Walden

Thoreau describes the natural areas he explores near Walden Pond, including woods and groves. He lauds these lush, canopied areas as holy ground:

[…] where the trees, covered with hoary blue berries, spiring higher and higher, are fit to stand before Valhalla, and the creeping juniper covers the ground with wreaths full of fruit; or to swamps where the usnea lichen hangs in festoons from the white-spruce trees, and toad-stools, round tables of the swamp gods, cover the ground […] (344). 

Thoreau alludes to a strange light that he notices around his shadow as he walks the railroad causeway. Reflecting on this strange halo, he recalls Benvenuto Cellini’s memoirs, wherein “[A] resplendent light appeared over the shadow of [Cellini’s] head at morning and evening, whether he was in Italy or France, and it was particularly conspicuous when the grass was moist with dew” (347). Thoreau acknowledges that in both his case and Cellini’s, such a phenomenon might be cause for “superstition” among skeptics. To such, Thoreau poses the question: “But are they not indeed distinguished who are conscious that they are regarded at all?” (347). 

One afternoon, Thoreau goes on a fishing trip through the woods, passing Baker Farm, which he originally thought about purchasing.