1.For the last few days,the fine weather has led me away from books and papers,and the close air of dwellings,intthe open fields,and under the soft,warm sunshine,and the softer light of a full moon. The loveliest season of the whole year-that transient1 but delightful interval between the storms of the "wild equinox2,with all their wet," and the dark,short,dismal days which precede the rigor3 of winter-is now with us. The sun rises through a soft and hazy atmosphere;the light mist clouds melt gradually before him;and his noontide light rests warm and clear on still woods,tranquil waters,and grasses green with the late autumnal rains.
2.One fine morning,not long ago,I strolled down the Merrimac,on the Tewksbury shore. I know of nwalk in the vicinity of Lowell sinviting as that along the margin of the river,for nearly a mile from the village of Belvidere. The path winds,green and flower-skirted,among beeches and oaks,through whose boughs you catch glimpses of waters sparkling and dashing below. Rocks,huge and picturesque4,jut out intthe stream,affording beautiful views of the river and the distant city.
3.Half fatigued with my walk,I threw myself down upon a rocky slope of the bank,where the panorama5 of earth,sky,and water lay1Transient,of short duration.
2Equinox,the time of year when the days and nights are of equal length,i.e.about September 23d or March 21st.
3Rigor,severity.
4Picturesque,fitted tform a pleasing picture.
5Panorama,a complete or entire view in every direction.
clear and distinct about me. Far above,silent and dim as a picture,was the city,with its huge mill masonry,confused chimney tops,and church spires;near it rose the height of Belvidere,with its deserted burial place and neglected gravestones sharply defined on its bleak,bare summit against the sky;before me the river went dashing down its rugged channel,sending up its everlasting murmur;above me the birch tree hung its tassels;and the last wild flowers of autumn profusely fringed the rocky rim of the water.
4.Right opposite,the Dracut woods stretched upwards from the shore,beautiful with the hues of frost,glowing with tints richer and deeper than those which Claude or Poussin mingled,as if the rainbows of a summer shower had fallen among them. At a little distance tthe right,a group of cattle stood mid-leg deep in the river;and a troop of children,bright-eyed and mirthful,were casting pebbles at them from a projecting shelf of rock. Over all a warm but softened sunshine melted down from a slumberous autumnal sky.
5.My reverie1was disagreeably broken. A low,grunting sound,half bestial2,half human,attracted my attention. I was not alone. Close beside me,half hidden by a tuft of bushes,lay a human being,stretched out at full length,with his face literally3 rooted intthe gravel. A little boy,five or six years of age,clean and healthful,with his fair brown locks and blue eyes,stood on the bank above,gazing down upon him with an expression of childhood's simple and unaffected pity.
6."What ails you?" asked the boy at length. "What makes you lie there?"
The prostrate4groveler5struggled halfway up,exhibiting thebloated6 and filthy countenance of a drunkard. He made twor three1 Reverie,an irregular train of thoughts occurring in meditation. 2Bestial,brutish.3Literally,according tthe first and natural meaning of words. 4 Prostrate,lying at length.5Groveler,a base wretch. 6 Bloated,puffed out.efforts tget upon his feet,lost his balance,and tumbled forward upon his face."What are you doing there?" inquired the boy."I'm taking comfort," he muttered,with his mouth in the dirt.
7.Taking his comfort! There he lay,-squalid and loathsome under the bright heaven,-an imbruted1 man. The holy harmonies2 of Nature,the sounds of gushing waters,the rustle of the leaves above him,the wild flowers,the frost bloom of the woods,-what were they thim? Insensible,deaf,and blind,in the stupor of a living death,he lay there,literally realizing3 that most bitterly significant eastern malediction4,"May you eat dirt."
-Whittier.
1Imbruted,reduced tbrutality.2Harmony,the fitness of parts teach other in any combination of things. 3Realizing,making one's own in experience.4 Malediction,a curse.
