Instead of paying a visit to a scholar, Thoreau visits particular groves of trees pines, beeches,
black- and yellow-birches, elms, and helmlocks. He visits these "shrines" in summer and
winter. One time, he stood surrounded by rainbow light in a rainbow's arch. Sometimes,
when he walks, he sees a halo around his shadow, which makes him fancy he is a member of
the elect. Benvenuto Cellini once wrote about seeing his shadow like this, and in minds like
his, such a natural phenomenon is the basis for superstition.
One afternoon, on his way to go fishing in Fair-Haven, Thoreau passes through Pleasant
Meadow, which is part of Baker Farm. It begins to rain, and he is forced to stand under a pine
tree. When he finally wades into the water and casts out his line, the thunder and rain start
once again, and he is forced to take refuge in a nearby hut, where he finds an Irishman
named John Field living with his wife and many children, including an older son who works
in the fields with him and a baby who seems unaware of its destitute circumstances. Thoreau
crouches in the least leaky corner of the house with the family.
Field tells Thoreau how hard he works "bogging," turning up a farmer's meadow with a bog
hoe, and Thoreau tries to explain that he lives in a "tight, light, and clean house" for far less
money. Because he doesn't spend money on rent or on buying coffee, tea, milk, or meat, he
can work far less than Field, who must work hard to buy the meat he needs to sustain such
hard work. Field came to America so he could have access to such things, but the only free
America is one where a man can decide to go without them.
Thoreau talks to Field "as if he were a philosopher," trying to tell him that his work wears out
his boots and clothing and requires that he continue to work to buy new, while Thoreau wears
simple, light clothing and by spending a few hours fishing and a few working, can afford
anything he needs. So could the Fields if they lived simply. Field and his wife seem to be
considering it, but "without arithmetic," they fail to see how it's possible. Field fishes
sometimes, but he uses worms to catch shiners and uses the shiners to catch fish.
With the rain over and a rainbow in the sky, Thoreau begins to leave, first asking for a dish as
an excuse to look at the well. It takes a long time to select a dish, go to the well, which has
shallows, quicksands, a broken rope, and a lost bucket, and when the water comes, it has
motes floating in it. Still, Thoreau drinks it in a show of hospitality. As he's leaving,
Thoreau's rush to catch fish "seemed trivial to me who had been sent to school and college,"
but suddenly he seems to hear his "Good Genius" speaking to him, telling him to hunt and
fish, rest by brooks and hearthsides, rise before dawn, visit lakes and be found at home at
night basically live his life as he has been living it at Walden for "There are no larger fields
than these, no worthier games than may here be played."
Men are living like serfs through want of enterprise. Thoreau write some lines of poetry
exulting Baker Farm and observes that most men come home at night and live the same day
over and over when they should come home every day with adventures and new experiences.
John Field, who has decided not to go bogging that afternoon after all, decides to fish with
Thoreau but he only catches a few fish while Thoreau, in the same boat, catches many. He's
trying to live by old country ways catching perch with shiners in this new country, as if he
was born to be poor. He and his offspring will always be until they consciously change their
lives.