but when he has thawed, he is quite happy again, and always says: "I
thank God that I've been a woodsman!"

He is evidently thinking of some method of improving the forests, but
he does not say what it is.

The lower orders always have overheated rooms. They enjoy intoxication,
even that of heat.

*

I have no mirror. There is no need of my knowing how I look. A mirror
is the beginning and the cause of self-consciousness. A beast does not
see itself,--it is only seen by others--and yet, whether it be the bird
on yonder bough, or the cat that sits before my window, it adorns
itself. I, too, dress myself carefully, and for my own sake, and am ill
at ease when my clothes are loose and ill-fitting.

*

When I first came here, I found it quite difficult to associate with
those about me, but now I find comfort and self-forgetfulness in my
intercourse with them. I should not like to darken their existence, but
to brighten it, instead. They feel that while I partake, I also
contribute my share.

I think the idea is Goethe's.

*

There was great joy in the house to-day, owing to the unexpected visit
of Walpurga's friend and companion Stasi, with her husband, a forester.
What happiness, what joy, and what an interchange of experiences!

Hansei at once invited the forester to be sponsor to his boy, for boy
it must be. Walpurga quickly said that she would like to show her
friend through the house, and I was obliged to go with her.

Among the higher classes, love may be greater, may possess more energy,
more depth, and more of all that is allied to passion; but the lower
orders seem to possess greater faithfulness and constancy. Work teaches
us to be faithful.

*

I have been out in the forest with Hansei. Oh how beautiful! We passed
a frozen waterfall; the crystal columns sparkled in the sunshine.
Hansei pointed out two trees that were far up the mountain. He means to
have them felled for me, so that I may have the best wood for my work.
Am I expected to work up two whole trees?

Hansei was quite amused, when I told him I had not forgotten his rule
of the mountain: "Go right on and never stop."

Mountain-climbing in winter has made me very tired, but I feel quite
well.

*

I have often wondered why I never heard any mention of Hansei's f