Chapter 19 Economics - 14

At the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an ax and went into the forest by Walden Pond, near the spot where I was going to build my house, and began to cut down some young and arrow-like trees. of white pine for my wood.It's always hard not to borrow at first, but it's probably the only way to get your friends interested in your business.The owner of the axe, when he lent it to me, said it was a pearl in his palm; but when I returned it it was sharper.The place where I worked was a pleasant hillside, covered with pines, through which I looked out to the lake, and a little clearing in the woods, where young pines and hickories grew.The lake water condensed into ice, and it didn't completely melt, only a few places, all of which were dark in color and permeated with water.During the few days I worked there, there were a few light snowfalls: but when I came out to the railway on my way home, in most places it stretched across the yellow sand, shimmering In the misty atmosphere, and the rails glowing in the spring sun, I heard the larks, goslings, and other birds arriving to start the new year with us.It was a pleasant spring day, and the winter of discontent was melting away like ice, and dormant life began to unwind.One day the handle of my ax fell off, and I cut a section of green hickory to make a wedge, and hammered it tight with a stone, and dipped the whole ax in the water of the lake, to make the wedge bigger , at this moment I saw a red snake scuttling into the water, apparently not inconveniently, lying on the bottom of the lake for more than a quarter of an hour, as long as I had been there; perhaps it had not yet come out of hibernation Fully awake.It seems to me that it is for the same reason that man remains in his present primitive and lower state; but if he feels the influence of the Spring of Ten Thousand Springs awaken him, he must rise to a higher and more sublimated life. go.Before, I saw some snakes on the road in the early morning of frost, their bodies were still partially numb and inflexible, and they were still waiting for the sun to wake them up.On April 1st, it rained and the ice melted, and it was foggy for most of the morning. I heard a lone goose that had lost its flock groping on the lake, whining as if lost, like a spirit of fog.

So I went on like this for several days, with my narrow axe, chopping lumber, chopping logs, doorposts, and rafters, without any thoughts to tell, or any pedantic thoughts, just singing to myself,— People say they know a lot; Behold, they have wings,— Hundred arts, and science, There are thousands of skills; In fact, only the wind that blows It is all their consciousness. I cut the main lumber to six inch squares, most of the studs are cut on two sides only, rafters and floors are cut on one side and the bark is left on the other sides, so they are the same as what a saw would cut. Straighter and stronger.Each log was mortised and tenoned at the top, while I borrowed some tools.The days in the woods are often short; yet I often take my bread and butter for lunch, and at noon I read the news papers that bind them, and sit on the green pine branches I have felled, their fragrance dyed onto the bread as I have a thick layer of resin on my hands.Before I finished, the pine tree became my close friend. Although I cut down a few branches, I still didn't make any enemies with them, but became closer and closer to them.Sometimes the wanderer in the woods was drawn to the sound of the axe, and we chatted cheerfully over the splinters.

I didn't work hard, just did my best, and by mid-April my trusses were finished and ready to stand.I have bought a shed from James Collins, an Irishman who worked on the Fitchburg Railway, to use his boards.The sheds of James Collins are considered exceptionally good buildings.