We concluded that we would break up our camp in the morning, and drift leisurely2 back towards civilization. We had tarried upon this beautiful lake until we had explored its romantic nooks, and we started on our return to our old camping ground at the foot of Round Pond. We had refrained for two days from disturbing the deer, and our supply of fresh venison was entirely3 exhausted4. Just at the outlet5 of the lake we were leaving, is a little bay, towards the head of which are a great number of boulders6, laying around loose, scattered7 about like haycocks in a meadow, only a great many more to the acre. The water about these boulders is shallow, and the lily-pads and grasses make a luxuriant pasture for the deer. Among these boulders, and concealed8 by one of them, save when his head was up, was a deer. While he fed we could see nothing of him, but when he raised his head to look around him, that alone was visible above the rock. Smith and myself were in the leading boat, he in the bow with his rifle. As the current swept near the rocks where the deer was feeding, we let our little craft drift quietly in that direction. As we came within shooting distance, say from fifteen to twenty rods, Smith adjusted his rifle, and as the animal raised its head above the rock, he sighted him carefully, and fired. It was a beautiful shot. There was nothing of the animal but the head visible, and the bullet, true to its aim, struck it square between the eyes, and it fell dead. This shot, together with the glory of killing9 the bear, elated Smith wonderfully, and upon the strength of them, he assumed the championship of the expedition.
We drew the deer into the baggage-boat, and sent forward our pioneer to erect10 our tents, and prepare a late dinner, at our old camping ground, while we landed with the dogs on the island near the head of Round Pond, or Lake, to course whatever game they might find upon it. They soon burst into full chorus, and dashed away. The island is small, containing only a few acres, and the game could not, therefore, take a wide range After a single turn, a deer broke, like a maddened war-horse, from the thicket11, and plunging12 into the lake, struck boldly for the mainland, five hundred yards distant. We were near by with our two boats when he took to the water, and we thought we would accompany him as an escort to the shore; so we rowed up, and with a boat on each side, and within ten feet of him, as he swam, escorted him towards the forest. We treated him with great respect, offering him no indignity13, interfering14 with him in nothing; and yet the old fellow seemed very far from appreciating our politeness, or relishing15 our company. The truth is, he was horribly frightened, and he struggled desperately17 to rid himself of our association; but we stuck by him like his destiny, talking kindly18 to him, endeavoring to impress upon his mind that we meant him no harm—indeed, that we were his friends. But, I repeat, he did not appreciate our politeness. By-and-by his feet touched the sand, and he bounded forward, as much as to say, "Good-bye, gentlemen," when a simultaneous yell from all six of us, and the discharge of four rifles in quick succession over him, added wonderfully to the energy of his flight. He will be likely to recognise us if he ever meets us again, and if the past furnishes any admonitions to his kind, he will give us a wide berth19.
We rowed leisurely along the eastern shore, and in a deep bay found excellent fishing, at the mouth of a cold mountain brook20. On the banks of this bay we found the winter hut of a martin and sable trapper. It had an outer and inner apartment, the latter almost subterranean21. The hut was composed of small logs, which a single man could lay up, the crevices22 between which were closely packed with moss24, and the roof covered with two or three layers of bark. The doorway25 was sawed through these logs, and a door, constructed of bark, was made to fit it; a rude hearth26 of sandstone was built in one corner, and a hole was open above it to let out the smoke. Against the outside of this pen, only about ten feet square, logs were leaned up, the ends of which rested upon the ground, the interstices between them carefully stopped with moss, and the whole covered with bark; the ends consisted of stakes, driven into the ground and chinked with moss. Into this sleeping apartment a door was cut from the parlor27, large enough for a man to pass by getting down on all-fours; while within was a plentiful28 supply of boughs29 from the spruce and fir tree. In this hut, now so dark, and in which the air was so dead and fetid, a solitary30 trapper had wintered, pursuing his occupation of martin and sable hunting—the which, if tolerably successful, would yield him some two or three hundred dollars the season. He carried into the woods a bag of flour or meal, a few pounds of pork, pepper, salt, and tea; and this, with the game he killed, made up his supply of food. With no companion but his dog, he had probably spent two or three months, and very possibly more, in this lonely cabin.
We arrived at our camp towards evening, and dined sumptuously31 on fresh venison and trout32. Our pioneer had provided a luxurious33 bed of boughs within, and had fashioned rude seats in front of our tents. He had rolled the butt34 of a huge tree, which he had felled, to the proper place, against which to kindle35 our camp-fire, and we had a pleasant place to sit, with our pipes, in the evening, looking out over the water, listening to the pile-drivers, half a dozen of which were driving their stakes along the reedy shore, with commendable36 diligence. The sunlight lay so beautifully on the hillsides, and contrasted so admirably with the deep shadows of the valley beneath, the lake was so calm and still, the old woods stood around so moveless and solemn, that one could scarcely persuade himself that he was not looking upon some gigantic picture, the fanciful grouping and transcendent coloring of some ingenious and winning artist.
"The hillsides about these lakes," remarked the Doctor, "must be superlatively beautiful in the fall, when the forest puts on its autumnal foliage37. They present such a variety of trees, of so many different kinds, and the hills and mountains are so admirably arranged, that they must be gorgeous beyond description. However we may prefer the green and living beauty of spring, when everything is so full of vitality38, so buoyant and free, yet the autumn scenery is the most magnificent of any in the year."
"Every season has its charms," said Spalding, "Even the winter, with its cold, its dead and cheerless desolation, has its robe of chaste39 and peerless white, which, as well as that of the spring-time, the summer, and the autumn, has been the theme of song. I agree with you, that in gorgeousness of beauty, there is no season so rich as the autumn. Spring-time has its pleasant scenery, its genial40 days, its deep green, its flowers, and its singing birds; and these are all the more lovely because they follow so closely upon the cold storms, and bleak41 winds, the chilling and blank desolation of winter. We love the spring because of its freshness, its pervading42 vitality, its recuperating43 influences. Everybody loves the spring-time; everybody talks about the spring-time; poets sing of it; orators44 praise it; 'fair women and brave men' laud45 it; so that were spring-time human, and possessing human instincts, and subject to human frailties46, it would have plenty of excuse, for becoming a very vain personage.
"Somebody has called the autumnal days the 'saddest of the year.' I have forgotten who he was, if I ever knew; but in my judgment47, he was all wrong. Dark days there are—damp, chilly48, misty49, wet, and unpleasant days in autumn; days that make one relish16 a corner by an old-fashioned fire. There are gusty50, windy, capricious days in autumn, which nobody cares to praise, when the northwest wind goes sweeping51 over the forest, roaring among the trees, and whirling the sere52 leaves along the ground, and which, to tell the truth about them, are anything but pleasant. But 'some days must be dark and dreary,' and they serve to give the sunlight of a bright to-morrow a keener relish, and a lovelier comparative beauty. To call the fall days the 'saddest of the year' is an absurdity53, poetical54 I admit, but still an absurdity. There is nothing sad in a cold, or a wet, a drizzly55, a gusty, or a stormy day; much there may be that is unpleasant, much that one may be disposed to quarrel with, but they are anything but sad.
"A calm autumnal day in the country is a great thing, a beautiful thing, a thing to thank God for; a thing to make one happy, buoyant of spirit, full of gratitude56 to the great Creator; a thing to make one merry, too, not with a loud and boisterous57 mirth, but with a heart full to overflowing58 with cheerfulness, and a calm joy. To see the bright sun standing59 in his glory up in the sky, shedding his placid60 light over the earth, when the air is clear, the winds hushed, and the leaves are still and moveless on the trees; and then to look along the hillsides, and mark the bright sunlight, and the deep shadows, the green of the fir, the hemlock61, and the spruce, the yellow of the birch, the crimson62 of the maple63, the dark brown of the beech64, the grey of the oak, the silver glow of the popple, and the varying shades of all these, mingling65 and blending in all the harmony of brilliant coloring. Why, these hillsides are decked like a maiden66 in her beauty, like a bride robed for the altar! Talk about springtime, or summer! Green on the hillside! green in the meadows and pastures! green everywhere—all around is changeless and everlasting67 green! as if hillside and valley, forest and field, had but a single dress for morning, noon, and night, and that only and always green! True, there is the music of the birds, joyous68 notes and variant69, happy and hilarious70, in the spring-time, but there is no cricket under the flat stone in the pasture, his song is not heard in the stone wall, or in the corner of the fences; no music of the katydid; no tapping of the woodpecker on the hollow tree, or the dead limb; no chattering71 of the squirrel, as he gathers his winter store; no pattering of the faded leaves, as they come so quietly down from their places; no falling of the ripened72 nuts, loosened from their burs or shucks by the recent frosts. All these sounds belong to the calm autumnal days, and while they differ the whole heavens from the merry songs of spring, there is nothing sad about them. No! No! nothing sad. I remember (and who that was reared in the country does not) when I was a boy, how I went out in the sunny days of autumn, after the frosts had painted the hillsides, to gather chestnuts73; and when the breeze rustled74 among the branches, how the nuts came rattling75 down; and how if the winds were still, I climbed into the trees and shook their tops, and how the chestnuts pattered to the ground like a shower of hail. I remember the squirrels how they chattered76, and chased each other up and down the trees, or leaped from branch to branch, gathering77 here and there a nut, and scudding78 away to their store houses in the hollow trees, providing in this season of plenty for the barrenness of the winter months. I remember, too, how we gathered, in those same old autumnal days, hickory-nuts and butter-nuts by the bushel; and how pleasant it was in the long cold winter evenings, to sit around the great old kitchen fire-place, cracking the nuts we had gathered when the green, the yellow, the crimson, the brown, the grey, and the pale leaves were on the trees. Pleasant evenings those seem to me now, as they come floating down on the current of memory from the long past, and dear are the faces of those that made up the tableaux79 as they were grouped around those winter fires. Logs were blazing on the great hearth, and the pineknots, thrown at intervals80 on the fire, gave a bold and cheerful light throughout that capacious kitchen. I remember how the winter wind went glancing over the house-top, whirling, and eddying81, and moaning around the corners, hissing82 under the door and sending its cold breath in at every crevice23; and how the windows rattled83 when the blast came fiercest, and how the smoke would sometimes whirl down the great chimney, I remember well where my father's chair was always placed; and where my mother sat of those winter evenings, when her household cares were over for the day, plying84 her needle, or knitting, or darning stockings, or mending garments, for such employment was no dishonor to the matrons of those days. With these for the leading figures, I remember how seven brothers and sisters were grouped around, and how the old house dog had a place in the corner, and how lovingly the cat nestled between his feet. Cherished memories are these pleasant visions and they come to me often, vivid as realities. But the dream vanishes, the vision fades away, and I think of the six pale, still faces as I saw them last, and of the names that are chiseled85 upon the cold marble that stands through the sunny spring-time, the heat of summer, the autumnal days, and the storms and tempests of winter, over the graves of the dead."
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1
sable
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| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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7
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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indignity
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| n.侮辱，伤害尊严，轻蔑 | |
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interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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relishing
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| v.欣赏( relish的现在分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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crevice
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| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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sumptuously
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| 奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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kindle
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| v.点燃，着火 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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pervading
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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recuperating
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| v.恢复（健康、体力等），复原( recuperate的现在分词 ) | |
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orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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laud
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| n.颂歌；v.赞美 | |
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frailties
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| n.脆弱( frailty的名词复数 )；虚弱；（性格或行为上的）弱点；缺点 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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48
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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49
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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gusty
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| adj.起大风的 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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sere
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| adj.干枯的；n.演替系列 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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55
drizzly
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| a.毛毛雨的(a drizzly day) | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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variant
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| adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体 | |
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hilarious
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| adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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76
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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scudding
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| n.刮面v.（尤指船、舰或云彩）笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的现在分词 ) | |
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tableaux
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| n.舞台造型，（由活人扮演的）静态画面、场面；人构成的画面或场景( tableau的名词复数 )；舞台造型；戏剧性的场面；绚丽的场景 | |
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80
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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81
eddying
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| 涡流，涡流的形成 | |
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82
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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83
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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84
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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85
chiseled
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| adj.凿刻的，轮廓分明的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 ) | |
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