Thus a man shall lead his life away here on the edge of the wilderness, on Indian Millinocket Stream, in a new world, far in the d...ark of a continent, and have a flute to play at evening here, while his strains echo to the stars, amid the howling of wolves; shall live, as it were, in the primitive age of the world, a primitive man. Yet he shall spend a sunny day, and in this century be my contemporary; perchance shall read some scattered leaves of literature, and sometimes talk with me. Why read history, then, if the ages and the generations are now? He lives three thousand years deep into time, an age not yet described by poets. Can you well go further back in history than this? Ay! ay!--for there turns up but now into the mouth of Millinocket Stream a still more ancient and primitive man, whose history is not brought down even to the former. In a bark vessel sewn with the roots of the spruce, with hornbeam paddles, he dips his way along. He is but dim and misty to me, obscured by the æons that lie between the bark canoe and the batteau. He builds no house of logs, but a wigwam of skins. He eats no hot bread and sweet cake, but musquash and moose meat and the fat of bears. He glides up the Millinocket and is lost to my sight, as a more distant and misty cloud is seen flitting by behind a nearer, and is lost in space. So he goes about his destiny, the red face of man.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Here's flowers for you: Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram,... The marigold, that goes to bed wi'the sun, And with him rises, weeping.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one's clothes? Or can one walk on hot coals without scorching the feet? So is he ...who sleeps with his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. As charcoal is to hot embers and wood to f...ire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of the one whose knowledge is perfect, you whose garments are hot whe...n the earth is still because of the south wind? Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that... goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Farmers in overalls and wide-brimmed straw hats lounge about the store on hot summer days, when the most common sound is the thump...-thump-thump of a hound's leg on the floor as he scratches contentedly. Oldtime hunters say that fleas are a hound's salvation: his constant twisting and clawing in pursuit of the tormentors keeps his joints supple.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »