Walden Outline - 3 (VII -X)

Thoreau discusses at length his summer's occupation, raising beans in true primitive style: that is with a hoe, no plow, and no draft animals to lighten the work.
Digression: Thoreau's field's encounter with a woodchuck (it ate about a quarter of his beans) reminds me of an old friend who has made his life a sort of Waldenesque experiment. One day (this all taking place 20 or so years ago) he informed me that he had reneged on his personal "no hunting" policy of some several years standing. "I had groundhog for Sunday dinner," he announced ['groundhog' being 'woodchuck' by another name]. "It was only fair. He ate my green beans, so I ate him."
We will further note that, while Thoreau's beans earned him a profit, said profit would not have struck economic man as good reward for so many hours work.

Begins with a curious little description of the village and its shops.
Follows with an exposition on walking in the dark (suggestion: is our little life a walk in the dark, as we explore untrodden paths uncertainly?)
1433 offers the arrest for non-payment of poll tax that Thoreau offered as the focal event of his Civil Disobedience. Here the arrest is mentioned in passing.
In the woods, Thoreau did not lock his door.

The pleasure of picking one's own wild berries
Description of fishing yields to careful physical description of Walden Pond
He speculates on the patterns of the rising and falling of the water level.
He discusses water temperature, the fish, the local geography and speculations as to geological causes.
He discusses other area ponds.

Note rainbow description on 1469l think about the metaphors of being inside a rainbow.
His suggestions to "John Field" are partly playful (for there are elements of his life that would not do for the Irishman and his family) and partly serious (as Thoreau notes how his firm and water-tight shack was quite inexpensive).