The Writings of John Burroughs: RiverbyHoughton, Mifflin, & Company, 1904 |
Common terms and phrases
amid appeared apple-tree April barn swallow beak beautiful beneath Bicknell's thrush bird blue blue-grass bobolink branch brood brown thrasher buds called Catskills cavity chipmunk color covered creature crested flycatcher crow curious dark downy woodpecker eggs enemy feet female fields flew flying grass ground hand hawk head heard hole inches leaves light look male bluebird maple meadow morning mountain nature nearly nest never night Norway spruce nuts observation passed perch plant probably red squirrel red-eyed vireo RIVERBY robin rock season seemed seen seized shore lark sitting Slide Slide Mountain snake snow soil song song sparrow soon sparrow spring spruce stream summer swallow tail thing thought thrush tree turn valley vireos walk weasel wings winter winter wren wood thrush woodpecker woods wren yards young
Popular passages
Page 45 - Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills...
Page 269 - Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice, him or her I shall follow, As the water follows the moon, silently, with fluid steps, anywhere around the globe.
Page 69 - And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock.
Page 76 - Know'st thou what wove yon woodbird's nest Of leaves and feathers from her breast? Or how the fish outbuilt her shell, Painting with morn each annual cell? Or how the sacred pine-tree adds To her old leaves new myriads?
Page 223 - I already loved ; not verily For their own sakes, but for the fields and hills Where was their occupation and abode.
Page 232 - The latter had much to do with it. (I am convinced there are hours of Nature, especially of the atmosphere, mornings and evenings, address'd to the soul. Night transcends, for that purpose, what the proudest day can do.) Now, indeed, if never before, the heavens declared the glory of God. It was to the full the sky of the Bible, of Arabia, of the prophets, and of the oldest poems.
Page 295 - He' made manna to descend for them, in which were all manner of tastes ; and every Israelite found in it what his palate was chiefly pleased with. If he desired fat in it, he had it. In it the young men tasted bread, the old men honey, and the children oil...
Page 233 - Matthew Arnold quotes this passage from Obermann as showing a rare feeling for nature : — "My path lay beside the green waters of the Thiele. Feeling inclined to muse, and finding the night so warm that there was no hardship in being all night out of doors, I took the road to Saint Blaise. I descended a steep bank, and got upon the shore of the lake where its ripple came up and expired. The air was calm; every one was at rest; I remained there for hours. Toward morning the moon shed over the earth...
Page 129 - While he was eating it, another crow came, and, alighting a few yards away, slowly walked up to within a few feet of this fellow and stopped. I expected to see a struggle over the food, as would have been the case with domestic fowls or animals. Nothing of the kind. The feeding crow stopped eating, regarded the other for a moment, made a gesture or two, and flew away. Then the second crow went up to the food, and proceeded to take his share. Presently the first crow came back, when each seized a...
Page 230 - The happiest days become the saddest afterward; let us never go back, lest we, too, die. There are no such oaks anywhere else, none so tall and straight, and with such massive heads, on which the sun used to shine as if on the globe of the earth, one side in shadow, the other in bright light. How often I have looked at oaks since, and yet have never been able to get the same effect from them ! Like an old author printed in another type, the words are the same, but the sentiment is different. The...