of the hill with a the tops being flung into a heap for the cow yard on my way home i paused to inspect the field some of the lay in heaps as they were gathered presenting much variety of shape and hue � as golden yellow like great of gold dark green striped and and some were round and some lay curling their long necks as it were and seeming as if they had life in my walk yesterday i passed an old house which seemed to be quite deserted it was a two story wooden house dark and weather beaten the front windows some of them were shattered and open and others were up trees and were growing neglected so as quite to block up the lower part there was an aged bam near at hand so that it had been necessary to it up there were two old carts both of which had lost a wheel everything was in keeping at first i supposed that there by v ic american note books would be no inhabitants in such a place but passing on i looked back and saw a and old man at the angle of the house its fit the grass however was very green and beautiful around this dwelling and the sunshine falling brightly on it the whole effect was cheerful and pleasant it seemed as if the world was so glad that this desolate old place where there was never to be any more hope and happiness could not at all lessen the general effect of joy i found a small by the roadside where he had crept to warm himself in the genial sunshine he had a back and underneath his shell was yellow and at the edges bright scarlet his head tail and claws were striped yellow black and red he withdrew himself as far as he possibly could into his shell and absolutely refused to peep out even when i put him into the water finally i threw him into a deep pool and left him these gentlemen from the size of a foot or more down to an inch were very numerous in the spring and now the smaller kind appear again saturday october tl � still dismal weather our household being composed in great measure of children and young people is generally a cheerful one enough even in gloomy weather for a week past we have been especially with a httle from boston about seventeen years old but of such a figure that at first view one would take her to be hardly in her she is very and smart laughing and singing and talking all the time � talking sensibly but still the view of matters that a city girl naturally by v ic american note books would if she were larger than she is and of less pleasing aspect i think she might be intolerable but being so small and with a fair skin and as healthy as a wild flower she is really very agreeable and to look at her face is like being shone upon by a ray of the son she never walks but bounds and dances along and this motion in her person does not give the idea of violence it is like a bird from to and merrily all the time sometimes she is rather vulgar but even that works well enough into her character and with it on continued observation one that she is not a little girl but really a little woman with all the and of a woman this gives a new aspect to her while the girlish impression still remains and is strangely combined with the sense that this maiden has the material for the sober bearing of a wife she with the boys runs races with them in the yard and up and down the stairs and is heard scolding at their rough play she asks william to place her on top of that horse whereupon he puts his large brown hands about her waist and swinging her to and fro lifts her on horseback william to two round her neck for having with the other girls and boys upon a load of hay whereby the said load lost its balance and slid off the cart she strings the seed of roses together making a scarlet of them which she about her throat she flowers of everlasting to wear in her bonnet arranging them with the skill of a dress maker in the evening she sits singing by the hour with the musical part of the establish by ic american note books ment often breaking into laughter she is by the tricks of the boys the last thing one hears of her she is up stairs to bed talking or and one meets her in the morning the very image of bright mom itself smiling briskly at you so that one takes her for a promise of cheerfulness through the day be it said with all the rest that there is a perfect maiden modesty in her she has just gone away and the last i saw of her was her face peeping through the curtain of the and nodding a gay farewell to the family who were shouting their at the door with her other merits she is an excellent daughter and her mother by the labor of her hands it would be difficult to conceive beforehand how much can be added to the enjoyment of a household by mere of temper and of disposition for her intellect is very ordinary and she never says anything worth hearing or even laughing at in itself but she herself is an expression well worth studying brook farm october th � a walk this afternoon to cow island the clouds had broken away towards noon and let forth a few and more and more blue sky ventured to appear till at last it was really warm and sunny � 