tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">404

THE FUNERAL BELL 405 THE MOON 406 THE FALL OF THE LEAF 407 THE THAW 409 A WINTER SCENE 410 TO A STRAY FOWL 411 POVERTY 412 PILGRIMS 413 THE DEPARTURE 414 INDEPENDENCE 415 DING DONG 417 OMNIPRESENCE 417 INSPIRATION (QUATRAIN) 418 MISSION 418 DELAY 418 PRAYER 418   A LIST OF THE POEMS AND BITS OF VERSE SCATTERED AMONG THOREAU'S PROSE WRITINGS EXCLUSIVE OF THE JOURNAL 420 INDEX 423

ILLUSTRATIONS

APPLE BLOSSOMS, Carbon photograph (page 294)	Frontispiece
WILD APPLE TREE, Colored plate	Plate
MONTREAL FROM MOUNT ROYAL	98
MOUNT WACHUSETT FROM THE WAYLAND HILLS	134
THE OLD MARLBOROUGH ROAD	214
FALLEN LEAVES	270
WILD APPLE TREE	300

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The "Excursions" of the present volume follow the arrangement of the volume bearing that title in the Riverside Edition, which differed somewhat as to contents from the "Excursions" collected by Thoreau's sister after his death, and published in 1863 by Messrs. Ticknor & Fields. The Biographical Sketch by Emerson which prefaced the latter appears in the first volume of the present edition.

"A Yankee in Canada," which here, as in the Riverside Edition, is made the first of the series of Excursions, was formerly published in a volume with "Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers." Thoreau made this excursion to Canada with his friend Ellery Channing, and sent his narrative to Mr. Greeley, who wrote him regarding it, March 18, 1852: "I shall get you some money for the articles you sent me, though not immediately. As to your long account of a Canadian tour, I don't know. It looks unmanageable. Can't you cut it into three or four, and omit all that relates to time? The cities are described to death, but I know you are at home with Nature, and that she rarely and slowly changes. Break this up, if you can, and I will try to have it swallowed and digested." Thoreau appears to have taken Greeley's advice, and the narrative was divided into chapters. But after it had been begun in Putnam's in January, 1853, where it was entitled "Excursion to Canada," the author and the editor, who appears from the following letter to have been Mr. G. W. Curtis, disagreed regarding the expediency of including certain passages, and Thoreau withdrew all after the third chapter. The letter is as follows:—