It was not only man who was excluded: animals, the song of birds,
the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, clouds even, and the
variations of the weather, were here also wanting; and as, day
after day, the sky was one dome of blue, and the pines below us
stood motionless in the still air, so the hours themselves were
marked out from each other only by the series of our own affairs,
and the sun's great period as he ranged westward through the
heavens. The two birds cackled a while in the early morning; all
day the water tinkled in the shaft, the bores ground sawdust in the
planking of our crazy palace--infinitesimal sounds; and it was only
with the return of night that any change would fall on our
surroundings, or the four crickets begin to flute together in the
dark.
Indeed, it would be hard to exaggerate the pleasure that we took in
the approach of evening. Our day was not very long, but it was
very tiring. To trip along unsteady planks or wade among shifting
stones, to go to and fro for water, to clamber down the glen to the
Toll House after meat and letters, to cook, to make fires and beds,
were all exhausting to the body. Life out of doors, besides, under
the fierce eye of day, draws largely on the animal spirits. There
are certain hours in the afternoon when a man, unless he is in
strong health or enjoys a vacant mind, would rather creep into a
cool corner of a house and sit upon the chairs of civilization.
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