You cannot poison a hen with
strychnine.

We ourselves are covetous of those things of which we have but few,
extravagant with those of which we have an abundance. When the Western
farmer burns corn in place of coal, be assured he sees his own account
in it. We husband our white pine, and are free with our hemlock; we are
stingy with our hickory, and open-handed with our beech and chestnut.

XII

NEW GLEANINGS IN FIELD AND WOOD

As I saunter through the fields and woods I discover new acts in
Nature's drama. They are, however, the old acts, played again and again,
which have hitherto escaped my notice, so absorbed have I been in the
rise and fall of the curtain, and in the entrances and exits of the more
familiar players. I count myself fortunate if, during each season, I
detect a few new acts on the vast stage; and as long as I live I expect
to cogitate and speculate on the old acts, and keep up my interest in
the whole performance.

I. SUNRISE

The most impressive moment of the day here in the Catskills is the
rising of the sun. From my cot on the porch I see the first flash of his
coming. Before that I see his rays glint here and there through the
forest trees which give a mane to the mountain crest. The dawn comes
very gently. I am usually watching for it. As I gaze I gradually become
conscious of a faint luminousness in the eastern sky. This slowly
increases and changes to a deep saffron, and then in eight or ten
minutes that fades into a light bluish tinge--the gold turns to silver.
After some minutes the sky, just at the point where the sun is to
appear, begins to glow again, as if the silver were getting warm; a
minute or two more and the brow of the great god is above the horizon
line. His mere brow, as I try to fix my eye upon it, fairly smites me
blind. The brow is magnified by the eye into the whole face. One
realizes in these few seconds how rapidly the old earth turns on its
axis. You witness the miracle of the transition of the dawn into day.
The day is born in a twinkling. Is it Browning who uses the word "boil"
to describe this moment?--"Day boils at last." Gilder, I think, speaks
of it as a scimitar flashing on the brim of the world. At any rate, I
watch for it each morning as if I were seeing it for the first time. It
is the critical moment of the day. You actually see the earth turning.
Later in the day one does not note in the same way the sun climbing the
heavens. The setting sun