at every one of these houses,
and company expected about these times. For the most part I escaped
wonderfully from these dangers, either by proceeding at once boldly and
without deliberation to the goal, as is recommended to those who run the
gauntlet, or by keeping my thoughts on high things, like Orpheus, who,
"loudly singing the praises of the gods to his lyre, drowned the voices
of the Sirens, and kept out of danger." Sometimes I bolted suddenly,
and nobody could tell my whereabouts, for I did not stand much about
gracefulness, and never hesitated at a gap in a fence. I was even
accustomed to make an irruption into some houses, where I was well
entertained, and after learning the kernels and very last sieveful of
news--what had subsided, the prospects of war and peace, and whether the
world was likely to hold together much longer--I was let out through the
rear avenues, and so escaped to the woods again.

It was very pleasant, when I stayed late in town, to launch myself into
the night, especially if it was dark and tempestuous, and set sail from
some bright village parlor or lecture room, with a bag of rye or Indian
meal upon my shoulder, for my snug harbor in the woods, having made all
tight without and withdrawn under hatches with a merry crew of thoughts,
leaving only my outer man at the helm, or even tying up the helm when it
was plain sailing. I had many a genial thought by the cabin fire "as I
sailed." I was never cast away nor distressed in any weather, though
I encountered some severe storms. It is darker in the woods, even in
common nights, than most suppose. I frequently had to look up at the
opening between the trees above the path in order to learn my route,
and, where there was no cart-path, to feel with my feet the faint track
which I had worn, or steer by the known relation of particular trees
which I felt with my hands, passing between two pines for instance, not
more than eighteen inches apart, in the midst of the woods, invariably,
in the darkest night. Sometimes, after coming home thus late in a dark
and muggy night, when my feet felt the path which my eyes could not see,
dreaming and absent-minded all the way, until I was aroused by having to
raise my hand to lift the latch, I have not been able to recall a single
step of my walk, and I have thought that perhaps my body would find its
way home if its master should forsake it, as the hand finds its way to
the mouth without assistance. Several tim