LIII Diary from March 22d 1920 to (Feb 4, 1921
Last record C 13) Mch 22 Leave for home on 1:30 p.m. train. All goes well, a good train; few stops, skirting the shores of Lake Eve about 8 or 9 we see a startling display of Aurora - one of the most spectacular in my life. 23We reach Albany at 12.30 N. Lunch there and then W.S.R.R. at 2.15 p.m. for West Park. Reach station at 4.35. Deep snow covers the landscape, only a few bare places here and there. Three days of warm sunshine has made the snow run very fast. Two and three feet about our house. 24 Bright warm day, above 60. Snow melting fast a chill last night and bad time about 8 and 9 o'clock. Build fire in fire place and get warm. Fan the chill in the house I think. Little temperature 98 4/5 at 8. Tonight up to 99 at 9 p.m. 25 A fairly good night. Clear and calm this morning, a little cooler.
25 An important event in my life today - Hudson Covert our faithful hired man for 23 years, leaves us to move on to a farm of his own near Centreville It almost breaks my heart, never was there a more trusty, industrious and efficient man, never a man of a more cheerful and obliging spirit. It gave him pleasure to do anything for you he could. We shall not see his like again. This place will be home no longer, not a brainy man, but an honest one and a faithful one. Good luck to him. 26 Cloudy and mild. Work on M.S. My fever quite today and heart gets steady. 27 Cloudy and foggy, mild, a fine sleep last night for the first in many days.
-Dr Thomas, E. Winecoff of Butte, Montana writes on while collecting for the Smithsonian Institute that he has found about on Eastern.
robin and the Western subspace swarming north of the artic circle and singing and nesting there. He says he never enjoyed the robins song more than he did during the arctic summer nights.
-Ice on the River still solid, from shore to shore, covered with water soaked snow. 28 Clear and still this morning. Colder. Ideal sap weather. Robins jubilant, a good sleep. Read much in Arnolds poems last evening. Some of the best love poems in E Literature in the Vol. All notable and enduring poems sure to last. The note of sadness too dominant, but that is Arnold. Yet Emerson did not value his poetry, no poet since Wordsworth can compare with him. W. was the voice of pure nature. A was the voice of culture and and the old civilization, Tennzen was of a different order. 5 p.m. temperature 99. 29 A few holes in the ice on river, a good night. A day of murk and fog. Warm still. Ice broke up today.
31 Clear and cooler this morning. a good sleep. Became warm in p.m. up to 70. Sit a long time in summer house and have a nap there. Send away pacific notes to Scribners April 1st A little cooler. Hazy this morning still. Ice nearly all gone from the river, and snow from the landscape. 2d Raining this morning, mild grass starting. De Loach came last night. Hurrying up with the copy of new Vol. "The Faith of a Naturalist" these days. Go to Yama Farm in p.m. 3 My 83rd birthday, spend it at Yama. Thirty or more of our friends come to celebrate it with me, a perfect day, clear mild and lovely. In the evening a great ovation I am nearly shearved much with poems and speeches, I get on my legs.
and "sass" back as best I can. Garland is conspicuous and has the best poem. Henceforth I know the hill will become steeper and steeper and my breath shorter and shorter. I must give up my loins to make the climb. 4 Overcast with rain. Many of my friends leave today. 5 Rain; a prolonged thunder shower and a down pour for hours. 6 Colder, with snow. 7 A cold wave, freezing temperature. We leave Yama for home. Car takes us to K. Reach home at 12 1/2. 8 Cold, below 38 all day. Work on MSS. Feel well. 9 Still cold, freezing at night. River very rocky. 10 Clear, cold, no signs of warmer weather.
11 Sunday, a little warmer but still frosty at night, a fine day. 12 Overcast, rain near I think. 13 Rain all night and till more today, clearing and colder in late p.m. 14 Bright fine day, cool. 15 Warmer and fair. The song of the toad at night.
16. Mild, cloudy, signs of showers. New Vol. ready to go to publishers. 17 Still slowly raining, but clearing at noon, cool.
-Heat does not pass from the sun to the earth; what passes is motion in the either heat is developed when that motion is arrested by the earth, the energy the sun gives out is transformed into heat. This energy passes through glass undiminished and becomes heat in the room - but it does not pass out through glass so readily, because it is now heat, and yet and yet - think of the suns corunna [corona?] and c.
But it has always been plain enough to me that the sun's rays conveyed no heat as such, and that the energy they conveyed because heat here.
-The most wonderful thing in the universe is the animal eye, no wonder that it staggered. Darwin to [th] try to account for it by natural selection. 18 Clear and cool. Wind in north. Can't sit long in summer house yet, to cool [Burn grape trimmings this morning] 19 Monday, clear, cool, ground drying out. Burn grape trimmings. Drive to H. in p.m. 20 Clear, cool. How alive the river seems on clear still mornings like this. Its surface dances as if a shower of sun beams were falling upon it, along the opposite shore, there is a strip of water directly under the sun when the play of light seems hurried and intensified. 21, 22, 23, 24 Much rain with thunder. Clearing and much cooler and windy. 25 Clear and cool, just finished.
short paper on the Unapproachable Rainbow, and one are "Length of Days" which last goes to Leebold at Dearborn Mich. Many callers yesterday. College boys and girls from P. 26 Clear and cold - frost last night, no real warmth yet this spring. House wren here this morning. River like glass. Drive to Malden at 10 a.m. Spend 3 hours with Poultney Bigelow. 27 Cloudy and cold, spirts of rain in p.m.
-Herbert Spencer - not a day of blood or sap or juice is here, a mountain of sawdust, a prodigious mind but not one fresh or inspiring thought in it. 28 Rain all night and part of the day. Clearing in p.m. Write in my note book.. 29 Parly cloudy, chilly, new car came yesterday. May 1, 2d, 3 Cold. Company at SS. over Sunday. 4 Fair cold, a light frost every night
5 Clear, cold. The maples are shaking out their pale yellow fringe, a little asparagus today. Thermometer has not been above 60 this spring. 6 Clear, cold, one yellow warbler this morning. A long walk over in the woods and to the falls yesterday p.m. Not a bird, early arches not yet up. 8 Clear and warm. 9 Clear and warm. Start for R. at 10. delayed at the dam by want of gas. Reach Wood Chuck at 4 1/2. 10, 11 Slow cold rain. Sat in the house and grumbled. 12 Bright day. 13 Squalls of rain in p.m. 14 Clearing but cold; frost, plough garden. 15 Harrow and plant garden. 16 Fine and warm. Plant more garden. Catch 6 chucks in
trap and lose trap by a chuck. Start for home at 12. Reach W.P. at 5. 17, 18 Fine warm days, above 70 degrees. Foliage well out. The week of apple bloom has come again and the call of the oriole is heard in the land. Letter in N.Y. Tribune. 19 Clear in a.m. Partly overcast in p.m. Warm. Drive down to Centreville to see the coverts, a treat to see them once more. 20 Partly cloudy, a light shower at 11 a.m. Warm, 77 degrees. 22d Mild partly, cloudy, Miss Haight and her friends come for a lunch at Slabsides. 23 Many callers, a fine day. 24 Cloudy, cool. Rain predicted. The May warbler procession seems to have passed.
-Last Wednesday night I had a mild chill followed by fever - slept very little. Next day fever returned at 9 p.m. up to 100.
next night up to 99 2/5. The old muscular rheumatism much my breast on right side. Took an enema with big results. Today 24, took 2 enemas with surprising results, eat very lightly. Feel good today and can write. Two enemas every other day will keep me well. At 9 p.m. temperature 99 3/5. Indigo bunting yesterday. Last night at 9 p.m. temperature 99 2/5. Took an enema with big results - slept better than I dared hope. Two enemas this morning at 11 with good results. I will keep that colon clean if I have to take 4 enemas per day. 25 Partly cloudy cool. Feel better.
26. Clear, warm still day. Drive in p.m. to Port Ewen with the Van B's. Fever gone. 27 A warm night and an ideal morning. Clear still warm, a thin white vapor in the air. I hear wood thrushes, orioles, vireo, and occasionally a warbler. Heard a warbler this morning over near the P.O. that sang "che chippy, che chippy, che chippy, che."
could not make out its color or markings, only its grayish breast, a very small bird. 28 Clear, warm 80 in p.m. Dwight Franklin comes. 29 Clear and cooler, N. winds. My temperature this p.m. 98 1/5. Expect Ruth Drake, a social sparrow has her nest on a horizontal branch of a Brockage that comes in under the edge of my porch. She has 4 speckled blue eggs and is very tame, she sits here and broods her treasures as I brood my thoughts. Many of my thoughts are sterile but I have no doubt that there will not be an addled egg in her nest. She is company for me in her small way and I hope I am for her in my big way. 30 Fine clear warm day, a picnic at S.S. and a Brigand stake. 31 Ruth leaves at 11 a.m. for Chazy. June 1st Fine day, hot and dry. Go to Yama Farms Inn. J drives me up to K. 2 and 3d At Yama. Hot and dry 88. Walk each day. 4 Rain all night and till noon today, much needed. Cold, open fires. Write a little on The Flight of Birds.
5 Home in p.m. J meets me at Chain Ferry, cold. 6 Storm over, sun peeping out at noon. Fire in study. A little temperature every night 99, ate too much at Yama. 7 Partly cloudy, cool. 8 Clearing, warmer, temperature normal again. 9 Lovely day, warmer; the perfection of June. Getting ready to start for Roxbury. Locust trees dropping their bloom. 10 Start for R at 10. All goes well, warm fine day, lunch at High Bridge at 12 1/2. Reach the lodge at 4 p.m. no delays, no accident. 11 Rained all night, much needed, clearing in p.m. 12 Partly cloudy, cool. 14 Lovely warm day. Ideal. Writing a little in the barn. Poet Bellows
calls at 2 and recites several of his poems to me, "The Long Road" is good, real stuff, the best of his I have seen. Saw an Indigo Bunting rise up in the air then slide down in song, yesterday saw it feeding on dandelion seeds, never saw the country lovelier. 15 Fair, hot day, 80. Dig out the chuck and recover my trap lost in May John and I. Mr. Seaman, Mr and Mrs Underwood of [Vross] and others call in p.m. 16 Cool and cloudy, a slow rain last night for an hour or more. Hear the rose breasted grosbeak singing up in the woods above me every day at all hours. How soft and mellow the strain is. A fewer sweeter robins sing. Also hear the wood thrush. 17 Cold, rainy, lowery weather from the east. 18 Still cold but clearing. 19 Partly cloudy and getting warm. 20 A wonderful morning. Clear, calm and warm. The valley full of fog which does
not take flight, but ebbs and flows and melts till at 8 not a vestige of it remains. At 7 not a leaf stirs, only the plowed grasses wave a little. I walk up the road - see a humming bird bathing in the big dropp, on the foliage of a small ash trees, never know before how the hummer bathed. Saw a high hole, a red headed wood pecker, a king bird and a scarlet tanager in the same tree, a basswood. The flight of the high hole is with four or five wing beats then skipping one and going some feet with wings closed. The red head flies in much the same manner. Discovered that the webs of the little spiders in the road - fairy napkins - saturated with minute drops of moisture, exhibits prismatic tints. In it we see one abutment of a tiny rainbow, step a pace or two to the other side and you see the other abutment, you never see the completed bow because the web is too small. Then fragments are as unapproachable as the
bow in the clouds. If you think you can step on one of this, try it. the colors go when you make the attempt. I also discovered that when a suspended dew drops becomes a jewel and rainbow tints, you can see only one to the right or left of you. It also is a fragment of a rainbow. It seems to me there only let to be a point where you could see an entire bow in wet grass, but I could not find it - drops too few and not see presenting the same angle to the sun. 21 A change to bad weather again. Rainy and cold this morning, with fog on the mountains. Let us hope for a warm dry July. 22 A fine warm day, much sunshine. Work mending the road. 23 Lovely day, still mending the road. 24 Ideal June day, warm, scattered masses of soft fluorescent clouds drifting across the great blue spaces. Fields white and orange and yellow with daisies, hawkweed and
better cups, s. berries ripening in the fields, my internal economies, working with fair regularity. It does not tire the cloud shadows to climb the mountains. I believe the yellow bird a gold finch, can describe a lancer are in the air with closed wings than any other bird. 25 Still clear and cool from the north, small masses of fluffy clouds here and there on the blue sky. Again seems a vulnerable remedy in constipation. 26 A morning without a cloud till 9 a.m. and then only a mere wraith or two. Warm, but night cool, acts like a dry spell. Cuckoos calling every day, very calm. Political cauldron is boiling as usual on presidential years. I shall not vote for Harding and if Wilson is nominated I shall not vote at all Macadoo would be a bitter pill. 27 Same as yesterday, clear, calm, dry, hot in sun.
28 Fine warm day. Drive out to S. Gilboa to Chester Leeves and have dinner, amid the old scenes where Jane and Horne lived so long. Find the Bocks from Toledo here on our return. 29 Hot, our first hot night, got down to one blanket. Mr. and Mrs. Bock spend night with us, a fine time; in the morning Bock fixes the sink in the kitchen, a wonderful mechanic and inventor. Says he has just finished an invention whereby he can deliver 50 percent of power, where only 40 percent has been delivered before. Applicable to all machinery, a world revolutionizing invention. 30 Rain last night, wet the garden well, cloudy and cooler.
-Cleared in p.m. Fine and warm. Take a long walk through the Beech woods and through Silver woods and fields and back along the edge of the woods on the hill and through the meadow and orchard down home. In forenoon people
here from Franklin, N.Y. and from Ohio. July 1st A fine mild day, not hot. Finished tinkering with the road scraper. Very busy most of the time. Read Darwins voyage of the Beagle from time to time. Wild s. berries very large and abundant, Miss Bonsheur here to dinner. 2 Shower. 3 In the clutches of my old enemy again. Was chilly all the late afternoon. Set a long time in my woodchuck skin coat, but did not get warm. Temperature 100 1/5. But slept better than I expected to. This morning took 3 enemas with good results, more and more each time. This p.m. took two more. Think I got near the bottom. Rain all night and this morning. Clearing in p.m. Yesterday I had two fine movements, ample I thought. Beware of s. berries and go slow on spinach. Temperature 100 at 4 p.m. only slight pain in breast muscles.
4 One of the coldest fourths of July I ever experienced, cloud and elm, with spirts of rain, at one time accompanied by pellets of snow. Many visitors 4 cars from Yankees and from Lexington - the latter friends of my youth, Jane Kellpatrick and her son and others. Temperature 100 2/5, at 4 p.m. 5 A cold or windy night with mist and spits of rain. but I got enough sleep I think. This morning still cloudy with mist veiling the mountain. Temperature this morning at 6 98, am eating mostly only liquid food.
-The noiseless butterfly ever the highest great hums a little. Infact all winged things that I know of make a sound in flying except the butterflies and moths - They whisk about your face without a sound. 6 A wonderful morning, clear calm and warm. Fog in the valley which ebbed and flowed for an hour and then slowly vanished a pretty good night with sub normal temperature this morning, at 4 p.m. 98 1/5. "The Land of the Far Horizons." Isaiah XXXIII 15, 17.
7 A windy night, slept pretty well. Clouds threaten rain. Rain comes at 4 p.m. a short thunder shower. Temperature returns, 99. A Mr. Muller bores me for 2 hours and brings on the fever. At 6 p.m. down to 98 1/5 same as yesterday. 8 Cloudy and cool this morning. Had a good nights sleep and feel better. No grass yet fit to cut, diasies just right, no clover in bloom. The song of the hermit thrush this morning in the beech woods. I had almost forgotten how drive a strain it is. 9 McCarthy and his bride came last night. Delighted to see my poet again and his bride - a beautiful girl. Clear and warm today, after a cool night. The nomination of Gov. Cox of Ohio by the Democrats suits me well. Hope to vote for him and the league of nations. 10 Another ideal day, clear warm and calm. Write a little and visit with the McCarthys. Strength slowly returning. Temp. last night at 9 p.m. 97 3/5.
11 Sunday, bright and warm and calm. McCarthy leaves today and leaves a void. We drive them down to train at 8, 78 degrees at 2 p.m. Finish and seal up my paper on "What makes the Poet?" 12 Rained nearly all night and till 11 a.m. Clearing in p.m. with light thunder showers - much noise but little rain, a fine rainbow at 5 p.m. Signs of fair weather at 7 p.m. Two enemas every other day will keep me well. 13 Clear as fell and warm, no fog in the valley this morning, a clear cool night. The air very humid and yet no fog. I wish I understood Physics of this, a thin milky haze in the air way account for it. 14 Fine warm day. In p.m. visit the graves of my dead in the old Yellow church burying ground and in the Presbyterian burying ground in the village I stood long and long at fathers and mothers graves and seemed very near them. And the grave of dear Chancy B. Died in 74 -four years before Julian was born. Had he been my son I could not
have loved him more. The graves of Wilson and Olly, Ann and J Abagail I lingered about them also with long long sad thoughts. I said good bye to them all and said I would come again if I lived, Hirams and Edens graves at Hobart I shall visit later. 15 Rained all night and till 8 or 9 this morning. Clearing up about noon. But no settled weather in sight. The clouds still have the slant from the S.W. Cooler, 72. 16 Clear and cold; down to 50 at night. Warm in p.m. 17 Another cold night - the coldest spell I ever saw in July. I expect to hear of frost in some places, a fog in the valley, but it did not ebb and flow - too stiff in the joints I guess. The wind still has the wrong slant. 18 Not quite so cold last night, fair today. The sun early drawing water, and again at 10 this (over)
Killed a chipmunk that was stealing my peas apparently by shell shock my rifle bullet did not touch him but exploded by him, his nose bled probably but his skin was not broken. 19 Rained nearly all night with thunder and again this morning much warmer, almost muggy. Drove to Arkville to the Pockalckan yesterday and had dinner with Anna Haviland, a pleasant time. The clouds still have the portentous slant from S.W. My temperature sticks at 97 1/5. Reading Fitz Geralds letter, very delightful - real wit and wisdom. 20 Clearing, cooler, wind N.W. at last, look for fair weather, a good sleep last night.
-You can't catch a mouse in a bear trap. 21 Clear and fine and dry. Good hay weather, caught 3 E. sparrows in a mouse trap this morning. Rainbow
letters still come, absurd most of them. 22 A brief light shower in the night. Humid and misty this morning but warm. Had a skink in a trap I had sat for a wood chuck and in trying to liberate him got some of his essence, had to change my clothes and shoes, what marks news they are! I held his tail down with a stick but he managed to unlock his bottle all the same. 23 Rained and thundered all night. Clearing this morning, fairly warm. Poor hay weather. Kill the skink if you will but the order of this essence lingers around you still. My trousers are buried and my shoes bleaching in the sun and rain. 24 Clearing and colder. 25 Fine day, but cool, too cool. Mrs. Shepard (Helen Gould) comes with some friends. 26 Cool with much cloud wind N.W. more sun at 3 p.m. 27 A repetition of yesterday.
cool with sun and cloud, a real thrill this morning, early when I went put to the barrel to wash, a large flock of young pheasants near the water such the apple trees. They kept getting up till I had counted 12. They were half grown and about two thirds the size partridges, burn as dry leaves. How the mother bird managed to rear such a brood as that with so many enemies, lurking and prowling about skunk, foxes, cats - is a mystery. They behaved precisely like partridges but mad no vocal sound. 27 Clear and still cool, not a cloud in the sky this morning, but one needs on overcast and gloves something must have happened to the sun these days, into what cold weather spaces has he dragged his little family of worlds these days?
-How we think of the sun as fixed there in the heavens! But what an extraordinary thing it would he if it were fixed! Nothing is fixed, everything is in motion. How could it be otherwise? If there be a point or
center around which the whole still as universe seems to revolve, then that too must be in motion around some larger center and then around some other center and so on adinfinition. 28 A duplicate of yesterday, only slightly warmer. The publication of July weather. Valley fog did not ebb and flow this morning but silently stole away. Balance in Bank July 26, $3268. 29 Still warm and fair with increasing cloudiness. Probably rain in a day or two. Finished and sent off to Harpen. MS of The Pleasures of a Naturalist. 30 A fairly warm night, partly cloudy this morning with harmless thunder at 7. My temperature has now been normal, 97 3/5 for three weeks, strength in my legs seems to be gaining. 31 Still warm (76 degrees) and partly cloudy. 2 chucks in trap this morning. Thunder with clashes of rain at 5 1/2. The Shepard children and Rev. Van West and c.
Aug 1st Sunday, bright day and cool. Callers in morning and at 4 p.m. A wood chuck last night in a trap and a skunk. 2 Partly cloudy and cool, slept with extra blanket last night, callers from Twilight Park this p.m. No chucks today. The boys cut hay this a.m. and draw it in in p.m. The 8th day without rain. 3 Sun and cloud and dry. Return of my old enemy today at 12. Temperature 99 1/5. Goes down to 98 3/5 at 4, then up again. Took a double enema with marked results, my colon gets foul in spite of all I can do. I must take 2 enemas a day hereafter. 4 A day without a cloud and hardly a breath of air stirring, but a cool night, slept under 2 extra blankets, down to 56 degrees. Suter and Caswell are building my garage. Ideal hay weather. 5 A repetition of yesterday clear, calm, dry, mercury at 10 1/2, 74 degrees. Rain is needed. Temp. 98 3/5.
7 Cloudy, calm, warm. Finish garage today. Killed a big fine chuck this morning on the old rock in the corner of the meadow, much like the one I got there last year, but not so dark. 8 Clear, calm, warm, a milky haze in the air. Judge Talbot and Dr. Day and the friends from Gloversville and Sidney here yesterday. Enjoyed their visit greatly.. 9 Hot and dry, 86 degrees fine hay weather. 10 Cloudy, an uncomfortable night, but little sleep. 11 Rained all night 2 inches, much needed. Had a bad spell yesterday - a terrible attack of vertigo - a clycone in my brain - fell in a heap on the floor, a strange experience - the result of a billions attack I think.- a sluggish liver, shall take calomel tonight 1 1/2 grams. 12 Took 1 1/2 grms, calomel last night. Feel let down, but think I am better. Foggy and misty till 9 a.m. and then clearing.
Fair in p.m. and warm - 76.
-When the chipmunks have worn out the stone wells by traveling upon them - ground them to powder; when the swallows and other birds have worn out the telegraph and telephone wires along the road by perching upon them, when the wood chucks have reduced to powder the rocks upon which they bask in the summer sun - why, I shall not be here! 13 Misty and rainy and warm 76 degrees this morning. Partly clearing by noon, a pretty hard night - much palpitation. 14 Rainy, warm. Dr. Crump and Walter come in p.m. 15 Sunday, warm 84 degrees, partly cloudy, a fine day with the Dr. and Walter. 16 Drive home with the Crumps, rain. 17 At the Crumps on Pine Hill. Fair warm day. Feet begin to swell. 18 Back home this morning. Warm.
19 Partly cloudy, cool. Feet better. Digitalis seems to be the cure. Two fine chucks yesterday shot by Walter C. 20 Drive to Hobart, a fine day stay with Willie and stay to dinner. For the first time saw Eden name carved on a stone in the Cemetery, besides Hirams who had lain there for 18 years. 21 Return today after dinner. 22 Hatten and Chester and the children come for the day. 23 Cold and misty, a slow drizzle all night, signs of breaking this morning. 24 Fine day, growing warm, many callers. 25 Fine day, nearly clear and warm. Telephone peas again today. 26, 27 Fine warm days, nearly clear. 28 Warm and clear. Fog in the valley. Garland comes for us from Onteora. Reach there about 5 p.m. 29 At Garlands, rain in morning, but clears by noon. Call in Mrs. Candall
Wheeler, 95 year old. Calm and restful and wise as usual. In the evening many callers a very pleasant time. 30 Home today. Dr Jones brings us in his big car. Home by 3 p.m. 31 A poor sleep from some unknown cause. A thunder shower at noon. Clearing by one p.m. Sept 1 John came yesterday p.m. Delighted to see him. A cold rainy night but I had a good sleep, no dreams. Cold this morning with fitted gleams of sunshine. Fitz Gerald in his letter say Caryle made 6 attempts to write a life of Cromwell and burned them all and finally converted himself with editing his letters. 6 Go to Yama Farms stay till 13th. The usual good time many appreciative people, much talk, overfed at times, gained 1/4 lb per day. Stomach gets out of time from eating too many stewed peaches and taking
milk, slight attack of sore throat - stomach - no temperature. Stay at the "Hut" - C.B. and I and Mr. Seaman, Mr. Merrill of The Bronx botanical garden, a man from whom I learned many things.
-Little John stayed till the 6th I miss him greatly. The Yama car met us at Kingston and the Roff car brought us to Roxbury via Big Indian. Very heavy rain here on Saturday night. 14 Clear and cool this morning, no frost yet. Plenty of sweet corn.
-What dull observers most people are! A woman writes me from Phila. asking me to settle a dispute between her and her friends as to whether the robin hops or runs, of course the robin runs as any other can see who looks carefully.
15 Lovely wild day. 16 Cloudy and cool with mist and obscurity. 17 A sharp, clear windy day. Wind from N.W. very boisterous. Too cool to sit in the shade or the porch; fear a frost tonight. Smith McGregor comes, his head humming with minor literary and moving picture projects. Some nine people from Cleveland to the morning. Dr Curtis and his wife and friends. A slight attack of auto intoxication yesterday - the result of Yama Farms overfeeding I think, a small matter - should not know it, did I not look for it. Am trying to eat a great of milk daily, sweet baked apples and milk is my dessert. 18 Warmer, no frost last night. Still very windy. Chucks out today, caught me on a trap. 19 Bright and cool and windy. Walter Crump and his mother here. Walter shot a big chuck. they spend the day. 20 Our first frost this morning but did no damage, not even to squash vines and tomatoes vines. 21 Chucks out again today.
21 Mild beautiful day intermittent sunshine, a long walk in p.m. back in "Scotland" hunting for chucks, saw 2, but very wild. 22 Warm, clear, calm. Walk over home and get sweet apples. Many visitors in p.m. 23 Clear, calm, warm. Who can tell me the laws that govern the movement of the fog in the valley these calm autumn mornings? Of course it does not begin to stir till the sun strikes it has heat currents going, but why does it ebb and flow some mornings and not others, when to all human sense they are precisely alike? Why this regular beat or rhythm, like inhaling and exhaling the breath? Why is it so langered some mornings and not others? The physics of it all are to me very subtle and obscure. Just now I went out looking for prismatic tints in the drops of dew on the grass standing at one place in the road. I saw two drops showing the orange tints, on my right about 8 feet from my shadow and one drop on my left. Doubtless there were
more but they did not face me at the right angle all other drops shone with the white light of glass. This was about 7 a.m. Now at 8 the fog is so dense as to cut off more than half the rays of the sun, song sparrows sing fitfully may be young males. The fog does not seem disposed to leave us. It is like a caller that hangs on till he becomes a bore. 24 This morning the fog began to move to the ebb and flow at day light, at least one hour before the sun was up. What set it in motion? The air was absolutely still - not a leaf stirred. And now at 7 o'clock it is still lazily coming and going. Its behavior is all a puzzle to me, I hear the cawing of the crows from out the white obscurity below me. 25 Clear and hot as usual and calm with the lazy drifting fog in the morning. 26 Sunday, a repetition of yesterday morning. Hot 77 at 9 a.m. probably 80 (83) at noon. Saw a wood chuck this morning up on the Ironstone rock.
26 Many nests of the black hermit this season and chipmunks as thick as in my youth. Sweet corn still in abundance. This morning at 7 I saw rubies and emeralds in the grass 10 feet to the right and left of me - only one on each side. 27 Rainy. Howard and I dug out a chuck that had drawn my trap in his hole. De Loach and Dalla, Lore Sharp come in
p.m. clearing later. Greatly enjoy Sharp and De Loach. Sharp not versatile, keen and entertaining mind, a very checkered career, all the car make of genius and he has genius, a flluent and eloqent taker. But he lectures daily year out and year in at the University of Boston, and in neighboring towns. We do not get to bed till 11 o'clock. 28 Clear and fine. We have a delightful day, Mr. Ormrod from Botten, England comes for dinner. We like him, our guests leave at 3 p.m. much to one regret.
29 Fine day. Willie and Bruce come in p.m. Very glad to se them. Bruce is sure to make his mark - a boy of excellent traits and superior gifts. 30 A cold rain this morning from N.E. our equinoxial storm - sure to come between the 20th and 30th of Sept.
-2 p.m. still raining and blowing from N.E.
-5 p.m. still at it. Oct 1 Cloudy and cold this morning. Signs of sun breaking through. 2 Sunday, warm and fine. Dig out a chuck in morning, much company. 3 Clear this morning. Shoot a chuck. Light thunder shower in p.m. sun out at 5 1/2. 4 Rainy this morning and cold down to 46 degrees at 9 a.m. Signs of clearing. 5 A bright cool day, sit by the open fire and muse and write.
7 Cool and bright and now at 10 1/2 not a cloud in the sky. Our 2d frost last night, pretty heavy. This morning I again studied the colored drops in the dew, saw an orange drop 1 inch from my head and 1 at 3 feet. One at 4 ft, 1 at 10 ft and 1 at 5. Had the drops all faced my way would I have seen more? 8 A day without a cloud - clear as bell, calm and warmer, no frost last night, an occasional wood chuck still out. Foliage turning on the mountains. Wood vine dropping its leaves. Plenty of sweet corn still in the garden, sit on the porch and write this, never saw a mass perfect autumn day. If Harding is elected in Nov I shall be ashamed that I am an American. I am so intolerant if that gang of reactionaries in the senate led by Borch and Lodge that more than ever I would like to see the senate abolished.
Let the house make the laws. What great thing ever came out of the senate? There have been great men there but not for a generations or more, they are mostly men politicians.
9.
Another cloudless night with twinkling stars followed by a cloudless morning. The old miracle of sun rise drew my eye as usual a vast spectrum on the eastern sky the high color changing to a white luminousness as the sun approached, again a lake of fog in the valley. Half an hour before sun up I looked up and saw the farm fetching the cows in the field below me silhoutted against the white background of the fog. It was a pretty sight. Now at 9 a.m. the fog is still in the valley, having retired from its salley up over the hill forms. The sun will soon burn it up leaving only a thin

film of smoke. We have struck the autumn summer and it is of wondrous beauty. Why are the clouds so highly colored and the fog remain white? Why does not the sun burn them up too?

10.
A repetition of yesterday morning minus fog, only a soft haze not a cloud in the sky, temperature rising a little each day. We dug out the wood chuck in the Ford Lot last night - not as nearly black a chuck as I thought he was, but dark. It was a long hard job.

11.
A fine day on the mountain all forenoon with survey or gnawing making a survey for a map of the old farm I got very tired.

12.
A light rain and mist began to drizzle about 4 this morning kept it up all forenoon but barely made the caves drop. Glimpse of blue sky and the sun this p.m.

13.
A lovely day, except for the fog that lingered till about 10. Spent the p.m. with the

surveyors on the hills - walk about 3 miles, in all, a glorious afternoon saw a chuck below the site of the grand fathers, barn. Went in to the old burying ground on the hill and found the grave of Ezra Bartram. It was covered by grass and walls, I lifted it up and put a stone under it a common storm with E.B. carved upon it, date of his death 1823. Father bought the farm of his widow about 1829. He was the father of Zoriah B. I saw him about 81 or 2 while he was on a visit to this place from Michigan. He died there many years ago. Truly here the rude forefathers of the hand it sleep.

14.
Another lovely calm warm day. Surveyors did not come. Loafed nearly all day, drove to village for apple barrels.

15.
Fine clear warm day. Gather some apples. Write letter about my notes on W.W. to a man in N.Y. Catch several chipmunks in trap. Down to Shatrams to dinner. 16,17. Fine warm days, Mr Roy here from Montreal. Enjoy him much.


18.
Warm, calm, foggy till 11 a.m. We pick apples and fail to dig out a chuck.

19.
Cloudy in morning, clearing in p.m. Drive down with Mr. Roy at 3, sorry to have him leave, a heavy appreciation sure. Helps me get ready the barrels of apples to be shipped home.

20.
Fine warm weather continuous work on the road.

21.
Miss Chapen of H. M. Co comes, a bright interesting woman.

22.
Cooler, cloudy in a.m. clearing in p.m. Miss C. leaves in p.m. We drive her down to train.

23.
Clear, cold, dry. Drive over to Hobart. Reach there at 11 1/2 stay till 3 p.m. Mag has a good dinner, I see and feel Eden in everything. After dinner I walk down to the cemetery and stand a long time by the graves of Eden and Hiram. Willie comes over at one, I wear my wood chuck skin coat and do not feel the cold. Dessie and Harriet go with us. We are home at 4 1/2 p.m.

24.
Sunday a cool clear day. Try to dig out a chuck, out on the slope of the hill. Find his nest but the dog fails us and we give it up.

25.
Up early this morning to get ready to start for West Park. Nearly clear warm day. We are off at 9, a good run to Kingston. Have our lunch at the high cement arch above the lake. Reach Kingston at 2 p.m. and home at 3 p.m.

26.
Good to be back, busy getting settled a light sprinkle of rain. 27 .Warm, 72 degrees, partly cloudy, threatens rain. Drove to Slabsides, no frost here yet.


28.
Rained in the night, cool calm and at times all day.

29.
Cool, cloudy with light rain, a rainbow this morning, over by the station before 8 o'clock. Nov 2d Election day, cloudy and threatening. Go up and vote in forenoon. Vote straight democratic ticket. 3 For the first time in my life I am ashamed I am an American. If I were in Europe new I could not hold up my head and confess I was


a citizen of the U.S.A. I must be crazy. I had supposed a leage of nations was a good thing. I know in advance that it would be impossible to bold the people of this country up to 9 sense of high moral obligation yet the concrete reality has cut me deeper that I thought it could. I am shocked. It seems as if the overwhelmingly saddled all the trouble of the last 8 years the world war and everything upon poor President Wilson, the high prices, the crimes, the disorders the taxes etc. It is probably always so. The Administration is always to blame for everything disastrous that happens, almost for the bad weather. Thank heaven I was not carried away by this landslide, I am proud to belong to the saving remnant, the minority who still have some sense of moral duty. We cannot shirk or repudate the debt we owe to the world.
The welfare of one nation should mean the welfare of all, we all contribute one family. What injury one injures all, nation can no longer exist and grow rich by praying upon one[each] other. That is barbarism. It the Republican landslide means we don't care a damn for Europe, we must keep aloof from all its affairs. We deceive ourselves. One extreme follow another in practice as in the weather if the incoming administration is attending by hard times [the] a landslide will carry it off in the same way.
4.
A bright cool day, no frost here yet. Drive to Kingston in p.m. to attend reception at Forsyth and Davi's book store, meet many people, spot briefly before Daughters of Revolution autograph many of my books, and of C.B.'s

5.
Cool, bright. Busy all day, about the place.

6.
Cool and bright. Go to K this p.m. to meet D.A.R. no frost yet. Nov 16, Cloudy cold from N. Went to Yama Farms Nov 9 stayed till the 14 to meet the Ford-Edison's-(Firestone) partly. They came on the 11th. Had a good time gained in strength in my legs and got rid of my cough or bronchial irritation. Came back here on Sunday the 14. The whole party came here. We had a brigand steak here at 3, then a drive to S.S. The Fords started for Albany with Mr. Plantef about 4 p.m.


Nov 16, A flock of wild geese going south this a.m. Is winter behind then? A flock of migrating wild geese is always a memorable sight.
17.
To P. get our tickets to Cala. cold rainy and misty.

18.
Bright and cold this morning and windy from N.W.

19.
Cool and partly cloudy.

20.
Clear and not so cool, much haze in the air.

21.
A White wash of sheet and snow this morning, a dark calm overcast day. Gnats dancing in the air this a.m. Dr. J and wife here from N.Y. I sit in the study before a bright fire most f the day "O pile of bright fire" Julian goes out on the room and shoots 5 blue birds and sees swarms of ducks of nearly all kinds. Snow geese here also he hears.


Nov 23, Leave Poughkeepsie on 4 p.m. train for Toledo, when at the house of one friends the Bocks, we spend 2 happy days. Nov 26, Leave this p.m. for Detroit. The Bocks drive us up in their car. We spend 2 days at the Fords and leave there on the 28th for Chicago. While there I saw a flock of young pine grosbeaks from the north, an indication of cold weather I think.
28. At De Loaches, misty and rainy at 6 1/2 p.m. De Loach drives us to the stations of the Santa Fee, where we take the Cala. Limited for Santa ego. Four days on train, no mishaps but lose 3 hours in road from the grand canyon to the "Needles" We spend one day at Canyon and see two or three snow squalls. At Delmar the car of the Scripps meet us.
At 8 1/2 and at 9 1/4 we are in La Jolla at the Wisteria where we are at home. Dec 5, Bright cold day since we came, the old loveliness and splendor. Very cool nights, need as much cover as at home. The plovers the sparrows(white crowned and gambles) and the pipit or titlarks on the lawn as usual, no warblers yet, yesterday. Higgins drove us to San Diego. Today the Ford car for our use came from Los Angeles.
6.
Clear, cold car comes today.

7.
Cold, cloudy, part of the day In p.m. we drive to San Diego.

8.
Still cold, but clear in forenoon. Some cloud in p.m. We drive over through Rose Canton - about 20 miles, a mist in the evening, to net the stores. 12 Sunday, Day by day the same cold, drive to 42 one night. We drive 15 or 20 or 30 miles each p.m. the greatest cradle.


On earth the cradle of the pacific is still rocking in front of my window, some days a little more gently than on others but the foot or hand that nudges it is never idle. Its white drapery is always in evidence. What a vast cradle it is! What myriad forms of life it holds! both beautiful and hideous beyond words.
I heard a talk in sharks the other day from which I learned that there are 12 specific sharks and that some are oviparous and others viviparous that the sharks[have] are cartilaginous or have no hard bones. The toad fish and dog fish are species of sharks etc. Dec, 13 Still clear and cold. Frost warning have been issued for some parts of Cala.
18.
Little change, am writing a little now days.

19.
Cloudy and light rain now at 8 1/2. Pacific beating its long roll this morning. The McCarthy came yesterday p.m.


20 The light rain yesterday morning turned to a down pour before noon. Rained the hardest for a short time I ever saw it rain in Cala. Cleared off in p.m., with violent cold wind from N.W. which raged all night. Clear and quieter today, but cold. Drove to San Diego this p.m. McCarthy at the wheel.
28.
Days nearly all alike, clear with cold nights and morning. I write a little each day, walk a little, drive a little, receives several callers each day. Keep fairly well.

29.
The pacific very calm the past few days - only a gentle rocking. The brilliant sunshine continues. I begin to long for a day with the lid on - oh, for the sheet in feeling of a storm - the privacy of storm I think I could get closer to myself on such a day. At any rate it would be more like home.


1921 Jany 1st, No change in weather, bright and cold. 2d I do hope the flood of Xmas cards is over. What a museum it is - inflating across mail with wind. In p.m. I walk up to the Gold Links and back, Good for me makes me sleep better o nights. I can never get over the incongruity of that barking of dogs or hounds out there in the water. The same pack of them apparently as a year ago and in exactly the same spot.
7.
Bright cold day, a killing frost last night in some parts of the country. I got up in the night for extra cover.

8.
Still dry, bright, cold. White frost this morning on roofs, a killing frost farther north. The day fairly aches with the hard merciless light.


9 Still, cold and dry and bright. I often meet or see Walt Neadon the prose rhymer yesterday I met him in the bank making a deposit of checks. I see him driving about in his automobile. He has a house and family and lives well I think. But had he written real poetry, great poetry, he would probably be living in an attic and walking about instead of driving. I like him there is something wholesome about him and kindly. He is hard of hearing and heavy and clumsy. In a letter to me he says of his rhymer, "I have been writing them for a syndicate of newspaper for many year one every day, year after year and they have had a wonderful popularity - I expected when they were first syndicated that the people would soon grow weary of them but they seem as popular as now as at the beginning.
Their want largely lies in the feet, that they are easy to read easy to understand and touch upon obvious pleases of life" I put one of them in regular verse form ad found its merits enhanced so used is the eye to such form. In prose form the mind is little bewildered.
17. Life here goes on about the same, our first considerable rain last night and this a.m. must have dust the ground partly well, clearing in p.m. Rain from S.S. Had an attack of auto intoxication from which I am just free. Began a week ago last Monday. Temperature not over 100 I thought toward the last got down to 99 and then go up. Pain in the muscles of my right breast still persists. I had neglected myself, depending up on Roman meal mush of which I ate freely. It gave me two movements daily or I thought there adequate. But they were not, went four days without "Aunt Martha" or ate a hearty turkey dinner at Gent Youngs in the near time, a dose of salt or a wash out on 3d day would have saved me. Fever came on only at night, kept my bed 2 days but without benefit I think. Have been reading again the correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle and living for a week or more with these two great sports and sharing their troubles and triumph. What an experience it has been. I feel lonesome. Like E's letters the best one tires of C's groaning and appealing to heaven. He did no work cheerfully or uncomplainingly. He should have been thankful that he had work to do. What an outcry and yet all the time invoking the silences. The old world. Sorrow and passing in one and the new world optimism and courage in the other Jany 23d, The season of cold rain. Brief showers from the N.W. and quite a thorough rain from S.E. Snow and hail further north(Los Angeles) a white frost here in the roofs one morning. I have had one mild attack of auto intoxication since one week ago. Fever 101 then fell to 99 and in a few days to normal. If I take a teaspoon full of Epson salts each morning I can stand it off. "Aunt Martha" on Friday the 21 - salts my day since give me 2 or 3 moments daily. 3 today - 2 yesterday. Shall take an enema again on Tuesday, a bad night last night from palpitation from eating a prickly pear. Bad stuff for me. "I am weary of the sea winds. I am weary of the foams. The little strain of Duna calls me home."
1921
27. Alight rain from S.E. we drive over Soledad and then to Mt. Helix. Rather too much of a good thing. six days without an enema, by taking a teaspoon full of Epson salts every morning. Some unfavorable symptoms began to develop today, such as pain in right breast (muscular). Took an enema on my return with good results.
-I bragged too soon. At 8 p.m. I had some temperature(99 degrees) proceeded by chilly sensations, must take an enema at least every 5th day. If the salts give 2 or 3 movements each day I think that will do. Jany 28, Nearly clear this morning. Had a pretty good night no temperature this morning. Feb 4, Came to Pasadena Glen on the 3rd -a snug little bangalore called the Blue Bird sung and livable still cold and much cloud. Ann down with soap suds
enemas, salt and soda are painless and very effective. Life seems worth living again. Down to Suera Neadra P.O. today now at 7 p.m. I hear the patter of rain.
Diary from May... to