room, where a dead man sits in solitude.

* * * * *

The hoary periwig of a dandelion gone to seed.

* * * * *

_Lenox, July 14, 1850._--Language,--human language,--after all, is but
little better than the croak and cackle of fowls, and other utterances
of brute nature, sometimes not so adequate.

* * * * *

The queer gestures and sounds of a hen looking about for a place to
deposit her egg, her self-important gait, the sideway turn of her head
and cock of her eye, as she pries into one and another nook, croaking
all the while, evidently with the idea that the egg in question is the
most important thing that has been brought to pass since the world
began. A speckled black and white and tufted hen of ours does it to most
ludicrous perfection.

* * * * *

_July 25._--As I sit in my study, with the windows open, the occasional
incident of the visit of some winged creature,--wasp, hornet, or
bee,--entering out of the warm, sunny atmosphere, soaring round the room
with large sweeps, then buzzing against the glass, as not satisfied with
the place, and desirous of getting out. Finally, the joyous uprising
curve with which, coming to the open part of the window, it emerges into
the cheerful glow outside.

* * * * *

_August 4._--Dined at hotel with J.T. Fields. Afternoon drove with him
to Pittsfield, and called on Dr. Holmes.

* * * * *

_August 5._--Drove with Fields to Stockbridge, being thereto invited by
Mr. Field of Stockbridge, in order to ascend Monument Mountain. Found at
Mr. Field's, Dr. Holmes, Mr. Duyckink of New York; also Mr. Cornelius
Matthews and Herman Melville. Ascended the mountain,--that is to say,
Mrs. Fields and Miss Jenny Field, Mr. Field and Mr. J.T. Fields, Dr.
Holmes, Mr. Duyckink, Matthews, Melville, Mr. Harry Sedgwick, and
I,--and were caught in a shower. Dined at Mr. Field's. Afternoon, under
guidance of J.F. Headley, the party scrambled through the Ice Glen. Left
Stockbridge and arrived at home about eight P.M.

* * * * *

_August 7._--Messrs. Duyckink, Matthews, and Melville called in the
forenoon. Gave them a couple of bottles of Mr. Mansfield's champagne,
and walked down to the lake with them. At twilight Mr. Edwin P. Whipple
and wife called from Lenox.

*