalms your days. I here back in my own diary and live over again the days presumed here. But unless one has this yearning over the past, unless ones life is in a way transmuted by time, he will not care much for such things. Dec 27. Still overcast, with light indolent snow squalls, mercury 28 degrees. N.A. Review comes with my paper, "shall we accept the universe," not a skim of ice yet in the river. Dec 28. Calm indolent weather, snow flakes fitfully fall now and then, as if the meteoric gods were asleep; the clouds leak snow, all nature seems asleep these days, no winds at all, river like glass most of the time, only the surface of the ground frozen. The donkey came at noon. Hope we shall get on well together. Start for Yama Farms at 2 p.m. Reach there at 5. 29, 30, 3. At Yama and thriving. Walk a mile or two each day. Reading and writing in my room. 1919 Jany 1st At Yama Farms. Rained all night, heavy at times, mercury 38 this morning, a thin fleece of fog clings to the ground, calm, heavily over cast. Weight this morning 132-73, a poor night sleep - full of gas. Re-reading Coleridge these days - a marvelous mind - always suggestive. Had he lived in our time, his mind would not have moved in the leading strings of ecclesiastical religion as it did then. He would have had more science and less theology. His learned 
exposition of the causes of malarial disease how amusing - the "neno- glandular system," "the muscerol - arterial system" etc., but that was the science of his time. Bad air from swamp cause azure etc. Jany 2d Cloudy with rain. Hawk falls with its big white apron on again. Julian and Ursa come on 10.40 train. Very happy to have them. We drive to the farm in forenoon and then to Ellenville. In p.m. walk to Jenny brook, but I do not go down to the trout ponds. My precious guests return on evening train. 3d. Snowed all night, about 6 inch of rather heavy snow this morning. Calm and cloudy. Gaining again in weight, 133. 
4.
 Leave Yama this morning. Cold, 26 degrees. Stop an hour in K. Find Julian and Ursa at W.P. Ursa much interested in the donkey. 

5.
 Clear, cold, down near zero. Hudson skimmed over. Feel well after a good sleep. 

6.
 Still cold, near zero. Write in study in "a soulless people" in a.m. In p.m. try to ride the donkey with poor success. Give me any horse kind but a female donkey. 8 Hear of Roosevelt's death last night, and have had a lump in my throat ever since. I loved him more than I thought I did. The past two years his openly hostile attitude toward President Wilson has been very irritating. It ill becomes an ex president to deal in denunciations toward the President - criticism but not abuse. But how quickly death makes us forget all that. We remember only his great qualities and his great services to the country, and I remember his great kindness to me personally. The old mans tears come easily and I can hardly speak his name without tears in my voice. I have known him since his ranch days in Montana and to know him as I have was to love him. I went with him through the yellow Stone Park in the spring of 1903. My paper in Atlantic monthly on Real and shaur natural history, pleased him so, then was so much fight and hard hitting in it, that he asked me to go with him and see the game in the park. I have written about it in my "Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt." He was a live wire if there ever was one in human force. His sense of right and duty was as inflexible as adamant. Politicians found him a hard customer. His reproof and refusal came quick and sharp. His manner was authoritative and stern. He was as bold as a lion, and at times as playful as a lamb. His political enemies at Albany early in his career laid traps fro him in hopes of tarnishing his reputation. But he was too keen for them. He was scrupulous in morals and unflinching in what he felt to be his duty. The world seems more black and cold since he is no longer in it. He helped to warm it and keep the currents going. Too fondd of the lime light and the centre of the stage from his excess of the sense of leadership. He was a born leader and disciplinarian. Add a little of Lincoln's humility and self forgetfulness, and you have one of the greatest man of history. What a centre of energy he was in our affairs! He elevated the standard of business and political morals for the whole country, and intensified the patriotism of every one of us. His Americanism charged the very marrow in his bones. And yet he could not accept Walt Whitman. What looked like W's loose morals, respected him. 


8.
 Cloudy with light snow, mercury 28. Large masses of floating ice in river. Write a letter to Mrs Roosevelt, a fine poem by Grace Van Anna in N.Y. Times this morning - almost great lyric. Clearing at noon. Ford due on 4 1/2 p.m. train. Julian comes down. 

9.
 A mild day, Mr Ford here. We arrive over to the Sutcliff dam and falls. Mr F. looking for water power to sect more people to work. Mr F. leaves at 2 p.m. 

10.
 A cold wave in the night, down to zero this morning. River frozen over, a little milder in p.m. Write letters and poke about. 


1.1 Much milder last night, sign of another cold wave this morning. Julian went back home last night. I turn over to him my T and T stock cost me $2300. 
12.
 Zero again this morning, a clear calm day 

13.
 Zero again, but higher temperature is near, now at 10 1/2 the ice on the river begins to whoop and snow indicating a change of temperature. I have an ominous feeling about Mr Ford - fear he is breaking hope I shall live to say, "how wrong I was." 

14.
 Mild overcast day, thawing. But little work. 

15.
 Cooler, partly overcast a steam went through the ice last night and sat it moving. The thought of Roosevelt will not leave me, night or day. 

16.
 Clear, cooler, down to 30. 17 Still mild, a sprinkle of rain in the morning, seen out at noon, April weather. Had a fall from the donkeys back, a mean vicious beast. Last proofs of "Field and Study" yesterday. 


18.
 Still mild up to 40, sprinkle of rain in morning. Fair and April like in p.m. 

19.
 No change, no frost, clear in p.m. I fear nature is squandering all her fair days and will be impoverished before 

spring. Blue birds and song sparrows here the other day. 

20.
 Julian drives me to P. for 1 train to N.Y. Reach Floral Park at 5. 21 Fine mild day. Mr C. and I drive to Roosevelts grave in a small cemetery on a [wooded] knoll. Partly surrounded by woods with glimpses of the Bang to the north, a beautiful secluded spot - the grave a mound of wreaths of flowers. Spend 1/2 hour there not all the time with dry eyes. How vividly he came back to me and the days we had spent together. Tabt had been through the guard said and wept properly. The most potent force for pure Americanism in the best sense in our history, was R. Then to school in the woods 20 miles away, to please Mr C. 


22.
 To Brooklyn to call on Miss Ballard and take lunch. Then in p.m. to Dr Johnsons. Garland calls in evening. 

23.
 Call on Roulands at 10. Then to 11 Broodney to lunch with Miss Estrel Chase. Take car to Garlands, then to Dr Crumps in evening. Dr and Mr Terry old friends of Dr Barrus, call. Enjoy my night at the Crumps. 

24.
 To Tenn Building and spend a few hours with Archel and to lunch. Then to American museum of Nalt History to see the movies and c. The to 5th Ave to a photographer. Then to Dr Johnsons. 

25.
 Clear, cold. Get 11 1/2 train for P. and home at 2:5. Glad to be back. 

26.
 Good night, cloudy this morning. Feel pretty well; have gained a little I think. Clear in p.m. Walk back of the hill. 

27.
 A spring like morning, mercury at 9. 42 degrees nearly clear. 

28.
 Lovely, bright, mild day. Mercury 26 in morning. Write in study on Darwinism, and walk in p.m. and read Darwins letters. 

29.
 Mild partly cloudy. Mercury 34, a good sleep. Re-reading Huxley a keen penetrating mind, the knight in shining armor of the Darwinian Theory., The way H. can "sas back," the way his irony can bite and blister, the way he can dispell fog and discussion is a wonder, no other writer of his time or fore time on scientific subjects was so immanent in his work, so clearly and vividly before his reader. Clear as crystal is his pages and with a distinction like cut glass. He is brilliant, he is logical, he is imaginative, he is sane and sure, he is rhetorical, he is solid, he is a moral teacher and he is a trained scientist, a brilliant but not a profound mind. 30, 31. Dry, bright sharp days. My old enemy stole a march on me again, auto intoxication. Began thawing night with the symptoms of a cold, sneezing, nose and eyes running copiously and a little soreness of the throat. I get up at 4 a.m. and take an enema. Feel better during the day, but the cold symptoms return at night. Some pain in legs. Friday a.m. take 2 grs of calomel, operates twice in p.m. and again Saturday morning. Take an enema. Keep pretty close to the house on. Feb 1st A bright windy cold day. Have had a slight touch of fever once or twice I think, a little too sensitive to the cold. The calomel depletes me, pulls me down, 2 grs is too much for me. Sleep very poor on the 30, and 31st. Slept nearly 4 hours last night, a great deal of irregular heart action. 2d Bright dry, sharp windy day. Legs feel better, color improved all better but the heart action. Poor appetite for my dinner. Have resolved to eat no more meat, no more shell fish, no fish, but creamed salt cod, and steamed fresh cod must find the cause of this flatulency. It is this gas that poisons me, meat may be the cause. I hope the worst is over, but am not sure. 3d. Bright and milder. Feel better, slept over 5 hours, heart very quiet since yesterday p.m. Lost 6 lbs in 5 days, probably in 3 days, yet without fever or bronchitis. Weigh stripped today 114 lbs I am like a chimney that needs burning out once a year. But why should my chimney get clogged? Too much fuel? In future, beware a growing belly, beware an unsteady heart, beware much fluid from the nose and much phlegen from the throat, beware chilly sensations on going to bed, beware much flatulency, beware dizziness of all degrees, beware pain in hollow of your legs. 


4.
 Bright and sharp, improving slowly. Sleep better, appetite good enough. Write and revise MS. 

5.
 No change in weather. Best sleep last night for week, slept 7 or 8 hours. Feel lank but pretty well this morning. 

6.
 No change in weather, still bright and sharp, a good sleep last night mind active today. Julian comes down and stays to dinner, so glad to have him here. 

7.
 No change. Down to 28 this morning. Clear and dry. Slept 7 or 8 hours last night. Heart much steadier since I have cut down my eating, and legs much lighter. 

8.
 Down to 28, partly cloudy but calm, a poor night last night. I think from mixing zoobic and leaman aid, shall never do it again. A nuthatch with a spring call this morning. 

9.
 Bright sharp day, down to 25, 32 at 1 p.m. all crystal sunshine. Write in a.m. in p.m. walk down by the river and up to near the Payne place and home - no fatigue, no wild life in the woods. 

10.
 Colder, down to 20, windy from N. River a crush of thin ice. Pretty poor night. 


-Had I lived 100 or 500 years ago, I would have felt and said the same as I do now - that it is late in time - the afternoon sun guilds all, and turned longingly to the past. It is our own age that we see reflected in nature. Feb 11. Still bright, dry, cold, down to 12 this morning; winter without snow - fluctuations of temperature unusually light - from 23 or 24 to 31 or 2 nearly every day. Good sleep last night. Eyes much clearer since I cut down my rations. The death of Roosevelt still weighs upon me - a black cloud in the midst of the bright day. 
12.
 Bright sharp day. Julian here. 

13.
 Still bright and sharp with signs of storm. Write each morning. 

14.
 The end of the fair days began raining in the night, still raining from N.E. C.B. and Betty off for N.Y. Nearly 3 weeks of remarkable weather, clear, calm, cold - very uniform temperature from 23 to 33, most of the time, rarely above freezing at midday. I at last got tired of the bright, hard dry days. 

15.
 Rain, rain. Julian comes down. 

16.
 Rain over, cool. 

17.
 Fair and cold. Julian here pleasant days. 

18.
 Clear, 28 degrees in morning, up to 40 at one. Tap 2 trees. J. works on his boat. 

19.
 Colder, down to 20 degrees this morning. Sleep well and do some work. C.B. still about in N.Y. Two years ago today I bade farewell to my poor wife for the last time and started with Mr Ford on a trip to Cuba, on his Sealia or Blue Bird 20 Bright sharp day, down to 20. Warm in p.m. Tap 4 trees. Walk along the river in p.m. C.B. and children come at night. 21 Cloudy and milder. Begins to snow at 10, leisurely and intermittently. Work in study on Darwinisim and doctors I have known. 22 A white world this morning 4 or 5 inches of snow. It came down so gently among the night that every branch and bough of the trees is loaded with it a sap snow we would have called it in my youth. Mild and absolutely calm this morning, now at 10 the snow is dropping from the trees in larger flakes and masses. Over second snow of the winter, not more than 10 or 11 inches this season so far, and only a few days of zero weather. 23 More snow in the night, 2 or 3 inches. Cloudy, calm mild, sap running, snow melting and dripping and dropping from the trees 


23. Roy from Montreal here. 
25.
 Cloudy. 

26.
 Heavy rain last night a freshet in all the stream. Drive to P. at 11. Julian and the Dr and J. Home at 1. Colder. 

27.
 A cold wave last night, down to 20 this morning a hard biting cold. Walk along to river to the Bingham dock this 


p.m. Do it easily. Legs stronger than they have been for 2 years, no birds yet, snow all gone. Ground full of water. 28 Cloudy, chilly, sap runs. Julian leaves in p.m. Boil down 6 pails of sap. Mch 1. Heavy rain all night, water, water everywhere, clearing at 9. Cold wave coming sap runs. 
2. Sun and cloud this morning. Only down to 30. Cold wave a flash in the pan, a good sleep. Weigh only 113 stripped 
2.
 Two blue birds, a song sparrow in song and a robin today, a fine day, wonderful sap day. Boil sap in p.m. River clear of ice. 

3.
 Lovely soft day, a filane in the air. Calm, entrancing, a great sap day. Boil sap all day. Syrup off at 7 p.m. and have 3 or 4 gts of syrup. 

4.
 Another April like day. Down to 33 this morning, a drop or two and walk in the golden bowl of sunlight today. Boil sap again - sap all in the pan by noon. Wind southerly. Feel pretty well - gained 3 lbs since Saturday, when I ceased starving myself. The senses of a hungry man are always alert. He sees clearer and more quicker and thinks quicker. 5 Mild cloudy in a.m. Clearing up in p.m. We drive to Kingston to Julian's, gone 3 hours, all well at Js a light rain at 4. Colder 6th. A flurry of snow in the night. Clear and cold this morning, down to 20. Wind north, more sap weather coming, I am sorry. 


7.
 Cloudy, chilly. Fair and mild in p.m. Walk by the river. 

8.
 Fair and colder; down to 26. Wind North or N.E. a storm brewing I think. That ignoble people, the Germans still occupy my thoughts. 

9.
 Rained all night, heavily up to 3 1/2 p.m. today. The fields flooded, the river a stream of muddy water. Had the storm been snow, the conditions of 30 years ago (1888) would have been repeated. The precipitation of the past 4 weeks has 


been tremendous. Julian here. Work on my paper on the Germans (an Ignoble people) 10 Windy night, mercury 45 today. Bright and lovely p.m. Sap still runs up by the road. Julian goes back home at 11. I wrote a little. In p.m. walk over back of the hill through Dreveron fields a few robins feeding on Semack berries. 
12.
 Down to freezing again last night. Clear and lovely this morning. Sap running again. 

13.
 Cold. N. wind, down to 20. 

14.
 No change in temperature. Write a little, walk a little. 

15.
 Still cold with prospects of snow, no sap since the 12th. Spend my evening home in re-reading Roosevelt. Ranch days and hunting trips. The extent of his tramping and hunting in the West, the hardship he endured and his intense enjoyment of it all [is] are extraordinary. 

16.
 A chilly day of fog and mist, dark desired. 17 The same continued, but a trifle warmer. The skim of snow all gone. Fox sparrows here in morning, send off papers to 


N.A. Review on the nature of Providence made up from a pile of MSS, called The Heart of Nature, must make up another to be called "Thoughts as they come," still another called "Thinking aloud," still another to be called "Nature Good or Evil." Sap still runs. Robins on the lawn, jerking out the worms. 
18.
 Rained nearly all night. Fog and light rain this morning. Clearing before noon. Warm and fine in p.m. We drive to Milton to Dr Fretons, a fine drive. Ground overflowing with water everywhere, all streams lusty and clear. 

19.
 Cooler, cloudy from M. Julian here, a great comfort. A sour chilly windy day with sprinkle of rain. N.E. very disagreeable. 

20.
 Clearing, less windy. Bad news from Eden, hear he is near his end, a shock on the 18th 

21.
 Clear this morning, wind still north, mercury 40. Drove up to Pt Ewen yesterday p.m. Sap run over. Crocuses blooming yesterday. This promises to be a day of great beauty and charm, no news from Eden today yet. Drive to Milton in p.m. the Gordon girls with us. 

22.
 Still a cold driving wind from the N. persisted now for nearly 2 weeks, partly cloudy, colder than yesterday. Peepers in Drenans pond. 

23.
 Partly cloudy, still the cold driving N. wind. Write a little and loaf about. The wind gets on my nerves. Garden fit to plow. 

24.
 Still the driving N. wind and white caps on the river. The crows flying north in the morning have to bend themselves to the task. They fly low and are often brought nearly to a stand still, ground rapidly drying up; plow garden this morning - must get in the onion seed and early peas this p.m. Julians dog somehow got a bad cut over the eye. He could not practice the usual dog treepurt of his wounds by licking it but day after day he kept lapping out his tongue as if licking an imaginary sore, the movement seemed to be automatic, it was no doubt a reflex from their wound. 

25.
 Clear brilliant morning. Wind abated river smooth. Work in morning, correct proof from N.A. Review papers an article for Yale Review on the universal Beneficence. Harry L. West comes at one. We have much talk drive to Slabsides. West an old friend of Washington later days, a fine fellow, author of Growth of Federal Power, friend of Roosevelt etc. 

26.
 Partly cloudy this morning. But calm. Down to freezing again, no touch of real warmth yet this spring, uniformly low temperature. 


-First phoebe bird today, but silent. The song of the load at night. 
27.
 Cloudy this morning, calm mild, mercury 48. Eden a little better. Only his speech impaired. Drive to Highland in p.m. 

28.
 Winter again this morning. Two inches of snow in the night, a driving N.W. wind sends the snow clouds whirling and dancing over the ground, sheeted ghosts on the hills and varnishing wraiths about the buildings and trees. The first of the kind we have had this winter. Began by sprinkling yesterday about 3 or 4, a light skirmish line of the coming storm. The rains slowly increased and at 6 was raining smartly. Later it became a down pour and was pouring at 9 and 


Then wind shifted from S. to N.W. and the snow set in, a seamless cloud over the sky and snow flakes still in the air, a real cold wave. The many birds rush about in apparent consternation What will phoebe do? much water on the ground. Since Jany. the precipitation has been enormous. The robins and blue birds will suffer today. 
-3 p.m. the worst day of the whole winter; blizzardy conditions all day, increasing cold, the air full of driving snow, the snow that fell last night swept from the surface of the ground and packed behind the knolls and ridges and other wind breaks, the birds about the door and buildings as if wanting to be taken in, the sky blotted out by a thick veil of snow and vapor the sounds of the passing train strangled by the gale and we who do not have to be out sitting by our open fires in "a tumultuous privacy of storm." In the old days on the farm we kept the cows up all day on such days, letting them out only just long enough to drink. How we hovered over the stone on such days; what a stamping and sweeping on the door stone when we came to the homes. How the woods roared, like the surf on the shore, how the gusts of wind in snow winding sheets stalked across the hills, how bare some places was piled up in others long rays of the storm streamed under the door and reached far out in the room; every vulnerable place in the roof was searched out by the wind and the snow sifted in, a big wood pile and a bounteous larder were appreciated there. The earlier settle had the wood but did not always have the larder. The smokers on such days have a resource in their pipes, those handy with tools tunker in their shops, now and then one reads a book no. I never saw a farmer read anything more than his weekly paper. At this moment 4 1/2 p.m. the opposite side of the river is only dimly seen, a veil of driving snow hides or obscure everything. Snow larder gust of wind play hide and seek about my study. The pills of sweepers from the floor of the hay loft, which we have put out all speckled with jimens and song sparrows. The robins and blue birds I hope have had the sense to seek the red cedar back of the hill. The crows are not stirring - keeping to their rookeries I suppose. And yesterday was a charming spring day - the last of a series of charming days. The weather usually goes by extreme. Such a lovely March as we have had! Now things are being wired up; the other side its being heard. Mercury now at 21, about stationery. I fear for the expanded fruit birds tonight.